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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here, and this is a Xiaomi Air 12. Now, this is a device
00:09that a lot of people have been asking me to do a review for. I never did it when it first
00:13launched because it's a product that is difficult to purchase if you're in North America, and
00:17there's some inherent risks that come with purchasing a device from a smaller company
00:21like Xiaomi. But the thing that makes this thing special is that it's kind of like the
00:26rip-off version, the knock-off version, of the MacBook 12-inch. It's often compared to
00:32this because of its shape, its size, and its components, so I thought I would kind of do
00:36a video to showcase the two so that you guys can have a realistic comparison between the
00:40two. One of the more important things about this device is the build quality. This is
00:45a very high-quality device. It's built really well compared to a lot of ultrabooks at this
00:51price point. So this thing actually starts at around $500, maybe $550, depending on where
00:55you purchase it from. This one in particular was from GearBest, and it costs around $530.
01:00Now, the design language is quite similar to the MacBook. Not that they're identical,
01:05but you can see that it's obviously been inspired by Apple's design. Simple, flat slab, and
01:10this one actually has no branding or marking on the top of it. It's actually difficult
01:13to tell which company this product came from just by looking at it. Now, in terms of its
01:17thickness, this one's thicker and heavier, but it's very comfortable to hold still. The
01:21device is well-made for the price. It's not super solid. I wouldn't say it's as well-built
01:26as a MacBook, and I wouldn't say it's as durable as a MacBook in terms of just like when you
01:29press on it and how much flex there is, but it's surprisingly well-made, and I would say
01:33it's better made than almost any other ultrabook at this price point. So the keyboard has some
01:39flex to it. It's not a lot. I mean, it's not as rigid as a MacBook. I'm going to demonstrate
01:45on the MacBook. It's a little more rigid, but it's not a huge difference.
01:51The display that they're using is a 1080p panel. It's not as high-resolution as the
01:55MacBook panel. It's also not as bright, nor is color accurate, but it's a really nice
01:58screen nonetheless. It's also not a touchscreen despite it being a glossy finish as well.
02:04The keyboard on the Xiaomi is actually pretty good. I would say it's easier to get used
02:07to than the MacBook keyboard. I like how everything just feels like a regular keyboard on this.
02:12There's no super thin butterfly switches or anything. It's very comfortable to type on.
02:16The one thing I don't like is the trackpad. Not that it's a bad trackpad, but I definitely
02:20prefer the MacBook trackpad. This uses a synaptic driver, so it's not ideal, but it's
02:25not bad. Okay, let's talk about ports. So Xiaomi was smart. They realized that not everyone
02:29likes that whole single port thing on the MacBook. These guys have a single HDMI port,
02:33an audio jack, and then on the other side, we have the USB-A and a USB-C. Performance
02:40on this machine is pretty good. I mean, on paper, it doesn't look amazing. It's a Skylake
02:43M3, but when you compare it for just actual use, regular use, day-to-day stuff, it performs
02:48really well. It's not as fast as an i5 or an i7, but unless you're doing more CPU-intensive
02:52stuff, you probably won't notice a difference. One thing to note, the MacBook from 2016 is
02:57actually running the same processor, but the clock speed is a little bit higher. So this
03:00particular chip, you can kind of ramp up the speed if you throw enough wattage at it, and
03:04that's what Apple has done. They're running the stock speed, so 0.9 gigahertz, but when
03:09I use them, they feel really similar. If you want to play games on the Xiaomi, you can
03:12play some really light titles, but anything even mildly intense just won't run very well
03:16in this system.
03:19The speakers on the Xiaomi are actually not bad. They're better than most Ultrabook speakers
03:23at this size, but they're still not as good as the MacBook speakers, and I'll give you
03:26a little quick speaker test.
03:29So, obviously, MacBook has better speakers, but this thing's a lot cheaper. Yeah. Okay,
03:41we're gonna take a look at the inside. Pretty easy to get in there. It's some Torx screws.
03:45On the inside, you can see the single SATA stick that they include. The weird thing is
03:48that they have two M.2 slots. There's only one of them that supports SATA, and then the
03:53other one supports PCIe. You have to use specifically those interfaces for those two sticks. The
03:58battery's pretty big. It's actually 37 watt-hours. The MacBook has a 41 watt-hour battery, and
04:03you're gonna get slightly better battery life on that thing. You're gonna get around nine
04:05hours on the MacBook, around seven hours on this, even though this has only a slightly
04:09smaller battery.
04:10The RAM is unfortunately soldered on. It's four gigs, and you're stuck with four gigs
04:14regardless of the configuration. And lastly, you'll notice that there's no fans. It's a
04:17completely silent system with the ultra-low voltage CPU, but everything in here looks
04:22nicely packed together. There's no wasted space in here or anything. Thermal output
04:25is comfortable. I mean, it is an ultra-low voltage chip, so nothing gets super hot or
04:29anything. If you're curious about the webcam, it looks better than the MacBook webcam. It's
04:33720p. The MacBook has a 480p cam.
04:35So the ultimate question is whether or not the Xiaomi Air 12 is worth the price, because
04:40as you can see in this review, the MacBook is better across the board, except for a few
04:44things. So like the keyboard on the Xiaomi is better, arguably. The port selection is
04:48better on the Xiaomi, and well, the webcam is better on the Xiaomi. But aside from that,
04:52the MacBook is better all around the board, other than the fact that it runs OS X. That's
04:56a preference thing.
04:57So is it worth it? I think it is. It's really difficult to compare something like this when
05:01the price is so different, but if you're looking to purchase something that's like a thin and
05:06light ultrabook, it's... I've always felt that the MacBook was just too expensive for
05:10what it offered. This thing gives surprisingly good value at this price. The only thing,
05:15and really the only thing that holds me back from just being like, hey, everyone just go
05:18buy this thing, is the fact that it has to come from China or somewhere in Asia, and
05:22if there are problems with this laptop, you're going to have a tough time getting it fixed.
05:26That's the end of this video. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if
05:29you loved it. I'll see you guys next time.