Is the best laptop under this price tag, check out how and why Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition great for you!
It is among few laptops that offer good design with the good specification that comes under budget you can get right now in the market.
Xiaomi’s first laptop in India is Notebook 14 which comes as a shocker at Rs. 43,999. With an eye-pleasing and easy-to-use form factor, 65W fast charging support, and impressive specifications.
Xiaomi has blown people’s minds once more within the laptop segment. It does pose as a replica of Apple’s MacBook, but, having used one I feel it brings within the Mac comfort on a budget and that I don’t feel the need to complain.
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Specifications
| Model Name | Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ i7-10510U Processor 1.8GHz quad-core with boost clock (up to 4.9GHz) or Intel® Core™ i5-10210U Processor 1.6GHz quad-core with boost clock (up to 4.2GHz) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA® GeForce® MX350 Video Memory Size – 2GB GDDR5 VRAM |
| Display |
35.56cm(14) Full HD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare 16:9 Horizon Display 91 % screen-to-body ratio 178° Wide-viewing Angle |
| Memory | 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM |
| Storage | 512GB PCI Express Gen 3 NVMe SSD 3000 MB/s Sequential Read, 1800 MB/s Sequential Write Speed or 512GB SATA 3 SSD 600 MB/s Speed |
| Interface | 1 x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1 (For data transfer) 2 x Type-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 1 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 1 x Combo Audio Jack 1 x Charging Port |
| Keyboard and Trackpad | Keyboard: Scissor Mechanism ABS Texture with 1.3mm key travel 19mm pitch per key Trackpad: Multi-touch support |
| Audio | 2x2W Stereo Speakers DTS Audio Processing App Support 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Wireless Connectivity | Wireless LAN: Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi 2×2 Bluetooth: Bluetooth V5.0 |
| Battery and Power | 46Wh Battery Backup of up to 10Hrs 65W Power Adapter |
| Weight and Dimensions | Thickness: 17.15mm Length: 321.3mm Width: 206.8mm Weight: 1.35kg |
| Package Contents | Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Edition x 1U Power Adapter with Power Cord x 1U User Manual x 1U Mi Webcam HD x 1U (Free with the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition, will be given as a separate bundle) |
The top model of the laptop with Intel Core i7 processor is priced at Rs 59,999 and therefore the other variant slightly on the lower end is priced at Rs 54,999.
The final opinion on this laptop is that Xiaomi has done a really commendable job with it. Laptops with equivalent specs are priced much higher in India.
With the approaching time, Xiaomi is predicted to upgrade its game even better. So if you’re someone, who can do without a backlit keyboard and webcam on the screen.
The laptop will suffice your work just fine and at a starting price of Rs 41,999, it sure maybe a steal deal.
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon – Design
Let’s get started with the top of the laptop. Interestingly it does not come with any branding. It is plain with having a minimalistic product. The laptop comes with a metallic finish.
The metallic finish of the body will offer you kind of an expensive feel once you carry it around or use it. The laptop does have a metallic finish but not as well built as you may like.
When you press the shell of the laptop you’ll notice that it’s a particular level of flex however the same is not the case with the bottom. There is absolutely no flex in the bottom.
MI Notebook Horizon 14 can be lifted by just one finger and was showcased at their launch event as well. The low spec this Mi Notebook 14 is almost simler to this you check out Mi Notebook 14 Review that we’ve also covered.
The best feature of this Notebook is that after metallic finish as well the weight of it is only 1.35kg. This is right within the lines of the load of MacBook Air which weighs in at 1.27 Kgs.
The ports of the laptop are on the right side near the air ventilators. Visually, the planning of Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition is extremely likable with thin bezels around the display and not much branding.
Xiaomi’s Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Display Quality
Let’s start with addressing the elephant within the room. This NoteBook doesn’t have a webcam. There is a reason behind that though. To keep the bezels thinner, the company had decided to not keep the webcam on the laptop.
Even though video calling is extremely necessary today, Xiaomi said that the planning and display of the laptop were decided last year when video calling wasn’t much of a necessity.
But just to form for that fact, Xiaomi has included a USB camera within the box of the laptop. You can plug it in whenever you would like to use the camera. It is a typical 720p camera, so if you would like one with better quality, you’ll need to purchase those available within the market.
The display of the laptop is pretty good, having a 14 inches screen accompanying a 91% ratio of the body to screen. The top and side bezel of the laptop is just 4 mm thick.
Color accuracy, contract levels, and sharpness are just fine so you’ll enjoy watching movies on your laptop. There is also an anti-glare coating on top of the screen in order that would remove all the unwanted reflections from the display.
The screen of the laptop has a maximum brightness of 250 nits which is not that good. It is worth noting that the screen attracts smudges, but it doesn’t affect the general viewing angles
Keyboard
Irrespective, the laptop may look; it must get two things always right. Those are — Keyboard and Trackpad. One wonderful thing about the laptop is it allows a travel distance of 1.3 mm.
The keys don’t wobble and you’ll press them as hard as you’ll and that they will work just fine. The layout of the keyboard is pretty standard and it’s a chiclet-style keyboard.
The only odd thing with the keyboard of the laptop is that it doesn’t accompany backlighting. This is a major bummer for many. If you’re someone who works tons in dark conditions, then you would possibly struggle with the Mi NoteBook Horizon Edition.
It is odd because, at the worth segment of Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition, most of the laptops accompany a backlit keyboard. The only difference is that the keyboard Notebook 14 and Notebook Horizon are very similar, so they are changing it to a backlit keyboard.
Trackpad:
Coming to the trackpad of the laptop, it’s very responsive. The texture of the track pad is sort of decent also. However, there are two things which I didn’t like about the trackpad on Mi NoteBook Horizon Edition. Firstly, it is large.
Well, tons of individuals prefer an outsized trackpad, except for me; it often came in between while reaching the center of the keyboard, and therefore the cursor wont to move.
This is something which annoyed me a lot. The second disadvantage is the feel of clicks. Before the Mi NoteBook Horizon Edition, The trackpad doesn’t provide satisfying tactful feedback.
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Performance
The Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition is powered by a 10th generation Intel Core i7-10510U processor which is the best hardware available immediately. The processor boosts up to 4.9GHz.
As for the graphic section, the laptop rocks a 2GB GDDR5 VRAM Nvidia MX350 dedicated GPU which is specially designed for compact machines and it’s the primary machine in India to sport the MX350 graphics card.
Further, the laptop has 512GB NVMe SSD/SSD storage. There’s another model of the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition with a 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10210U processor. The sole difference between the 2 models is the processor – 10th Gen Core i7 on the high-end model and 10th Gen Core i5 on the model priced at Rs 54,999.
One of the disappointing features of the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition is that the non-expandable 8GB DDR4 RAM which suggests that customers will need to adjust their work, as well as the entertainment, needs according to the performance of the laptop.
As for gaming, the laptop managed to handle heavy games pretty much as while playing games like PUBG and Fortnite there was no lagging found. The audio setup on the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition maybe a little underwhelming.
Speakers are placed on both sides giving the output as stereo, just in case if you’re playing games on the laptop, you’ll not be proud of the output of the speaker.
Connectivity and other features: That matters!
The ports are put very carefully and smartly by Xiaomi within the laptop to keep it thin and lightweight. It has three USB ports located on the edges. Out of the three ports, two are USB 3.1 and one on the left is USB 2.0.
It also has one combo audio jack, HDMI output and DC power-in plug. The USB ports delivered fast transfer speeds. The ports are closer no issues were felt using all four ports (HDMI, USB 3.1 ports and Type-C port are placed on the right side). Since they have not included the Webcam and offered it as a wired accessory, the USB 2.0 port is easy to use.
The Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition runs Windows 10 Home software and there are not any ads within the interface. The laptop comes pre-installed with just two additional apps aside from the traditional Windows 10 apps.
One is the Mi Blaze Unlock which allows us to login into the device by using the Mi Smart Band 4 and Mi Smart Band 5. I have done testing of this feature with the Mi Smart Band 4 and it works wonderfully.
Make sure the band is placed on the brink of the laptop. The second app is Mi Smart Share which paves the way for transferring files quickly.
Sound quality
Talking about sound I would say its good, if you just consume muilt midia like waitching YouTube, Amazon Price or other OTT Platform so its very enght for that!
These two speaker would not good only if you heavily work on audio producation you need some good quilty earphone or headphone like you can use Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 if you love TWS earphones or I would say to check out Mi Super Bass Wireless Headphones REVIEW this is for bass lover!
Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition Battery Life:
The battery is another thing that is extremely important to think about once you are purchasing a replacement laptop.
The Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition comes with a 46Wh battery and it’s claimed to supply up to 10 hours of battery life on one charge.
My usage mostly included attending online classes and mostly surfing online on Google Chrome. With this moderate usage, the laptop was ready to run around 7-8 hours on one charge.
But one good thing about the laptop is that it also comes with 65W fast charging also. So in about 90 minutes, you’ll charge your laptop completely.
The Mi Notebook 14’s battery is another element that impressed me tons. With 7 to eight hours of average daily usage, it had been ready to last me each day with all the convenience.
I just had to charge it once for each day and sometimes 2 days’ usage. The feature that requires special attention is battery 65w supports fast charging. The laptop charged fully in about 50 minutes which is the quickest.
I have seen one. However, it does heat a touch if getting used while charging. The laptop uses Windows 10 and usage is good for me.
Conclusion
This laptop is the first-ever premium laptop from Xiaomi in India. And as everyone expects, there are some flaws with the main ones being- lack of webcam, no backlit keyboard, and flawed trackpad.
However, keeping these aside, the Mi NoteBook 14 Horizon Edition brings power-packed performance to the sunshine and thin laptops segment.
For starters, it packs powerful hardware within the sort of 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor which matches up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor.
If Xiaomi offers the ability to upgrade RAM by own, that would be a good thing, but 8 GB is also sufficient for such basic work as multitasking, video editing, and photo editing.
Overall is a good laptop for this price range, I would recommend having NVMe SSD that is way faster than the normal one.
