• 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave 2D here. In front of me are two laptops from Chinese companies,
00:08and these are devices that I've had for a while, but I've never, I've never been comfortable
00:12making videos and openly recommending them because of one big issue. It's the customer
00:16service. Like if anything breaks or if anything goes wrong with a device from like Huawei
00:20or Xiaomi, that process to get it repaired or replaced or re-anythinged is very difficult.
00:28I've experienced it firsthand, I've seen it happen to my friends, and it's just like,
00:32when it comes to recommending products to my audience, I want to make sure that if something
00:36goes wrong, it can, for the most part, be resolved. But, the reason why I'm making this
00:42video today is because both of these devices are now available in North America from North
00:47American outlets. So, the Huawei Mate Pro X is a device that you can get from Amazon,
00:52goes for $1,200, I think, and the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 13, these names are amazing, but
00:59the Xiaomi laptop, 13-inch one, is available from Newegg for $900, I believe. But there's
01:05like a special offer where you can get like a discount or something like that, but Newegg
01:09$900 for this one, Amazon $1,200 for this one. So, both of these have the MX150 graphics
01:16card and a 8th Gen 4-core CPU, the i5, and they're both very similar in performance,
01:22but there are some important differences between them, which would explain why the
01:25Xiaomi is like $300 cheaper than the Huawei. So, I'm going to talk about this one first,
01:29the $1,200 MateBook Pro X. It has the best build quality of the two, it's really, really
01:34well built. It's clearly modeled after Apple hardware, but maybe also some Asus ZenBook
01:39hardware. Great finish, very nice machining with no sharp edges around the device. It
01:44has a fantastic display, it's really bright, it's big, it's got respectable color gamut,
01:49thin-bezeled, it's really the main attraction of the MateBook. The battery life is also
01:53pretty good, it's a 57 Wh battery, and there's also some nice features, like inside you get
01:57the fingerprint sensor on the power button, it's actually a really nice location. You
02:00also have a great keyboard layout, it's comfortable to type on, very similar in feel to the 2015
02:05or earlier MacBooks, it's a great keyboard. Now, there are some negatives, the speakers,
02:10they're, I mean, they sound good up to a certain volume, like the moment you hit like 50, 60%,
02:15this whole thing starts to vibrate and buzz, which I don't think it's like a unit, like
02:19I don't think it's my unit, I've experienced this on other devices as well. I don't know
02:22why they even built it like this, like you should just cap that volume at 50% or somehow
02:26fix the internals, because that vibration can get a little bit annoying. The pop-up
02:30webcam is really cool, but it shoots from a terrible angle, it's actually one of the
02:34worst I've seen. I also don't love the trackpad. It uses Windows precision drivers, but the
02:38tracking isn't perfect, and sometimes it doesn't detect the gestures, which is a little bit
02:42annoying. But overall, the MateBook Pro X is a really solid device for the money. Okay,
02:47moving on to this device, the Xiaomi Air 13 laptop, or the Mi Notebook 13, depending
02:52on where you purchase it from, the best feature about this device is the price tag. I know
02:56it's weird to call price a feature, but this is one of the best values you can get for
03:00the MX150 8th Gen CPU 13-inch laptop. It's just really well-priced. The build quality
03:06is good, it's not as well-built as the Huawei, the finish isn't as well done, and there are
03:10some sharper edges on the bottom panel, but it's still good. I also like the fact that
03:14the top panel has no branding. A lot of devices out there, including the Huawei, have a logo
03:19and sometimes a company name. This is just a naked panel, and I like that. It's simple,
03:23and it looks clean. The screen is also nice, it's not as bright or as big as the Huawei
03:28device, but it's still a very respectful 13.3-inch screen. The touchpad is also good, it's using
03:33Windows precision drivers again, but for whatever reason, I'm getting better tracking and better
03:37gesture detection on this device than I am with this device. A few things I don't like
03:41about this thing though, start off right near the trackpad, it's the fingerprint sensor
03:45right at the top of that thing, it just gets in the way. I don't feel like it's a good
03:48position, like sometimes you'll touch it while you're using the trackpad, and the keyboard
03:52is okay, like it's a good layout, but the keys are a little bit softer on the stroke
03:56than I'd like. I think the typing experience is better on the MateBook than it is on the
04:01Xiaomi product. Other things I don't like, the speakers, they're pretty weak, and under
04:05really heavy loads, it can throttle. Not a ton, certainly not regularly, most usage you'd
04:10never notice it, but if you're running some CPU intensive stuff for extended periods of
04:14time, then yeah, this unit can throttle. So that's basically it, both of these units are
04:18available in North American retailers now. I wouldn't consider one or the other to be
04:22like the obvious choice, they're quite different in price, and obviously quite different in
04:25product category, like this is a very premium version, this is a less premium version, but
04:30it's significantly cheaper. Now one thing to keep in mind, if you're interested in purchasing
04:34these devices, understand that if you purchase from a North American outlet, like Newegg
04:39or Amazon, the pricing's a little bit more expensive than it was if you'd purchased this
04:42thing directly from China. You get the peace of mind and all the customer support and service
04:47that comes from purchasing here, but if you want the absolute best value, like the cheapest
04:52price possible, I'd still purchase it in Asia. Just be prepared to not have any service should
04:57anything go wrong. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video, thumbs if you liked it, subs if
05:00you loved it, see you guys next time.