Xiaomi's 2017 Mi Notebook Air will feature ultralight magnesium-lithium chassis

Xiaomi unveiled the Mi Notebook Air in July of last year, and then the 4G-capable model in December. The latter was first rumored to be the successor to the original Mi Notebook Air, but turned out to be nothing but an additional version of it. However, that doesn't mean that the Chinese company isn't actually working on a second-generation Mi Notebook Air. In fact, this should be introduced at some point later this year.

And while no specs for it have been leaked yet, a new report claims that it will go with an ultralight magnesium-lithium chassis. This would allow the laptop to be even lighter than the 1.07kg 12.5-inch Mi Notebook Air from 2016. Just how much so? Well, NEC's 13.3-inch Lavie Z from 2012 used the magnesium-lithium alloy, and that device weighed only 0.88kg. For comparison, note that the 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air tips the scales at 1.28kg.

The chassis for the new Mi Notebook will be exclusively produced by a China-based joint-venture established by Taiwan-based thermal management solution provider TaiSol Electronics and Japan-based ShinSho, while Inventec will act as the ODM for the laptop, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers. The magnesium-lithium alloy lets the chassis be 75% lighter than if aluminium was used, at the same time still being highly sturdy. The only drawback for the magnesium-lithium solution is that it's expensive, so don't expect the next-gen Mi Notebook Air to come cheap.

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