We have definitely all heard of Xiaomi by now, yes? I remember first writing about the Chinese tech company about 3 years ago, and felt an instinct that their products and accessories were going to do well in the States. At this point in time, Xiaomi is commonly referred to as the Apple of China, not to mention starting to really make a mark in America. Reason being, the products put out by this massive company are very high quality, similar to Apple’s devices. As of late, the latest laptop series is taking a stab at the MacBook, and this is the Xiaomi Air 12, which ships with Windows 10 in Chinese (easy to install the English version or whatever language you speak) and costs less than $600.

The build of the Air 12 is delicious, at least when first looking at it. Featuring a rigid aluminum construction and very few curves, it’s simple as can be, yet stunning, since its boxy aesthetic is pretty stylish. Measuring just 292 x 202 x 12.9mm, this is a smaller measurement than an A4 sheet. It’s weight compliments the device’s very petite physique, at just around 2.38 pounds. When considering the Air 12’s LCD screen design, which lifts up with one finger, it features a 12.5 inch Full HD IPS display with the thinnest of bezels (unfortunately, there has been some concern with the screen’s glossy attribute, which can look unappealing). It does not come with a touchscreen, has an average size trackpad with multi-touch to pinch to zoom, and a good, but not perfect amount of ports. These include 1 USB 3.0 Type-C, 1 USB 3.0 Type-A, a full-sized HDMI out connection, and of course a headphone jack. But, this means no SDcard slot or Thunderbolt 2 connectors, which the Apple device equivalents do possess. Xiaomi couldn’t reproduce everything its Apple counterpart has, but just remember what pricing category we are dealing with, and you shall forgive.

Oh, that’s right, graphics! On that note, Xiaomi pulls off an Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics card, decent enough for a gaming nerd who requires just that much of an edge when thrashing zombies. All in all, we are looking at a basic, yet impressively stylish and smartly-designed laptop. With a keyboard and trackpad that will make you happy enough, perhaps even impress you, not to mention hardware close enough to a MacBook Air to nearly match it, including 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 256GB of SSD, and an Intel Core i5 chip running the show. The most incredible aspect of a great laptop like this has to be its competitive price (as mentioned, the Xiaomi Air 12 runs for about $590). Existing as a comparable piece to the great Apple MacBook, but just half the price, everything in play here has to be worth taking serious consideration.