lundi 1 août 2016

Thoughts on buying a sleek, powerful, portable 13 inch laptop (Mi Notebook, Lenovo Air, Lenovo 710s)

Hello everyone,
This is my first writing to this forum. So let's be nice. :)
Before starting everything, let's clear it first that it's completely an one person opinion.
So...I am an enthusiastic photographer and I like to travel. I like minimalism while traveling. As my last laptop started troubling a bit, I was looking for a 13 inch powerful portable laptop for quite some time. Although newer technologies and ideas like ultraportablity, USB C, SSD etc. has come to laptops more commonly than before in the recent years, to be honest, I don't find that much of a radical growth in laptop world. The worldwide decline of laptop shippment in the recent years also support my thought I guess.
Anyway, so I was looking for a laptop that's 13 inch at most (as this is the sweet spot size for a portable laptop), lightweight, affordable, powerful and spaceous in capacity as well as good graphics performance as I like my next laptop to be a bit futureproof.
I had my eyes on Lenovo Yoga 900, HP xpectra x360 and Lenovo Ideapad 710s for quite some time. I decided to buy Lenovo 710s over the other two. But this was before Mi Notebook and Lenovo Air were announced. I decided to buy the highest varient of the 710s as I need 16Gb RAM and 512GB storage at least because as I said, being a media consumer and photo editor and this would be my one n only PC as well, I need as much RAM & SSD as possible that I could afford. I didn't choose Yoga 900 for it's less accurate & non-active pen supported display, mediocre keyboard and not-so-good speakers, although I really wish to have a convertible 13 inch laptop. Also I didn't choose Xpectre X360 because some heating issues that had been floating in the web. Whatever, 710s was a very good option for me. But I had some observations also with it. For example, I cannot stand any other bezel colour than black around the screen. For me, black maintains sleekiness and continuity. So, although it's almost bezelless (kind of Dell XPS 13's) display was one of a kind at that time and attracted me most, it's silver & gold colour bezels raised my eyebrows. Then, the port options. It's a shame that Lenovo chose only 2 USB ports for 710s. Why not a USB C? For me, 2 ports for data transfer and 1 port for USB Dongle to use keyboard and mouse are ideal. Although I was ready to sacrifice that, but after launching of Mi Notebook, lots of things changed (also didn't change, which I will come on later on). Then the price. Although the discounted price (1200 USD) of the highest varient of 710s is considerable, it's actual price (1400 USD) is just too much for such a laptop. Oh btw, laptops like Dell XPS 13 or Surface Book could be the best choice for me as they tick all the requiments I have for my next laptop, their price is just way over my budget.
I highly praise Xiaomi for their effort to bring the change in laptop industry. Although their first, with their Mi Notebook, they showed us that they really do the research and think how to attract the people (although which will be judged by their sale, but I don't think they are here to be the King of the sales, rather than to bring some change).
Then Lenovo did the most funny thing a company can do. They also brought an almost same laptop as Xiaomi did. Moreover, their one is very similar to their own 710s which was launched not so long ago, although not publicized like Yogas or Thinkpads and even not worldwide available yet. Before Xiaomi, Lenovo was known for making cheaper priced laptops with the competitive specs that other manufacterers used to provide. It seems like they were in damn hurry not to lost their "affordable laptop manufacturer" title to Xiaomi, so they tweaked their 710s a bit and launched it. Damn, they don't even have an availability date for their Air lineup where Xiaomi is starting selling theirs from 2nd August.
Anyway, so all these laptops are very compelling to me specwise (although real reviews of all these models aren't available yet) and all of them are somewhat considered and compared as a Macbook Air killer. So I want to highlight here some key features of these laptops which attracted me most (not the features that I don't like):

Lenovo Yoga 900:
- Convertible 13 inch touchscreen laptop
- Cheaper than other competitive products in the market
- Highest configuration possible with i7, 16 GB ram, 512 GB SSD
- Highest varient with Iris Pro graphics built-in, which compansates the lack of dedicated graphics card (actually this suits my need most as Iris Pro is a very powerful graphics and I do not play games much and Lightroom doesn't do good job with dedicated graphics yet)
- Acceptable port selection

HP Xpectre X360
- Convertible 13 inch touchscreen laptop
- Touch screen with active pen support
- Good keyboard
- Very good speakers
- Highest configuration possible with i7 and 512GB SSD (although Iris Pro is available for 8GB Ram varient, not 16Gb which is a shame)
- Better port selection than Yoga 900

Lenovo Ideapad 710s:
- Compact 13 inch laptop in a smaller form factor
- Almost bezelless display
- Very colour accurate display
- Matte but vibrant (which is very exceptional IMO) and bright display for outdoor visibility
- 180 degree display rotation
- Full metal lightweight construction
- Good speakers
- Good keyboard
- Highest configuration possible with i7, 16 GB ram, 512 GB SSD & Iris Pro
- Competitive price (while on discount)

Mi Notebook:
- Compact 13 inch laptop in a smaller form factor
- Almost bezelless display with black bezel (perfect)
- Full metal construction
- Very good port selection with 2 USB 3.0, 1 charging-compatible USB C, full size SD Card reader slot, 1 HDMI
- 1 empty upgradable SSD slot
- built in PCIe SSD
- Probably a good keyboard
- Probably a pair of good speakers as Xiaomi claims
- Dedicated graphics card!!!!! (are you crazy??)
- Last but not the least, the attractive price

Lenovo Air:
- i7 varient will be available
- Finger print scanner
- all the good things I said about Mi Notebook except that not so good port selection, non-available upgradable SSD slot

Now all good things being said, there are some cons or I should say queries I have for the choices that these OEMs made for these devices, which are the main purpose for me to write this humangous thread and bore u guys. By any miracle, if any person from these OEMs see this thread, I would like to urge them to make these following changes.

Questions to Lenovo:
- How come u guys couldn't include a USB C port in yr 710s, where now u can in Air? This single inclution would make day and night for yr reputation and not Mi Notebook, but yr 710s would get more publicity. Now, if u can include a USB C port in Air, why not make it charging compatible like Xiaomi is doing? Oh, and One USB 3.0 and another USB 2.0????? Come on Lenovo... this is almost 2017!!! Who uses USB 2.O anymore? These lackings in decision making may play a big role in yr sales.
- As 710s and Air are almost identical in dimentions, why can't u fit 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD in the later one when it already is available for the first one?
- As Yoga 900 is yr flagship model, what was yr thought behind not making it active pen compatible?
- Within a few months, u could put a dedicated graphics card inside the same chasis, but before, u couldn't do it? Isn't it kind of cheating to the customers?

Question for HP:
- Why on earth, did u guys make this weird decision of supporting Iris Pro for the 8Gb Ram model, not for the 16gb when it's proved that, that motherboard and processor can easily support 16 GB ram with Iris Pro?

Question for Asus:
- Yes Asus, u guys are one of the key players in the laptop market. Other companies are coming forward, why r u lagging?
- upcoming UX310UQ may be a competitior for the above mentioned laptops because it will really have some unique features and to be honest, before anyone else, UX310 was known as to be the first upcoming ultrabook with dedicated graphics card. Now u see, where is ur position. IMO Asus still has a chance if they also follow the new bezelless design language for their UX310 as UX310 will also provide a newer graphics card than the above mentioned laptops.

Xiaomi.......
I don't have much to ask to them, just one. When are you bringing a i7 model of Mi Notebook Pro with 16GB ram and 512GB SSD??? I am waiting to give u my money unless the well-known reviewers prove me wrong. :) Because I really beileve there should be no manufactural obligation to include those specs in this awesome laptop.

Thank u guys for reading this longgggg thread. And again, please be nice if u comment. Cheers.

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Thoughts on buying a sleek, powerful, portable 13 inch laptop (Mi Notebook, Lenovo Air, Lenovo 710s)

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