There’s no end to splurging on laptops but price-to-performance ratio is key while choosing one exclusively for office work or college. Things to watch out for include excellent keyboard for taking notes, a reliable processor and enough ports. Redmi’s first laptop series — RedmiBook 15 — has two models — one is Pro and the other is the e-Learning Edition. We had the RedmiBook 15 Pro for review.
A dependable performer
Being a budget device, there will be compromises, so it’s important to decide on the activities this laptop is expected to undertake. And the target that Redmi achieves to hit involves performance. It’s easy to recommend a Chromebook when coursework is limited to essay writing but Redmi has as target college students and office-goers who need something more than that.
Packed with 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11300H (4.4GHz max clock) and integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, you are ensured that video lectures, taking notes, spreadsheets, basic video, photo and audio editing are taken care of. Combine this with RedmiBook 15 Pro’s 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD and 8GB DDR4 RAM, there were zero stutters. For office work, we had the the entire Microsoft Office suite at work, Slack, an insane number of tabs were kept open in the Chrome browser, some activities on Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro. Don’t expect to render 4K videos with many effects on this machine or play games on ultra-high graphics mode. Redmi clearly didn’t design the laptop for such usage.
The SSD storage allows the laptop boot up in well below 30 seconds and it’s among the fastest devices you will come across below 50K. Also, the thermal is good enough for basic activities. If you undertake some video editing or a lot of multitasking, the machine does tend to heat up a bit but it’s nothing to worry about.
Doing justice to the performance is the keyboard, which should last all thumps and thuds for a few years. It’s a biggish keyboard with keys well-spaced out while the trackpad is quite big. Having 1.5mm key travel helps a lot with typing notes for long hours. And there is very little flex in the keyboard. What’s amiss is backlighting which would have been helpful while working in low-light conditions. Overall, a dependable performer.
Screen action
At 1.8kg, RedmiBook 15 Pro is not light but it fits inside most bags. What you get is a polycarbonate body with a brushed metallic finish, offering it a premium look and feel. Plus, there are enough ports to keep you happy (you can check out the list in the info box). On top is a 720p HD camera, something that’s very important in 2021 and the audio quality is passable.
Coming to the screen, you get a 15.6-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) display. It’s big and should help you in a happy zone as long as you restrict to taking notes or videoconferencing. The compromise Redmi has made is on the display. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting a top-of-the-line fully calibrated panel because the laptop is not meant for video or photo editing. At the same time, the display could have been brighter while colour accuracy can be iffy.
Should you buy it?
There is also the option to buy Mi Notebook 14 Horizon which has a better GPU but it’s slightly costlier. Coming back to the RedmiBook, it is a charged up device to take care of all office- and college-related activities. It’s easy to get seven-odd hours of screen time from the laptop, which is more than enough for most of us. It can truly be a good midnight friend helping you finish a presentation or writing essays. Without breaking the bank, RedmiBook 15 Pro indeed gets all college and office work done.
At a glance
The keyboard on the RedmiBook 15 Pro is comfortable for typing
Device: RedmiBook 15 Pro
Price: Rs 49,999 (8GB+512GB PCIe NVMe SSD)
Ports: One USB 2.0, two USB 3.2 Gen 1, one HDMI 1.4, RJ45 (LAN port), 3.5mm audio jack, Kensington Lock and SD Card Reader
High notes
• Excellent performance
• Big keyboard for comfortable typing
• Good boot up speed
Muffled notes
• Display could have been brighter
• No keyboard backlighting
