Strong Points
- 1080p webcam
- bright screen
Cons
- moderate performance
- Lack of ports and connectors
- No onboard stylus housing
- No mobile broadband
Xiaomi is best known for its UK mobile phones, but the Chinese company also sells a range of other devices, including smart speakers, home security kits, wearables and earbuds. Its portfolio now includes the Xiaomi Book S 12.4 inch tablet. There are also two optional extras. The £129 Xiaomi Book S 12.4-inch keyboard is now a 2-in-1 detachable and £89.99 Xiaomi smart pen. We had all three components for review, bringing the total price to £818.98.
Powered by Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 SoC and equipped with both keyboard and stylus for review, the Xiaomi Book S 12.4 inch ships with Windows 11 in S mode. It’s not for those looking for a powerful computer, but how does it stack up as a 2-in-1 detachable computer for everyday use?
This is a 3 piece detachable 2-in 1 with separate tablet, keyboard and kickstand. The 12.4-inch tablet weighs 720g and the keyboard weighs 317g.
It’s important to note that the Xiaomi Book S 12.4 runs Windows 11 in S mode, where users are only allowed to download apps from the Microsoft store and the only browser allowed is Microsoft Edge. is. You can switch out of S mode, but you can’t switch back. It remained in S mode during this review in order to maintain continuity with the Xiaomi Book S 12.4 inch shipped to users. However, this meant that some apps (notably the Geekbench 5 benchmark app) were inaccessible.
Xiaomi Book S 12.4: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chipset, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD storage (expandable with MicroSD card). However, mobile broadband is not supported. Image: Sandra Vogel / ZDNET
The tablet’s case feels very sturdy, with a plastic over aluminum-magnesium alloy body, but I recommend using a protective sleeve while traveling, especially since the screen only has Gorilla Glass 3. increase.
The kickstand is firmly magnetically attached to the back of the tablet, and the keyboard is also firmly magnetically connected. I never felt things fall apart in transit. However, as with all devices of this type, it is not possible to work on wraps or non-hard surfaces. There’s also no keyboard lift mechanism, which is a disappointment if you want a higher typing angle.
The optional Xiaomi Book S 12.4-inch keyboard is comfortable to use. The keys are large, have plenty of travel, and have pretty good action for this type of keyboard. They only emit a slightly dull “thunk” during use. The QWERTY and letter keys all have a slight indentation, but the Fn line and other “function-related” keys such as Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, Backspace, Enter, and the bottom line are all flat. Although it looks a little disjointed, it didn’t interfere with my typing, and I was able to work at a speed close to normal touch typing.
The 12.4-inch screen is housed in smaller bezels. A 2,560 x 1,600 panel provides 244ppi at a 16:10 aspect ratio. The 60Hz refresh rate isn’t quite enough, but the 500 nits maximum brightness allows this tablet to be used outdoors. Color gamut support is also good, with Xiaomi claiming his 100% for his DCI-P3.
The touch screen is easy to navigate, and Xiaomi offers an optional smart pen stylus. The stylus attaches to the short left side with a strong magnet and charges wirelessly here. However, the chassis does not have a permanent housing for the stylus, so care must be taken not to misplace it.
All ports and connectors are on the tablet. One short side houses a volume rocker, power switch, 3.5mm headset jack, USB-C port, MicroSD card slot and one of the two speaker grilles. The other grill is on the other short side. A 1080p webcam for video calls is nice to have here, but the rear camera is a 13MP unit. It doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, but you can use Windows Hello face recognition through your webcam in addition to your Windows password or PIN.
Audio output from the speakers is of reasonable quality and volume. The bass isn’t very strong, but it’s perfectly adequate for general listening.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chipset is supported with 8GB of RAM. The tasks I posed (streaming content through a few browser windows and writing to a web app) were handled well, but these are low-level workloads. As mentioned, I didn’t run Geekbench 5 to see how the Xiaomi Book S compares to other tablets. This is because it was not available in the Windows App Store. Looking at the Geekbench browser, the single-core score is around 750 and the multi-core score is around 2900. It’s no surprise that this is in the same ballpark as HP’s Elite Folio, which uses the same chipset.
256GB of internal storage is enough for everyday use, and more can be added via the MicroSD card slot.
Xiaomi estimates up to 13.4 hours of life from the battery and offers a 65W charger.To test this out, we worked 3 hours from a fully charged battery. After 3 hours, it has 61% charge left, suggesting a total battery life of around 7.7 hours.
When the battery was depleted to 28%, it started charging. After 15 minutes the battery he went up to 40%. After another 15 minutes of charging he reached 53% and after 45 minutes it was at 66%. I was a little worried about the 65W charger getting hot.
Conclusion
The Xiaomi Book S 12.4 inch is compact and well made. The keyboard is easy to use (although you can’t angle it up) and the screen offers plenty of brightness. The 1080p webcam is excellent and has a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion. Windows S mode installs instantly, but a one-way trip out of this restricted mode is free (but there’s no way to get back into S mode later).
Downsides include an aging Gorilla Glass 3 screen protection, a chipset that offers moderate performance, a lack of an onboard housing for the stylus, a lack of ports and connectors, and no mobile broadband support. will be
The Xiaomi Book S 12.4 may be suitable for demanding users, but its small screen and basic specs just don’t make it powerful enough as your main work device.
Xiaomi Book S 12.4 type specs
| OS | Windows 11 in S mode |
| processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 |
| sheep | 8GB |
| depository | 256GB |
| screen | 12.35 inch LCD touch screen |
| resolution | WQHD+ (2560×1600, 16:10, 244ppi) |
| refresh rate | 60Hz |
| Luminance | 500 nits |
| color gamut | 100% DCI-P3 |
| viewing angle | 178° |
| screen protection | gorilla glass 3 |
| port | USB-C, 3.5mm audio output |
| slot | TF card slot |
| rear camera | 13MP |
| front camera | 1080p (supports Windows Hello) |
| bluetooth | 5.1 |
| Wifi | Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) |
| Battery life (claimed) | 13.4 hours |
| size | 294mm×197mm×8.95mm |
| weight | 720g |
| in the box | Xiaomi Book S 12.4″, Quick Start Guide |
| accessories | Xiaomi Smart Pen (£89.99), Xiaomi Book S 12-inch keyboard (£129) |
| price | £599.99 (down from £649.99) |
Alternatives to consider
The Xiaomi Book S 12.4-inch looks reasonably priced at £818.98 for tablet, keyboard and stylus compared to the main Windows on Arm competitors. Microsoft’s 13-inch Surface Pro X with SQ1 chipset, 8GB RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, plus a Surface Pro keyboard and Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus for £1,047.99, while HP’s similarly named 13.5-inch Elite Folio will set you back £1,438.60. at the time of writing. If you can look outside the Windows ecosystem, you can get his 10.2-inch Apple iPad with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard for £707.
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