Xiaomi just rode Apple’s coattails to the biggest startup valuation in world, but it appears the Chinese smartphone maker is ready to take its copying to new heights by getting into the laptop game with, you guessed it, a MacBook Air knockoff.
Images of an alleged Xiaomi laptop leaked to Gizmochina today reveal the company is working on a new device that looks exactly like the MacBook Air, minus the Apple logo on the back. Xiaomi swapped the ‘MacBook Air’ branding with a bright orange MI logo below the display. The only other thing distinguishing it from the MacBook Air will be its pricetag.
Xiaomi supposedly plans to sell its MacBook Air ripoff for about $481. It will be powered by an Intel i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and feature a 15-inch 1080p display running a customized version of Linux.
We can’t verify if the photos are legitimate, but if this is the real Mi3 it will probably be a best seller in China, but we doubt it will make any waves in the U.S.
Source: Gizmochina
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
28 responses to “Leaked Xiaomi laptop looks eerily similar to MacBook Air”
That is borderline scary
Mibook Air….?
From Mapple?
Ha! That is funny.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and eliminates a lot of unnecessary R&D. Wall Street loves these types of companies. Low price and high volume. Xiaomi will be declared as Wall Street’s next Apple killer because they have this firm belief that cheap junk will take the place of high-quality products for the masses. An interesting but rather ridiculous theory.
LOL! WOW!
That image looks so damn fake for some reason. It’s literally if someone took the xiaomi logo and freaking taped it onto a Macbook air
If China had a legitimate legal system for the protection of design patents, Xiaomi would be bankrupt now. But of course, they don’t … and the company doesn’t dare sell its plastic knock-off crap in countries where there is such a system in place.
I can’t speak for Xiaomi computer devices, but their Piston 2 headphones and power banks are very high quality; the latter having an aluminum alloy body, compliments my Apple devices quite well. Both are well regarded and have excellent reviews.
Because it copied others
.. Except for the fact that the Piston 2 headphones and power banks are both original designs.
yup probably except those two
If USA had a legitimate patent system, design patents would not exist. Design patents are a perversion of the patent system. Patents were created to describe innovative, non obvious inventions with a technical advantage, with enough detail to be reproduced by others (that’s the only reason to give a privilege to the patent holder). As cosmetic or external design is obvious, non innovative and without technical advantage should not be patentable. Apple design patents are a joke, they have design patents for designs used previously by other companies.
Too thin and overpriced. Just like a MacBook Air.
Obvious troll is obvious.
I’m Chinese. And I know Xiaomi is bullshit. Like a cheap rubbish.
Can’t Apple sue Intel for selling those chips to a blatant copier?
To be fair, they could just as easily be ripping off Samsung. /s
Looks like this one:
http://www.kakatech.com/i5-14inch-laptop-k18/
Spec wise seems like Apple might want to copy them.
Looks more like the Intel Ultrabook reference hardware… from 2012 – which is what the macbook air is based on – it being an Intel ultrabook too #clickbait
You got that backwards. The Ultrabook standards were announced by Intel AFTER the MacBook Air had already been on the market for 4 years. Which means the Ultrabook was actually based on the MBA, not the other way around.
AAAAnnnnd… the MBA didn’t look like this until the intel reference design came along. But you knew that, right? ;-)
Still wrong. Even the current MBA design has been around since the 2010 model, a whole 2 years before Intel’s reference. The only difference with the original model was the flip-down connector pocket. Apple started the Ultrabook craze.
ill buy one.
oh…those photos were from 2014 July… and we got more photos, check it out:
http://www.iloveapps.hk/2014/07/16/xiaomi-notebook-looks-like-macbook-clone/
How ugly is the orange logo right in front staring at you!
This is fake, don’t bother about this