RedmiBook 16 Review - Is He the Best Budget Notebook?
Find a good notebook that offers the best value for money it's quite difficult because there are thousands of models on the market that differ in size, performance and materials, and that often manufacturers have the same model with additional variants. In a jungle of acronyms and technical features but we staff at XiaomiToday.it we managed to get our hands on the latest version of the notebook offered by Redmi, the RedmiBook 16 "with which I'm writing this review, made possible as always by the store Banggood.com thank you for sending the sample.
Let's start from the sales package that contains in addition to the Redmi notebook also a USB Type-C Charger with Asian socket (cable length approx. 150 cm), so we should have a European adapter. We also find a Chinese-language user manual with warranty certification and nothing else. The packaging itself is however pleasing to the eye as it shows all the technical specifications of the product and the image of the same on the front of the package. Note of merit must be given to the shipper really tiny in the dimensions net of a 65W output.
The design of the 16 ”RedmiBook is a lot elegant and sober net of the presence of the brand logo and the writing "designed by Xiaomi" on the top cover, while for the rest we do not find any logo except on the lower part of the body where there is a large sticker with the logos of the partner companies for the realization of the notebook. Finally, always on the lower part of the body we find 5 rubber goggles to raise the notebook from any surfaces avoiding scratches on the body and increasing the grip by avoiding accidental slippage, and are also present the torx screws is preferably used for removing the panel and two small grids on the sides of the same that conceal the presence of the 2 stereo speaker as well as a larger one on the central part of the chassis used for the ventilation of the 2 internal fans connected to the copper heat pipe for heat dissipation. The position of the two system microphones, which are located right on the conjunction of the rear body with the rest of the notebook chassis but in any case the qualitative rendering of the audio capture is quite good, such as to allow calls with the computer without the aid of external tools.
The chassis is completely made of aluminum alloy and the opening of the display is favored by one convenient groove on the front profile notebook and one large zipper that covers almost the entire width of the same. The treatment of the material used for the body of the RedmiBook 16 "allows it not to get dirty easily as well as fingerprints are not captured.
Conversely, however, it is for the display that does not enjoy a great oleophobic treatment and therefore inevitably various fingerprints and fingerprints will be imprinted on the screen, even if the panel used is opaque and therefore shields the "dirty" effect just mentioned. The display it is a unit da 16.1 inch, Chi Mei model CMN1608 (CMN N161HCA-EA3) with IPS technology and resolution Full HD which it covers about 90% of the available surface, thanks to the adoption of reduced frames (3.26 mm) on 3 sides while the lower frame is more evident by hosting the company logo. Unfortunately, there is no webcam that would have favored activities such as smart working and remote teaching in this context, therefore you will have to equip yourself with a webcam, now available for a few euros.
But let's go back to the display that offers a resolution Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels in 16 format: 9 and brightness of 300 nits. The technology adopted is of a type IPS Full Laminated which results in an excellent color rendition, well calibrated and really rewarding thanks to the contrasts of 600: 1. The blacks are deep and the colors in general are not altered even when we tilt the display to a maximum angle of 178 degrees supported by the excellent hinge that guarantees the stability of the notebook, but above all by the 100% sRGB color profile.
The visual experience is optimal even under direct sunlight, which is not so penalized by reflections thanks to the adoption of an opaque panel, but rather for the brightness that is not very high, although it is still possible to work without particular problems of legibility and visibility. It must be said that RedmiBook 16 "in my opinion remains more of a machine to be used in office and / or home environments due to its not very compact size, but overall and if necessary you can easily insert it inside your backpack, going to occupy dimensions of 36,72 x 23,29 x 1,75 cm (when closed) for a weight of 1,76 Kg.
Below the display we find the keyboard with American layout but with the ability to set the QWERTY Italian as long as you remember the special characters and accented by memory, although in commerce for a few euros there are special stickers for the Italian layout that can solve the problem. The island keys have a reduced travel to 1.5 mm which results in good feedback returned and noise contained during use. The keyboard is not backlit and therefore you will not have problems if you adopt the aforementioned stickers, but this does not facilitate the use of the computer in poor lighting conditions.
To help the keyboard think about it the great trackpad with generous dimensions, which is fluid thanks to the glass-like surface with which it is covered. All native Windows gestures can be exploited.
On the left profile there is a door USB 3.0 with Display Port function and therefore also notebook power supply, a small state LEDs which is activated during charging providing 3 colors: red light for the low battery, orange light for the battery being charged and green light for the fully charged battery, a door HDMI with output also in 4K and one more USB Type-C 2.0. On the right profile there is a door USB 2.0 e the input jack from 3.5 mm, unfortunately there is therefore no slot for inserting an SD or micro SD card.
The overall construction is really perfect and in fact there are no weaknesses in general and solidity is also assured by the good balance that returns the zipper allowing the display to not bend even when using the notebook resting on the legs.
The RedmiBook 16 ”offers a more than complete connectivity, as we find the WiFi module 802.11 b / g / n / ac Dual Band by Qualcomm (QCA6174) and a Bluetooth 5.0 module which enjoy excellent reception. The technical specifications enjoyed by the RedmiBook 16 "are: AMD Ryzen5-4500U (Renoir) processor with 6-core structure and 7nm manufacturing process, clock frequency at 2.4 Ghz base with a maximum of 4.0 Ghz in Turbo Boost and 8 MB level 3 cache. A power that in daily use allows us to take advantage of the notebook without any compromise, in any situation without slowdowns or lag of any kind. Basically we can take advantage of the Redmi notebook for more delicate situations such as video rendering, obtaining equally satisfying performances and in any case in line with models of the same hardware configuration, considering an excellent rating if we start the video rendering at 1080p but also the fluidity in the editing of video in 4K surprised me even though in this case the final render impacts with a slight decrease in performance, more than physiological considering the hardware used.
In any case, the graphics are entrusted to GPU dedicated provided by AMD model Radeon RX Vega 6GeForce MX15. Unfortunately, Xiaomi limits the shared main memory for the GPU to 512MB, which prevents many demanding games from starting. To all this are added 16 GB RAM of type DDR4 which operates in Dual Channel @ 1600 MHz but unfortunately this is soldered to the motherboard and therefore in the future we cannot work on any improvements. We also find 512 GB of Samsung SDD storage this time expandable. Excellent performance in the reading phase as well as in the writing phase, however, allowing us to take advantage of the Redmi notebook also for gaming sessions, with a more than good playability provided we do not stress it too much and therefore with frame rate settings and average graphic details. No problem with the classic games that can be found in the Windows store, but on the other hand, the 16 ”RedmiBook does not qualify as a gaming notebook.
Under stress RedmiBook 16 ”does not heat absolutely on the contrary, the cooling system is also convincing with regard to surface temperatures. Even under extreme load, I measured a maximum temperature of 38 ° C at the hottest spot on the top of the keyboard. Furthermore, under maximum load, the fan noise remains subjectively very discreet and does not become excessively noisy, reaching a maximum value of 42,2 dB.
We can then enjoy the excellent audio sector managed by a Realtek sound card that expresses its potential by means of a dual speaker with power of 4W overall (2x2W) with DTS support. The volume is decidedly high and of good yield because thanks to the rubber pads that raise the base of the notebook with respect to the surface on which it rests, the sound almost seems to reflect on it reaching the user's ear with a good balance of the various listening frequencies , although there is a certain lack of bass.
Finally we find a 46 Wh density lithium polymer battery that allows the Redmi notebook to perform for about 10 hours with medium / intense use while if we take advantage of the performance of the RedmiBook 16 "for video editing and gaming then the autonomy drops to about 6,5 hours. In any case, with only 38 minutes using the supplied charger we will reach about a 50% charge while it will take about 90 minutes for a full charge.
Part of the part maybe perhaps devoted to the operating system as it the 16 ”RedmiBook will arrive at your home with a Windows license in Chinese only therefore you will have to tinker a bit before using the technological jewel, but in any case within 1 hour maximum you will have solved the problem as it is possible to install a version of windows 10 completely in Italian following the guide you find below, but remember to install also all the drivers, which unfortunately are not available by connecting from Italy and therefore you will have to equip yourself with a VPN that bounces your connection to a Chinese server. I personally have relied on Transocks for Android smartphones, by downloading the drivers from the smartphone and then passing them to the notebook and then proceeding with the installation of the same. Once this is done, the system will be fluid and snappy.
How to translate your notebook from Chinese to Italian
PROJECTED IMPACT
In conclusion RedmiBook 16” is definitely an excellent product as long as you are a minimally aware user, considering what was said above about the operating system. The Redmi notebook is valid in every respect, be it construction or performance, offered at a decidedly much lower price than models with the same configuration.
For the language I solved it in a simpler way, I did a license upgrade by switching to windows 10 pro you buy a license code, they are just a few euros, so you don't have to re-install all the drivers
Hi matt I can kindly have a contact with you regarding the above problem. I'm in trouble i bought a xiaomi chinese language notebook and i need help. My email is [email protected]. Thanks
Przecież klucz windowsa masz w BIOSie, nie trzeba nic kupować wystarczy przeinstalować i masz język Polski
Thank you very much for the tip, I also include it in the review !!!
Hi Emanuele, how can I contact you for advice on this problem regarding the drivers for Xiaomi redmibook? Thanks