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Xiaomi Book S 12.4″: The first Windows 2-in-1 comes with a Snapdragon chip

Jun 21, 2022

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Xiaomi enters the 2-in-1 notebook market and today launches the Xiaomi Book S 12.4" as the first device in this class to go on sale at prices starting at 699 euros. The combination of tablet and attachable keyboard runs with Windows 11 Home on a Snapdragon chip and thus expands the relatively small arm ecosystem.

ARM processors running Windows are still a niche market. The segment hasn't really picked up speed, despite Qualcomm's best efforts, which is also due to Microsoft's involvement in Windows on Arm. In the Apple ecosystem, Arm is known to have already arrived across the board with the M chips and is only missing with the Mac Pro. With Xiaomi, however, another major provider is now using an ARM processor in the Windows environment.

12.4 inches in 16:10 Format

The Xiaomi Book S 12.4″ As the name suggests, it is a 12.4-inch 2-in-1 notebook when the associated keyboard is docked. The keyboard and a 65-watt power adapter, each with a USB-C and USB-A port, are included for a price starting at 699 euros, a stylus (Xiaomi Smart Pen), which has not yet been priced, is also optional. Xiaomi uses the LC screen in 16:10 format with 2,560 × 1,600 pixels, 60 Hz and up to 500 cd/m² brightness. The panel is said to cover 100 percent DCI-P3 and is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 instead of Gen 3

A passively cooled Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 from Qualcomm works under the hood of the tablet made of aluminum, which Xiaomi provides with 8 GB LPDDR4X and a 256 GB SSD. The choice of processor is interesting in that Qualcomm presented the significantly faster Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 at the end of 2021. So far, however, the newer model has not yet been found in any notebooks, only the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s should be launched later in the year.

Cortex-A76 instead of Cortex-X1

The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 presented in autumn 2020 is a revamped Gen 1, which in turn was presented at the end of 2018 and came onto the market in 2019. The big differentiator to the current Gen 3 are the significantly older CPU cores. The current Gen 3 uses two quartets of Arm Cortex-X1 and Cortex-A78, while the Gen 2 uses four each of Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55. In Gen 2, however, the Cortex-A76 can go up to 3.15 GHz, while the even older Gen 1 ran with a maximum clock of 2.84 GHz.

No Always Connected PC

Features like Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1 are also made available via the Snapdragon processor. LTE or 5G are not for the Xiaomi Book S 12.4″ provided, which is why Xiaomi is not allowed to call itself a provider of an “Always Connected PC” or “ACPC”, as Qualcomm calls the device class. The chip manufacturer advertises its own arm chips in the notebook with their all-round connectivity at practically every presentation, but many manufacturers, presumably for price reasons, do without the LTE/5G modem and thus lead the ACPC product class a little ad absurdum.

12.4 inches in 16:10 Format

Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 instead of Gen 3

Cortex-A76 instead of Cortex-X1

No Always Connected PC

To start as a bundle and 100 euros cheaper