Redmi's first laptop pairs sensible specs with a fiercely competitive price

Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi is probably best known for its affordable line of smartphones that meld solid specs with affordable prices. Now, the brand has applied this philosophy to a new technology sector — laptops. The firm has today announced its new RedmiBook laptop series aimed at the stay-at-home crowd.

The RedmiBook series consists of two models, namely the Pro Edition and the E-Learning Edition, but they don’t differ much in terms of the core design. Visually, the RedmiBook line is nothing exciting, but this isn’t really the point. It’s understated and clean with black keys and a Charcoal Grey matte finish.

Both feature a 15.6-inch FHD display housed in a 1.8 kg polycarbonate body. Overall, the RedmiBook Pro comes in at just under 20mm thick. A 720p webcam is mounted just above the screen, while a large touchpad with Windows Precision Driver support should do wonders for productivity. The keyboard features scissor switches with 1.5mm of travel.

In terms of I/O, the power port sits on the left-hand shoulder of the laptop while two USB 3.2 ports flank an HDMI port. On the right, a Kensington lock slot, a full-sized Gigabit Ethernet port, USB 2.0 port, SD card slot, and 3.5mm combo jack are present. There’s no USB-C port on either version of this machine, so naturally, more versatile USB-PD charging isn’t available either.

Other features shared across the two models include two 2W speakers with DTS support, Wi-Fi 5 support, and Bluetooth 5.0.

RedmiBook core specs

The RedmiBook Pro packs Intel‘s 11th-Gen Tigerlake CPUs, headlined by the quad-core Core i5-11300H with Intel’s Iris Xe GPU. It’s mated to 8GB of 3,200MHz RAM and 512GB NVMe-based storage. A 46WHr battery that’s good for 10 hours powers the laptop with a 65W charger for support. Redmi claims that this charger will push the battery from 0% charge to 50% in around half an hour.

The RedmiBook e-Learning Edition’s main differentiators include the CPU and SSD options. The Intel Core i3-1115G4 is on offer as the alternative silicon. You’ll sacrifice base clock speed and two cores with this option, but the chips’ performance shouldn’t differ too much in general day-to-day use.

E-learning buyers can also choose a 256GB SSD, although it’s SATA-based. Again, you’ll be sacrificing some speed over the NVMe-based 512GB storage.

Both laptops arrive with Windows 10, and Redmi guarantees both are upgradable to Windows 11 when that time arrives. Microsoft Office 2019 also arrives baked in, lending further appeal to those grafting from home.

RedmiBook series price and availability

The RedmiBook Pro is available for Rs 49,999 (~$672), undercutting the likes of Dell’s Inspiron, HP’s 15s, and Lenovo’s Ideapad series in India’s crowded 15-inch laptop market.

The 256GB RedmiBook e-Learning Edition will be priced at Rs 41,999 (~$565) and is arguably the better buy if raw power isn’t what you’re after. To snag the 512GB option, you’ll need Rs 44,999 (~$605).

Both RedmiBooks will be available for slightly less than their list prices with select bank offers. The two models begin shipping on August 6 from Xiaomi’s online and physical stores, and Flipkart.

Despite Redmi’s popularity in the smartphone space and Xiaomi’s previous laptop offerings, the brand will have a point to prove going up against these established computing heavyweights. The RedmiBook seems a solid start.

But what do you think of the RedmiBook? Be sure to let us know in the comments, and vote in our poll above.