Xiaomi Air 12 Summary
Introduction
My purchase of Xiaomi Air 12 laptop from Gearbest arrived recently. Have been checking out this laptop lately.
Started with backing up the licence details, drivers. Converted the Windows to English version. Took a full drive backup image in case I need to use the Windows in future. Then wiped the hard drive and installed Fedora 26 Workstation.
So far, it has been a very smooth Fedora experience on this laptop.
Pros and Cons at a glance
Pros
- Good battery life
- Good Linux experience so far
Cons
- It appears the Air12 (only negotiates 20V/2A Power Delivery profile](https://www.igeekphone.com/xiaomi-mi-notebook-air-adapter-charging-and-compatibility-review/)
Specifications
Lifted from Gearbest item description
- Xiaomi Air 12 Laptop - M3-7Y30 4GB + 128GB SILVER
- 12.5 inch Windows 10 Home Chinese Version 7th Gen Intel Core m3-7Y30 Processor
Xiaomi Air 12 Notebook Xiaomi Air 12 is equipped with a 12.5 inch FHD IPS display, brings your photos and videos to life. Dual band 2.4GHz / 5.0GHz WiFi supported, ensures you high-speed surfing. Designed with HDMI output, allows you to connect it to monitors, TV or projectors, perfect for creating your personal home theater.
Microsoft Windows 10 Home Chinese Version Windows 10 brings back the popular Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you mark up Web pages on your screen
7th Generation Intel Core m3-7Y30 Processor Dual Core 1.0GHz, up to 2.6GHz Ultra-low-voltage platform and dual-core processing provide maximum high-efficiency power to go. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it
12.5 inch FHD IPS Screen with 1920 x 1080 Resolution Offering good experience for watching videos and browsing the Web. The 1920 x 1080 resolution screen boasts impressive high-quality images
4GB DDR3 RAM for Advanced Multitasking Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games, photos and video-editing applications, as well as multiple programs and browser tabs all at once
128GB SSD Storage Capacity Provides room to store pictures, videos, music and more
Camera for Photos and Face-to-face Chat 1.0MP front camera lets you capture memorable moments or chats with friends
Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5.0GHz WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless Internet, allows you to connect to the Web while within range of an available wireless network
Bluetooth 4.1 Interface Syncs with Compatible Devices Wirelessly transfer photos, music and other media between the computer and your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or MP3 player, or connect Bluetooth wireless accessories
HDMI Output Expands Your Viewing Options You can connect the device to an HDTV or high-definition monitor to set up two screens side by side or just enlarge pictures
Fedora 26 Workstation
Xiaomi Air 12 Hardware
Hardware Information reported by Fedora
lspci output
[jetstream@Air12 ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 590c (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 591e (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 02)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 78)
lsusb output
[jetstream@Air12 ~]$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b59a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Seagate Backup Plus Hub 6TB
Introduction
I purchased this from Amazon over Black Friday. I was keen to check the details of the hard disk inside this case.
smartctl needed the -d option to be provided. Google led me to smartmontools page where I found -d sat being reported to work for Seagate USB drives. I tried the same.
[jetstream@dellgx620 ~]$ sudo smartctl -a -d sat /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-4.13.13-200.fc26.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: ST6000DM003-2CY186
Serial Number: XXXXXXXX
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0aa1257da
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity: 6,001,175,126,016 bytes [6.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5425 rpm
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Dec 2 21:51:34 2017 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 737) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x30a5) SCT Status supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 081 064 006 Pre-fail Always - 122962415
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 092 092 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 12
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 067 060 045 Pre-fail Always - 5123291
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 100 (158 143 0)
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 11
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 073 051 040 Old_age Always - 27 (Min/Max 19/27)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 11
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 15
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 027 049 000 Old_age Always - 27 (0 18 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 081 064 000 Old_age Always - 122962415
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 36 (72 220 0)
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 11721965094
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 1176845705
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
Next, I checked what power mode it is staying in. The following command will not wake up the drive during the interrogation, if it was sleeping.
[jetstream@dellgx620 ~]$ sudo smartctl -d sat -i -n standby /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-4.13.13-200.fc26.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: ST6000DM003-2CY186
Serial Number: XXXXXXXX
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0aa1257da
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity: 6,001,175,126,016 bytes [6.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5425 rpm
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sun Dec 3 04:22:31 2017 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Power mode was: IDLE_A
Ulefone Mix
Introduction
These are my notes on using the Ulefone Mix
Pre-ordered this Ulefone Mix from Gearbest on 12-Oct-17. Gearbest started shipping these out from 23-Oct-17. Received it on 20-Nov-17 through Yodel.
PROS
- Most noticeable amongst the positives is the screen quality. It is bright and sharp. See screenshots below.
- Build quality is good
- Stock Android OS ensures updates are received early.
- Battery lasts 2 days on low use / idle
- Fingerprint sensor is snappy.
- Very nice that this comes with a screen protector and case.
- Very good value for money.
CONS
- WiFi reception seems a bit buggy .. keeps dropping network connection from time to time.
Don’t experience this with other devices on my network (I have a TP-Link Tl Wdr3600 Dual Band N600 Router).
Screenshots
TODO - more screenshots
TeckNet BX501 Bluetooth Keyboard (Fedora)
Introduction
These are my notes on using the TecNnet BX501 Bluetooth Keyboard
Appearance
- Key spacing is good
- Key travel is quite comfortable for typing over long periods
Linux
dmesg output on a Fedora system
[ 5709.520848] input: TeckNet BX501 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/bluetooth/hci0/hci0:256/0005:04E8:7021.0008/input/input28
[ 5709.521235] hid-generic 0005:04E8:7021.0008: input,hidraw4: BLUETOOTH HID v1.1b Keyboard [TeckNet BX501] on 48:51:b7:82:2f:b6
