Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival that’s as cheap as $540

Chinese smartphone and smart device maker Xiaomi just announced its first laptop — and boy does it look familiar to products belonging to a company that begins with the letter ‘A’ 😉

The Chinese tech giant is holding a press event to unveil its new Redmi Pro smartphone today, but it also dropped a surprise with the unveiling of the Mi Notebook Air. Even the name sounds familiar, right?

The laptop comes in two sizes — 13.3-inch and 12.5-inch — running Windows with a full-HD display, full-metal body and type-C USB charging and two USB slots. There’s a full-sized keyboard with Apple-esque keys that are individually backlit. The company’s ‘Xiaomi Sync’ software is pre-installed to pair data from a Xiaomi smartphone, and you can unlock the laptop using a Mi Band wearable.

The starting price is 3599 CNY, or around $540, for the 12.5-inch model with the larger, flagship model coming in at 4,999, or $750. Don’t hold your breath on an international launch, since many of Xiaomi’s products — particularly its first forays into new categories — are China-only affairs. What we know so far is it will go on sale in China from August 2.

Under the hood, Xiaomi is promising an Intel Core i5 Processor with 8GB DDR4 RAM and 256GB PCIe SSD, and an expandable SSD slot. For games, there’s a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics card. Size-wise, we are talking 306.9 mm x 210.9 mm x 14.8 mm with an apparent weight of 1.28 kg.

Those specs slip a little for the smaller model, which includes an Intel Core M3 processor with integrated graphics, 4GB RAM and 128GB in expandable SSD.

As is so often the case, Apple is the standard for Xiaomi’s product comparison. The Chinese company said the Mi Notebook Air is thinner (13 percent) than its equivalent Macbook Air, and 11 percent smaller than its rival thanks to a 5.56 mm bezel.

There was plenty of speculation about a Xiaomi laptop last year, and now that has materialized into a physical product it’ll be interesting to see how many units Xiaomi ships. Let it not be forgotten that the company has struggled to justify its huge $45 billion valuation. It sold “over 70 million devices” in 2015 and, while that figure is very respectable,an increase on its previous year while many in the industry are seeing volumes fall, it was some way behind Xiaomi’s original target. Added to that, there’s been no indication that its smart home focus — the idea that Xiaomi can build an ecosystem of products for Chinese consumers — has come to fruition yet.

That focus was a key driver for Xiaomi’s colossal valuation. Because, with hardware a fiercely competitive business with low margins despite Xiaomi’s smart approach to sourcing components, the potential for a data and services business that connects the dots can help Xiaomi stand apart from its rivals.

Some may see a laptop as an unnecessary product line, particularly in China where the audience is mobile-first internet users, but does fit into Xiaomi’s ambition to own every connected device in a Chinese consumer household. Or at least to offer an attractive option for any kind of internet-connected hardware product.

This $4 smartphone finally has a ship date after sparking investigations

Chances are, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

That seemed to be the case for the Freedom 251, the world's cheapest smartphone, announced in February. Ringing Bells, the Indian company behind the phone, sparked controversy when it claimed the smartphone would sell for just $4. 

Naturally, people were very curious to know how the company could sell an Android smartphone for so little, prompting the Indian Cellular Association (ICA) to write to India's telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to get some hard answers.

The ICA also accused Ringing Bells of potentially fraudulent claims saying even the cheapest build-of-materials would cost about $40 for a phone with barebone specs such as Android 5.1, a 4-inch screen, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 1,450 mAh battery, and a 3.2-megapixel back and 0.3-megapixel front camera.

Furthermore, there was no clear wireless carrier backing the $4 phone and providing subsidies on it to offer savings to customers.

Just when things couldn't get any worse, it was discovered that the Freedom 251 was actually an illegally rebadged version of China's Adcom Ikon 4, which sells for about $54. Oh, and the app icons were basically ripped right off iOS.

During investigation, Mohit Goel, Ringing Bells's Managing Director, remained unfazed.

"We remain committed to cooperating with any government agency that may require inquiring our organisation for any reason or suspicion," Goel said. "I do maintain that we will deliver the most-affordable quality products to our customers through our various range of smartphones, including the Freedom 251."

Fast forward a couple of months and 70 million registrations for the device later and Ringing Bells is finally gearing up to ship the first $4 Freedom 251 phones to customers on June 30, according to IANS.

"We learned from our mistakes and decided to go silent till we come out with the product. Now we have a 4-inch, dual-SIM phone ready for delivery. I feel vindicated," Goel toldIANS.

Goel says the company is losing money on every unit sold, but the goal is to allow rural and poor Indians to access the digital world.

The phone's specs have also been updated since the original version was announced. The rear camera's a higher resolution 8-megapixel shooter and the selfie camera is a 3.2-megapixel shooter. There's also a larger 1,800 mAh battery. The phone will be available in black and white. The rest of the specs are the same as the original: 4-inch screen, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

The company plans to fulfill 2.5 million orders by the end of the month and ship 200,000 units per month afterwards.

It remains to be seen how well a $4 smartphone will function. The Freedom 251 may seem extremely underpowered if you're used to flagship performance devices, but consider this: It has better specs than even the original iPhone when it was released nine years ago, and that was originally sold for $599.

6 reasons to avoid cheap smartphones like Docoss X1

Recently, it seems that a few Indian companies have started a trend of enticing prospective buyers with ridiculously cheap smartphones. It began with the Freedom 251, an Android smartphone priced at just Rs. 250. Now another unknown manufacturer, Docoss, has announced the X1, an ultra-cheap smartphone priced at just Rs. 888. The company has even posted official product images and an unboxing video on its social channels, and deliveries are reported to begin in early May.

Whether these companies have no intentions of making profits or they genuinely want to put smartphones in everyone's hands is an altogether different discussion. Anyway, here are a few reasons why it's wise to stay clear of 'gadgets' like Freedom 251 and Docoss X1.

They are most likely 'frauds'

Even though prices have been dipping, it's near impossible to manufacture a smartphone at such a low price. It's more than likely that these ultra-cheap smartphones are just a ploy by fraudsters to rip buyers off. Even if it's an amount as low as Rs. 888, what's the point in wasting your money for a product that's as improbable as it sounds.

The devices might have poor build quality
It's true that you won't be getting an all-metal body at such low prices, but even then the build quality of these cheap smartphones is bound to be less than acceptable. To put things in perspective, the Freedom 251 test unit received by us had the name of its original manufacturer (ADCOM) painted on it.