Latest Review: Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

We have received the brand-new Mi Notebook 14 Horizon edition laptop from Mumbai. We unboxed it, reviewed it, and here is our review. In the review of this Mi laptop, we’ve ensured to give you detailed and unbiased information that you’ll find nowhere else. So, let’s get started.

Technical specs of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop

Technical specs of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop
  • CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-10510U | 10th Gen | 4 Cores
  • GPU: NVIDIA MX350 2GB GDDR5
  • RAM: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Not upgradable
  • Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
  • Display: 14-inch Full HD | IPS & Anti-glare panel | 250 Nits
  • Battery: 48Wh Li-ion | Approx 7.5 hrs on YouTube
  • Wireless connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 5 | Bluetooth 5.0
  • Weight: 1.35 Kg (2.98 lbs)
  • Laptop dimensions: 32.5 x 23.2 x 1.8 cms

Where to buy?

Best laptops under Rs 60,000 in India

Build Quality

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop Build Quality
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop Build Quality

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop has no branding on the display lid, which gives it a more premium and clean look. The whole body is made of anodized aluminum, which gives it much durability.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop Build Quality
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop Build Quality

The smooth silver finish surface doesn’t really attract fingerprints. In addition, over the use, I couldn’t any colour change, which is awesome. Many white body laptops experience some yellowish color on the surface after much use. But, that’s not the case with this machine.

Dimensions and Weight

The dimensions of the Mi Notebook are 32.13 cm in width, 20.68 cm in depth, and 1.7 cm in height. In addition, I measured the weight using property’s weighing scale. It’s as follows.

  • For laptop alone: 1.35 Kg or 3 lbs
  • For a laptop with charger and webcam: 1.73 Kg or 3 lbs

So, it’s lightweight to carry. Generally, laptops under 1.5Kg weight are very easier to carry while traveling. I’ve tested the whole weight to give you an idea about the weight you may need to carry while traveling. And, it’s the most lightweight when compared to other laptops under Rs 60,000 in India.

Display

display of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop
Display of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon has 14-inch FHD display with IPS panel and 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, it’s surrounded by 3mm side bezels. The display gives good viewing angles and minimal light reflection because of the presence of IPS panel.

Here, the need to G-Sync is worthless to consider because this laptop comes with an NVIDIA MX series GPU. It’s not a dedicated gaming laptop but it can fulfill your gaming needs certainly.

In addition, I have measured the colour reproduction of the screen using Spyder 5 PRO. And, below are the results for SRGB, AdobeRGB, NTSC results.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

As you can see in the above chart that the results are below-average that to be required for the content creators like photo and video editors. See in the below chart where this laptop in the comparison of other laptops of nearly similar prices.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

In addition to that, I have also tested the brightness of this laptop.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

So, our review unit has just reached the brightness 250 nits. We generally recommend at the display nits more than 290-300 for easy content visibility in the direct sunlight. Anyway, the result isn’t much bad.

When display nits are compared with other nearly same priced laptops, this one’s display has secured 3rd place, which is good.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Laptop

Furthermore, the display has achieved the contrast ratio of 920:1, which is bit less than we recommend. Our preferred value is 1000:1.

When it comes to display’s durability, I found a little bit of flex there when intentionally moved the screen up and down. But, thanks to the aluminum lid, I found display lid much solid-enough. But, I was surprised and happy to say that this laptop opens with just one finger.

The hinge runs mostly along the base.

The durability of the screen is also contributed the hinge. The hinge runs mostly along the base, which puts extra support to the display and minimizes the screen flex.

Keyboard

The keyboard is also found a bit durable when I pushed it hard down intentionally using my fingers. The island of keyboard is made of metal. Furthermore, it has no WASD highlighted keys like gaming laptops. But, that’s not a matter to worry.

Mi Notebook 14 horizon keyboard has no backlit.

It’s bit awkward for me that the laptop I received has no backlit on the keyboard. The price is Rs 60,000. It’s okay to say that absence of backlit contributes more in energy-savings. But, this is the feature every laptop deserves.

If you are unfamiliar with 10-finger typing, then you may have to face difficulties in accurate typing in night. Asus VivoBook Ultra 15 M513 laptop comes with a backlit keyboard, if you go for it.

Typing on the keyboard of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon

When it comes to typing experience, it wasn’t good for me, to be frank. The stupid scissor-mechanism keyboard gives pretty inconsistent tactile keyboard. Even, my experience has also proved Xiaomi’s claim about 1.3mm consistent travel of keys.

It’s not good for the bloggers and programmers if they mind tactile feedback, else it’s good one go for under Rs 60,000 price in India.

In addition, I found also problem with 2 arrow keys. That arrow keys are not only small in size but also very closely placed, which led to accidental wrong press. And, Page Up and Page Down keys are added as a secondary function, but that’s a kind of new normal for the laptop of 13-14 inch display.

  • Best Wireless Keyboard Mouse combo under Rs 1500 in India

Touchpad

4.5-inch touchpad of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop

The touchpad is 4.5-inch wider. It’s smooth, responsive, and accurate. It has a plastic surface. Furthermore, it also doesn’t support Windows precision drivers. In addition, it clicks down anywhere as it has no separate button for so. That’s good about.

When it comes to flex, I found that Mi has integrated some sort of weak component. Because when pressed, it bend down more than usual. You will see more gap on the edges. For gaming needs, you will need to buy a dedicated wired mouse for that.

RAM

Xiaomi is offering you an 8GB of single channel DDR4 2666MHz RAM.

To be frank, the amount big-enough for smooth multitasking. But, the sad thing is that you can’t upgrade it. That’s bit awkward thing. In addition to that, below I have compared the RAM of other laptops of Rs 60,000.

  • Acer Swift 3 SF314-57: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Dual channel | Upgradable up to 32GB
  • Dell Inspiron 3593: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 16GB
  • Asus VivoBook S14 S403JA: 8GB LPDDR4X | 3733MHz | Dual channel | Not upgradable
  • Lenovo Ideapad S340 81VV008TIN: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Dual channel | Not upgradable
  • Acer Aspire 5 A514-52G: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Dual channel | Expandable to 12GB
  • Lenovo IdeaPad S145: 8GB DDR4 | 2400MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 12GB
  • HP 14s DR1009TU: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Dual channel | Upgradable to 16GB
  • Dell Inspiron 14 3493: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Not upgradable
  • Acer Aspire 3 A315-23: 8GB DDR4 | 2666MHz | Single channel | Upgradable to 12GB

CPU and GPU Performance

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is powered by Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA MX330 graphics. In addition to that, Mi has also provided a 512GB of large SSD storage to let you open and edit heavy faster.

CPU and GPU Benchmarks

To check the performance CPU, I have conducted the Cinebench tests. Cinebench score represents the CPU’s performance.

Cinebench R20 single and multi core scores for Intel Core i7 CPU of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon

As you can see in the above chart, the Cinebench R20 single and multi core scores are 371 and 891 respectively without a use of cooling pad. When the cooling pad used, the multi core score has raised to 893.

So, the use of a cooling pad is a little bit gonna help you out by increasing the multi-core performance. In addition to that, see in the below where this Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is, when compared to other laptops of price nearly Rs 60,000.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Cinebench R20 single core score comparison with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price

As per the above chart of Cinebench R20 single core score comparison, Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is at 2nd last position. That represents a very weak processing power of the laptop despite having an Intel Core i7 CPU.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Cinebench R20 multi core score comparison with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price.

In the above chart, this laptop is at the last position, means, it indicates the worst processing power compared to other laptops of nearly same price range. It happens due to weak internals and inefficient cooling solution of the laptop.

In addition, I have also checked Geekbench 5 benchmark performance.

Geekbench 5 scores for Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop

In a test by Geekbench 5, the Mi laptop has achieved 967 score on single core and 3031 score on multi core. See where it’s when compared with other laptops under Rs 60,000.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Cinebench R20 multi core score comparison with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price

In the comparison of Geekbench 5 single core score, this laptop is at 3rd last position. The score hasn’t even touched 1000. A disappointing result when we look at Intel Core i7 CPU.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon Geekbench 5 multi core score comparison with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price.

Here, again, you can see the Geekbench multi core score is not impressive, which represents the weak internals.

Furthermore, I have also tested it for 3DMark Fire Strike score.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon 3DMark Fire Strike score comparison with other laptops under Rs 60,000 price.

You can see that in 3DMark Fire Strike score comparison, this laptop has ranked 1st position and that’s due to the presence of a dedicated NVIDIA MX350 2GB GPU. 3DMark is used to check the graphical performance of laptop. Asus VivoBook Ultra 15 has secured second position with a score of 3726, despite the same price.

Average CPU and GPU Clock Speeds

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop has a Intel Core i7 comet lake chip that has a base speed of 1.8GHz and can be overclocked to 4.9GHz.

The average CPU and GPU clock speeds were measured by performing the stress test using AIDA64 tool. The average of 3 runs is in the below image.

Average CPU and GPU clock speeds of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop tested using AIDA64 in different stress modes.

You can see that during stress test, CPU and GPU clock speeds are 1823MHz and 1531MHz, respectively. But, with 0.15v CPU undervolting, both’ clock speeds were raised to 2209MHz and 1564MHz, which is pretty impressive. And, when the cooling pad is added, the CPU and GPU clock speeds were further raised to 2311MHz and 1565MHz, respectively, which is very impressive.

But, take a note that CPU undervolting is not for office use, it’s for gaming need. But, for this laptop, it’s pretty effective. And, the purchase of a cooling pad also won’t get wasted. Furthermore, as Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is not a gaming laptop, I don’t have to check it for TDP as it isn’t required here. I would have done it if this was a gaming laptop.

Video Editing performance

In this test, I have exported the 16 minutes and 13 seconds long video in YouTube 4K H.264 preset using Adobe Premier CC. And I have repeated the same test 4 times further to show you the average result.

Video export time testings in Mi laptop.

It took almost 18 minutes and 20 seconds. Let’s compare it with other same price laptops.

Video export time comparison of MI Notebook 14 Horizon with other laptops.

I’m quite impressed by seeing Mi laptop at 1st position in the comparison. Also, it’s worth to mention that this laptop nearly smooth during video editing.

Thermal Performance

I’ve performed the thermal performance test using AIDA64 tool to check whether CPU Undervolting and/or a cooling pad is useful in temperature reduction or not.

Average CPU and GPU temperatures of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon in different testing modes in AIDA64 too.

So, the CPU undervolting is considerably effective in temperature reduction of CPU and GPU. The cooling pad has also reduced but no noticeable effect shown. That’s the only outcome of this test.

Furthermore, in the following chart, I have compared the temperatures of laptops measured during stress test at an auto fan.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon CPU temperature compared with other laptops of Rs 60,000 price.

As per the above chart, this machine is on the last position that shows the highest temperature of the processor during the processor-intensive tasks like video editing, gaming, and like. That directly reflects the poor thermal management when compared to other laptops shown in that chart.

In addition, I have also checked for laptop’s exterior temperature.

At idle, the exterior was at 33 C. During the stress test at an auto fan, the temperature was reached 44 C. At that time, the QWERTY part was found below an average hot. And the bar of the function keys was near to 46 degrees C. And, not much different results were obtained while CPU undervolting.

Noise Emitted by Fans

Noise emitted by Mi laptop's fan during various modes of stress test.

At idle, the fan was completely silent. During the stress test, the noise has raised a little bit. But, when 0.15v CPU undervolted, it has gone crazy (47.4dB). In addition, also find Mi’s position in terms of fan noise emission when compared to laptops of price under Rs 60,000.

The fan noise comparison of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon with other laptops under Rs 60K price.

You can see in the above chart that Acer Swift 3 comes with the most silent fan whereas Dell Inspiron 14 3493 has the most noisy fan when I ran the stress test at auto fan.

Camera and Microphone

A separate camera bundle that comes with Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop.

It’s both good and bad for us that the 720p camera comes as a separate bundle. It has no support for Windows Hello unlock. The good thing is regarding security reasons. And, the bad thing is that the separate bundle is prone to lose easily.

Both camera and microphone are average in quality. I have rated 5 out of 10. Here is the position of Mi Notebook when compared it other laptops of Rs 60,000 price.

Camera quality of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon compared with other laptops of price under Rs 60,000.
Microphone quality of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon compared with other laptops of price under Rs 60,000.

Wow! This laptop has topped the comparison.

Speakers

The down-firing speaker of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop.

The 2 down-firing speakers are placed underneath the laptop near the front corners at both sides. While listening to the YouTube video, I have found the speakers were sounded clear but volume wasn’t enough. In addition to that, they sound bit tiny. Digitech Sound level meter has measured 78.1dB of sound level while watching YouTube.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop's speaker compared with other laptops of same price range.

As you can see, Lenovo IdeaPad S145 has loudest speaker whereas Acer Swift 3 has to improve the loudness. When it comes to our dear Mi laptop, it’s near to the boundary line. But, it still deserves the improvement.

Ports

Ports on the right side of the Mi Notebook 14 Horizon.

On the right side, there are the following ports from left to right.

  • 1 USB Type-C (For data transfer only)
  • 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A
  • 1 HDMI 2.0 output
  • 1 Power input

Here the USB Type-C port is able to transfer the data at 5Gbps. And, it is only used for data transfer.

Comparison of availability and type of USB type-c port of Mi laptop with other laptops.

You can see that there two laptops, Acer Swift 3 SF314-57 and Asus VivoBook S14 S403JA, that they have thunderbolt-3 port.

Ports on the left side of Mi Notebook laptop.
Ports on the left side of laptop.

On the left side of Mi Notebook, there are the following ports from left to right.

  • 1 USB 2.0
  • 1 audio/combo jack

When it comes to back, there’s nothing except air exhausts. The bottom of the laptop has two belts of air intake vents. The bottom-right part is directly above the fan to suck the fresh air to keep the laptop internals cool.

Battery

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon has 48Wh capacity battery.

It has lasted for 105 minutes during the continuous stress test and for 449 minutes while watching YouTube videos at 50% of screen brightness, keyboard backlightings off, and background apps disabled.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon battery life during stress test and YouTube watching.
Mi Notebook 14 Horizon's battery capacity compared with other laptops of price Rs 60,000.

So, our dear Mi laptop is at 3rd when compared with other laptops in battery capacity.

Battery life comparison of Mi Notebook 14 horizon during stress test at an auto fan mode.
Battery life comparison of Mi Notebook 14 Horizon with other laptops while watching YouTube.

Storage

Let me tell you that this Mi Notebook 14 Horizon has a 512GB of PCIe-based SSD storage. I have measured its speed and performance using CrystalDiskMark. CrystalDiskMark is a tool most popular for the measurement of storage’s performance.

Mi Notebook 14 Horizon storage speed test by CrystalDiskMark.
Gaming benchmarks for Mi Notebook 14 Horizon laptop.

You can see that it’s too fast at reading and writing. The reading speed is almost 1843MB/sec and writing speed is almost 872MB/sec.

Gaming Benchmarks

I have played the following games for exactly half an hour and the benchmarks in terms of FPS were measured for the maximum-settings.

  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • Far Cry New Dawn
  • GTA V
  • Fortnite
  • Overwatch
  • Crysis 3
  • CS:GO

However, the gaming benchmarks are not impressive because the NVIDIA MX350 GPU is not dedicated for gaming. But, it will fulfill your gaming needs if you’re not a competitive gamer – speaking from my personal experience.

Final Conclusion

The Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is really an awesome-design laptop that you can use it for office-works. It comes with a metal body but still not as solid as other laptops are. It has a good display but brightness and screen colour reproduction sucks a little bit. Although, not problematic one. When it comes to typing experience, it’s not good. But, the touchpad is pretty awesome except in sturdy body. Despite having an Intel Core i7 CPU, several benchmark tools have shown disappointing results, which is because of some sort of inefficient thermal management and other internals. The battery is good in capacity and life. The 720p camera comes as separate bundle which offers both pros and cons, but good, not problematic. The 512GB of SSD storage is also quite fast. Despite not dedicated gaming machine, this Mi Notebook 14 Horizon is capable-enough to entertain you by its smooth beginner-friendly gaming performance. Overall, a good choice for office-level jobs and students to get the things done.

Also read: Latest Review MSI Modern 14 B4MW Laptop

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