We know Redmi for being Xiaomi's budget brand for phones. With the pandemic having given the laptop and tablet market a shot in the arm, Xiaomi decided to go at the same formula with notebooks. They recently launched the Redmibook 15 Pro and Redmibook 15 Learning Edition, of which we checked out the first.
The Redmibook 15 Pro is very modest looking. It's in a grey-black shade that makes it look more metallic than it is. An equally modest-looking Redmi logo sits on the cover, looking quite elegant. Because it's so minimalistic, the notebook seems even larger and more spacious. Its clean straight lines and flatness add to that business-like no-nonsense look. It's not particularly light, incidentally though it's 1.8 kgs which isn't that much. But I would still say it's a better fit for someone who stays sitting in one place rather than a user who's always zipping about.
Room all around: On the inside, there's an ample spacious palm rest and roomy trackpad. The keyboard is not bad. It's comfortable enough with keys that could have had a little more travel but work perfectly fine. It isn't backlit, however, and there isn't a num pad.
The 15.6-inch (1920 × 1080 pixels) FHD display, as it turns out, is the least likeable aspect of this notebook. It just seems to be a bit washed out, not appearing either bright or vivid enough. The viewing angles, too, aren't that good. It's usable, though, and even has pretty good sound to make up for the screen. But the pity is that the poor contrasts and un-punchy colours make it unexciting to watch movies if that's something you'd like to do. It does have a 720p webcam.
This machine works on a 3.4GHz i5-11300H processor (4.4GHz Max) with Intel Iris X-E Graphics. That's accompanied by 8GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM, and 512GB NVMe SSDh. Performance is pretty good, with the notebook being responsive and fast for everyday tasks. By way of ports, we have the 3.5mm headphone jack, and an SD card reader, a USB 2.0 port, a LAN port, and a Kensington lock. You also get a 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, an HDMI, and a charging slot. The machine has a 46WHr battery with a 65W power adapter. Battery life is around 10 hours and does quite well.
The Redmibook runs Windows 10 Home Edition and will upgrade to Windows 11. It also has MS Office.
Surprisingly, the Redmibook isn't as much of a budget notebook as one might have expected. It costs ₹49,999, and there's only athe single variant. It seems a bit expensive given the compromises with the display.