You may not use it often but a webcam on a laptop is a feature often taken for granted, like a touchpad or color display. So we were flabbergasted that Xiaomi decided to omit a webcam in its latest laptop, the Redmibook EE (Enhance Edition). That’s the only Windows laptop launched in the past decade we know of that didn’t have a webcam.
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Otherwise, the new device is very tempting; it has a classy aluminum alloy chassis - similar to the sublime Xiaomi Mi Laptop Air - with a 10th generation Intel Core i5 CPU, a dedicated Geforce MX250 GPU and a price tag that is eminently palatable for its base configuration of 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.
Cracking device with few flaws
We also like the ability to unlock your laptop automatically using one of the company's wearables (like the Xiaomi Mi Band 4).
A few things to note though: Redmibook is not available for sale in the UK or US; you will need to use Chinese retailers like Geekbuying ($737) or Gearbest ($780) to import it (and run the risk of getting stung by import fees). Just bear in mind that Black Friday 2019 is just round the corner and that prices are likely to drop by then.
Then there’s the fact that it runs on a Chinese version of Windows 10, doesn’t come with a card reader and still sports two USB 2.0 ports with no USB Type-C connector. Minor issues really compared to the big letdown of not having a webcam for video conferencing and biometric logins.
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