Choosing an entry-level smartphone is as easy as pie these days. With so many well-rounded options in today’s market, making the wrong choice is tougher than it looks. The same can’t be said for entry-level laptops. Not only do most of them come with glaring omissions, but they also lack raw performance.

Xiaomi‘s RedmiBook 15 hopes to make the purchasing decision a little easier. Similar to the company’s lineup of smartphones, this laptop packs the most essential features while maintaining a reasonable price.

The Intel Core i3 model we reviewed comes with a P26,999 (around $495) price tag, which is attractive to cash-strapped students and work-from-home employees. The question is: Does it do enough to stand out among established brands in the crowded notebook market? Let’s find out.

The new #RedmiBook15 delivers quick and powerful performance in a stylish new design.

Available in Xiaomi Stores and Silicon Valley Stores nationwide on July 1, 2022: https://t.co/2o7Mu3cWIS pic.twitter.com/q3oISoKuLi

— Xiaomi Philippines (@Xiaomi_PH) June 27, 2022

Pricing and availability for the Philippine market

Cutting corners

The RedmiBook 15 has an all-plastic body that weighs only 1.8kg. It’s easy to carry around and slip into a backpack, thanks to its slim 19.9mm profile. The matte-textured lid repels fingerprints and shows only subtle Redmi branding followed by “Power your creativity.”

Its overall build is rigid in spite of the plastic frame. There’s minimal flex from the screen and base, and you can open the lid using one hand. Once opened up, you’ll be greeted by more subtle Redmi branding under the display and a large touchpad. Unlike the rest of the body, the touchpad is slippery and more prone to smudges.

It doesn’t have the numpad you’d normally find on laptops of this size, and the power button positioned on the upper-right of the keyboard is easy to accidentally hit while reaching for the Delete or Home button. The upside is wider keys with deep 1.5mm travel. Each stroke feels substantial and the grippy texture helps improve typing accuracy.

The bigger issue is the display. It’s a low-cost 15.6-inch 1080p TN panel, which has poor contrast and viewing angles, as well as inaccurate colors out of the box. TN panels normally deliver higher refresh rates, but this one is limited to the standard 60Hz. In addition, there’s no backlighting on the keyboard, making it difficult to type inside a poorly lit room.

Only the essentials

We were happy with the assortment of ports. To the left, we have the charging port for the 65-watt charger, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and a full-sized HDMI 1.4 port. On the right, there’s a single USB 2.0 port, LAN port, full-sized SD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack, and Kensington Security Slot. It lacks only a USB-C port for more advanced connections.

The 2-watt stereo speakers are found below the base. They provide good quality at lower volumes, but begin to sound muffled once maxed out. We recommend plugging in headphones or an external speaker for a better multimedia experience. If you prefer wireless connectivity, the RedmiBook 15 offers Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-band Wi-Fi 5.

The webcam also has standard specs. It’s placed right above the screen and outputs at 720p. Along with two microphones, the webcam’s video call quality is acceptable. Again, we suggest using a separate camera and microphone if you need better quality for your online meetings.

Under the hood, the SSD is user-replaceable, allowing you to upgrade if the base storage isn’t enough. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered; you’re stuck with 8GB whether you get the Core i3 or i5 model. Considering the RedmiBook 15 is meant for simple office and school work, 8GB should be adequate.

Just enough performance

The Core i3 and Core i5 models are equipped with 256GB and 512GB SSD storage, respectively, on top of the 8GB RAM mentioned earlier. Our Core i3 setup could handle everyday tasks with ease. Typing on a Word document while listening to Spotify or watching Netflix in split screen didn’t cause any stutter. Just don’t expect significant gaming performance since it relies on integrated Intel UHD graphics.

While the Core i3-powered RedmiBook 15 could run light games such as League of Legends and Valorant, it can’t manage graphically demanding titles. On the lowest visual settings, we squeezed out only 19 frames per second on Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s benchmarking tool. You’d need the Core i5’s Iris Xe graphics for marginally higher frame rates. The good news is its Windows 11 Home edition is free of bloatware. However, Redmi might ship units with its own software depending on the region.

We achieved the expected benchmark scores out of the Core i3-1115G4 processor in our review unit. Its single core performance was on par with modern CPUs, while the multi-core score on Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R23 were below average. That’s because this Core i3 is limited to two cores and four threads, which doesn’t match the increasingly standard four cores and eight threads found on the pricier variant’s Core i5-11300H.

The Core i3 version we reviewed uses a SATA interface for its 256GB SSD. It’s not as fast as the 512GB PCIe SSD of the Core i5 variant, as you can tell by the average scores on our CrystalDiskMark test. This affects opening large files and loading heavy apps like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. You can see how much speedier a PCIe SSD is in our Realme Book benchmarks.

The RedmiBook 15 has an advertised battery life of 10 hours on a full charge. On average, we got around four to five hours, depending on how hard we pushed the processor. Our usage included web browsing, watching YouTube videos, and writing this review on Google Docs. We had to exclude gaming sessions because that involved keeping the laptop plugged in the whole time. It takes about 1.5 hours to fully charge the battery during sleep mode.

Final thoughts

The RedmiBook 15 is the laptop equivalent of Redmi’s own entry-level smartphones. It has a no-frills design, all the essential features, and solid performance for the price. For a student attending online classes from home or an office worker needing an affordable yet reliable workhorse, this laptop does just enough for daily tasks.

‘For a student attending online classes from home or an office worker needing an affordable yet reliable workhorse, the RedmiBook 15 does just enough for daily tasks’

Don’t expect the RedmiBook 15 to perform beyond its asking price. The display may be large, but its color accuracy and viewing angles are subpar. Its speakers are also underwhelming, and we wish we could at least have a backlit keyboard or user-upgradeable RAM. The rest of the cons are negligible for casual users.

For a starting price of P26,999 ($495) in the Philippines, the RedmiBook 15 is as basic as it gets for a Windows laptop. If you’re willing to shell out more, the Core i5-equipped version retails for P37,999 ($697). It has faster overall performance, better integrated graphics, and a larger 512GB PCIe SSD in the same 15.6-inch frame.

RedmiBook 15 specs

• 15.6-inch 1080p 16:9 TN display
• Intel Core i3-1115G4 or Core i5-11300H processor
• Intel UHD (Core i3) or Iris Xe (Core i5) graphics
• 8GB DDR4 RAM
• 256GB SATA (Core i3) or 512GB PCIe (Core i5) SSD
• 720p webcam with dual microphones
• 2-watt stereo speakers
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 5
• Bluetooth 5.0
• 1x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x RJ45 LAN, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3.5mm audio port
• 46Wh battery
• 65-watt charger
• Windows 11 Home

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