Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition Review - A Detailed Look

This article describes impressive things we like about Xiaomi’s very first laptop to be produced, Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition. 

The only reason why there wasn’t any original announcement or event to introduce this new product from Xiaomi is the Coronavirus outbreak. Nevertheless, many Xiaomi users have been expecting that product to be released for quite a long while. The first Mi Notebook 14 has come through Xiaomi’s new subsidiary, Mi. In the incoming sections, we will go into details of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition’s interesting features. 

But first, if this is the first time you’ve ever heard of this product, these basics will help. The laptop’s screen size is 14 inches with full HD. It uses the Windows 10 operating system and the Intel Core i5/i7. Moreover, it also owns 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and Nvidia GeForce MX350 GPU. The most premium one with Core i7 SoC, which will as well be mentioned in this article, costs $788,88. 

The information above seems to be quite enough to reveal that the premium Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition is part of the expensive 14-inch laptops league. 

Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition - Excellent exterior

If Apple’s MacBook is what you consider beauty, then you have to check this new Xiaomi product out. How this Mi NoteBook 14 look is quite similar to the MacBook.

To be more specific, its exterior is made of a combination of magnesium and aluminum alloy to make users feel the sense of such luxury. One more thing is that it doesn’t have the Mi logo on its back, but that is not a big of a deal. 

With a compact size (14 inches) and a weight of just 1.35kg, you can carry it anywhere as it perfectly fits in your backpack. Moreover, comparing with many other laptops we’ve tested, this Mi NoteBook 14 looks more solidly built and easier to use with its hinge design. 

Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition - Mousepad and Keyboard

Xiaomi has undoubtedly done a great job in developing the laptop’s features and tools, including its keyboard. Generally, the keyboard has satisfied us with the scissor key technique and its chiclet-style with the distance between keypads is 1.3mm. 

For people who most of the time work with their laptops, this keyboard is definitely suitable. Normally, our fingers need four to five hours to get used to a new keyboard. However, it also has weaknesses, which are the space between the arrow keys is quite too small and it doesn’t have lights under its keypads, which most of the premium laptop brands have. 

About the mousepad, one of its significant things is its size, which is bigger than we expected with such a compact laptop. It also supports multi-touch and its responsiveness is visible. That’s just enough to make a good mousepad. 

Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition - Display

We made a list of the Mi NoteBook 14’s display basics: full HD, the screen-to-body ratio reaches 91%, high refresh rate with 60Hz, 1000:1 contrast ratio, brightness reaches 250nits. Except for some basic actions and watching some Youtube videos, we actually didn’t do a lot to eventually create a full report about the quality. 

Of all those features and tools mentioned above, there is one missing - the web camera. Xiaomi actually has their own reason for this, which is that they saw webcams as unnecessary tools for laptops during the finalization of the product last December.

But, since the appearance of the Coronavirus outbreak, the need of contacting or working through screens has remarkably increased. Therefore, Xiaomi decides to make it up for users as they have started working on developing the camera feature. 

Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition - Other functions

As we have said above, we haven’t completed the full review of this laptop just yet. In general, we are satisfied with most of its features, but it has some visible weaknesses as well. The first one is the battery life, which we consider to be quite fragile. 

This can still be solved with some settings to save battery just like in Xiaomi smartphones. Also, having both i7 and Nvidia’s MX350 makes the device good enough for users in need. Moreover, with the 2x2W speakers, its sound quality is not as smooth as what we have expected. 

Final thoughts

This new product from Xiaomi, Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition can be considered to be a good choice for both Xiaomi fans and other users in general. Although it has many potentials, its lack of webcams and memory card slot is what we think is essential to be added. 

If you want to know more, please be patient and wait for our next post about other features of the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition. 

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