Laptops today, to some it is a choice of performance, some may say beauty, design, structure and the list will probably may never end as one can imagine with a few friends sitting in a café just by sparking a discussion about it. How about we have a Laptop here which is still relevant, comes with some of the current specifications and great to start with?
Today we will dive into the review of Redmibook 15, a highly affordable laptop that its target segment is pretty much for the starters, student, and the workforce.
Design
IMG_20220716_025337
IMG_20220716_024938
IMG_20220716_024641
IMG_20220716_024613
The RedmiBook 15 design is what we call ‘back to basics’ with all black color accent around it. While some might say it is actually cutting corners, I would say it’s a smart move to keep cost down while the overall plastic and polycarbonate body built is real steady and firm with good hinge when opening up the laptop. The best part is display area is well built with very low flex which makes it stable overall construction, as even till today, even more expensive laptops may have flexes over the display area. The total weight is rated at 1.8KG which is still quite light considering it is a 15.6 inch laptop.
You get a fairly sizable keyboard, as most 15.6 inch laptop has numpad allocated, the RedmiBook 15 does not have, giving it a comfortable typing experience over 1.5mm key travel and each keystroke can be easily reach and type just like any normal keyboards you had today. Looking below you do get a huge 126mm x 82.6mm touchpad which is a real welcome and you should be able to navigate, tap and gesture with its full functional Windows Precision Driver compliant touchpad.
Ports wise, you get the standard 2 USB A 3.0 ports, 1 USB A 2.0 port, an SD card reader, One DC in jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port, headphone/microphone combo jack and one HDMI port. These ports are good as a starter point Laptop, which the only thing lacks is USB type C port which I wish they could at least include one. You get a fairly serviceable 720P webcam for your video conference app use, but since it’s and affordable laptop, no complains there.
Display and Audio
Despite being a budget oriented laptop, you still get a FullHD 1080P TN panel at 15.6 inch with DC Dimming anti glare display. This means at it’s peak brightness, you still get a 90 degree view angle without much strain over the eyes somehow at a max 220nits, but not recommended to be used under bright sunlight, much suitable over indoors or rooms. Besides that the display is rated at 45% NTSC, where color reproduction may be the lacking area for this laptop however basic editing tasks, watching movies, indie games and some spreadsheet is still reliable on this laptop.
Audio side, you get a 2 x 2 stereo speakers with DTS Audio tuning, which can go loud and clear too when in ambient room environment. The RedmiBook 15 include the DTS app so you can adjust settings like equalizer and pre-sets are available as well, you can tune to your best audio flavor that you wanted.
Performance & Experience
The RedmiBook 15 is powered by 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-1115G4 Processor with Intel UHD Graphics, 8GB DDR4 3200Mhz single channel memory and 256GB m.2 SATA SSD. You will get a 46W hour battery and a 65W charging adaptor with it.
Translating it to usage, you still can run office task at great level, editing at a very light ones on photoshop, smooth web browsing and YouTube, managing your social media, and play a few games on it, that will last you an average 5 hours on battery mode, while using it with your adaptor will definitely give you more power on slightly graphical intensive app and games. You might want to consider plugging into your external monitor to extend displays if you are towards multi screen tasking person, since it does have a HDMI port, which you can utilize it. Other hardware related positive feature that it has includes AC WiFi and Bluetooth 5 inside. Besides that there is no bloatware as well, with all the drivers and needed apps installed.
Benchmarks
We find that the RedmiBook does a good job on synthetic benchmarks within the surrounding price and category, specifications around it. The multi threaded processor does help a lot in most of the tests but lacks in one portion, the SSD is still on SATA mode while the RAM configuration is set at Single Channel mode without an option to upgrade the RAM portion.
Technical Specifications
| Processor | 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-1115G4 (3.0 GHz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 6 MB Cache) 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-11300H (3.0 GHz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 6 MB Cache) |
| Graphic Card | Intel® Iris® UHD Graphics Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics |
| System Memory | 8GB DDR4 on board (3200Mhz) Single Channel |
| Display | 15.6” FHD Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 PPI: 141 Brightness Control: DC Dimming Brightness: 220 nits (typ) |
| Primary Drive | 256 GB SSD 512 GB SSD |
| Ports | HDMI 1.4 x 1 USB 3.2 Gen1 x 2 USB 2.0 x 1 Kensington lock Ethernet (Lan) 3.5mm headphone jack SD 3.0 Slot |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi 5/AC 2.4GHz/5GHz |
| Webcam | 720p resolution |
| Battery and Charger | 46Wh, 65W AC Adapter |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home |
| Weight and dimensions | 363.8 x 243.5 x 19.9mm (1.8KG) |
| Price | i3 : RM2399 | i5 : RM2799 |
Verdict & Conclusion
The RedmiBook 15 is the step for Xiaomi that steps into the laptop market with a model that is actually really affordable, a great starting point for any laptop users who just needed something that just works for your basic productivity with a big screen that you still can enjoy on your multimedia content and the basic expansion of peripherals that is still commonly used in the market today. With that we recommend that the RedmiBook 15 is suitable for students, a work companion on a budget and suitable multimedia use for streaming and music.
It is now currently selling at a retail price of RM2399 or during special sales on the upcoming 9.9 for the i5 model at RM2499. More information on the Laptop can be found HERE.