Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 4G release date, specs, price news: Sleek laptop with SIM connectivity announced in China

Georgia Gana Monday, December 26, 2016

A promotional image for the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 4G. | Xiaomi

Xiaomi has recently unveiled the Mi Notebook Air 4G. Unlike the laptops released by the Chinese electronics company earlier this year, the new models come with built-in 4G LTE connectivity.

Xiaomi partnered with China Mobile, one of the largest telecom service providers in China, so that each purchase of the Mi Notebook Air 4G will come bundled with a 4 GB per month data plan which is good for one year. As such, users won't need to be forced to stay indoors or incur additional expenses with a portable Wi-Fi router. The new laptop will be able to access the internet anytime and anywhere.

Xiaomi's new laptop retains the sleek design and all-metal chassis of the Mi Notebook Air. Like its predecessors, the Mi Notebook Air 4G will also be available in two variants.

The 12.5-inch Mi Notebook Air 4G is powered by an Intel Core M3 processor. It has 4 GB of random access memory and 128 GB of Solid State Drive (SSD), which can be expanded via a secondary SSD slot. It is 12.9 mm thick and weighs 2.36 pounds. The 37 Wh battery provides up to 11.5 hours of use on a single charge.

Meanwhile, the 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air 4G is powered by Intel's sixth-generation Core i7 processor and the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics processing unit (GPU) with 1 GB of dedicated RAM. There is also 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD with a second slot for expanded memory. It is 14.8 mm thick and weighs 2.82 pounds. The laptop gains 9.5 hours of use given the 40 Wh battery.

In terms of connectivity, audio and ports, both laptops come with dual speakers, Dolby Digital surround sound support, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB Type-C port, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and fast charging.

The laptops also come with the Chinese version of the Windows 10 operating system.

The new Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 4G laptops will be released in China on January 2017. The 12.5-inch model is priced at CNY 4,699 which is about $676 and the 13.3-inch model is available for CNY 6,999 or roughly $1,007.