Comparison Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro 15.6 [i5 8/256GB/MX150] vs Dell Inspiron 15 7577 [7577-5440]

— Glossy. A glossy surface improves the overall picture quality: other things being equal, the picture on such a screen looks brighter and more colorful than on a matte one. On the other hand, pollution is very noticeable on such a surface, and in bright external lighting, a lot of glare appears on it, which can greatly interfere with viewing. Therefore, instead of the classic gloss, laptops are increasingly using an anti-reflective version of such a coating (see below). Nevertheless, this option still does not lose popularity: it is somewhat cheaper than the “anti-glare”, and in soft, relatively dim lighting, it can even provide a more pleasing image to the eye.

— Matte. Matte finish is inexpensive and does not form glare even from fairly bright lighting. On the other hand, the picture on such a screen is noticeably dimmer than on a similar glossy display. However, this moment can be compensated by various design solutions (primarily a good margin of brightness); so this option can be found in all categories of modern laptops — from low-cost models for working with documents to top gaming configurations.

— Glossy (anti-glare). A variation on the glossy finish described above, designed to reduce glare from external light sources. Such screens really glare noticeably less than traditional glossy ones (or even do not give glare at all); at the same time, in...terms of image quality, they are at least superior to matte ones. So it is this type of coating that is most popular nowadays.

The maximum brightness that a laptop screen can provide.

The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the laptop screen should be, otherwise the image on it may be difficult to read. And vice versa: in dim ambient light, high brightness is unnecessary — it greatly burdens the eyes (however, in this case, modern laptops provide brightness control). Thus, the higher this indicator, the more versatile the screen is, the wider the range of conditions in which it can be effectively used. The downside of these benefits is an increase in price and energy consumption.

As for specific values, many modern laptops have a brightness of 250 – 300 cd / m2 and even lower. This is quite enough for working under artificial lighting of medium intensity, but in bright natural light, visibility may already be a problem. For use in sunny weather (especially outdoors), it is desirable to have a brightness margin of at least 300 – 350 cd / m2. And in the most advanced models, this parameter can be 350 – 400 cd / m2 and even more.

The contrast of the screen installed in the laptop.

Contrast is the largest difference in brightness between the lightest white and darkest black that can be achieved on a single screen. It is written as a fraction, for example, 560:1; while the larger the first number, the higher the contrast, the more advanced the screen is and the better the image quality can be achieved on it. This is especially noticeable with large differences in brightness within a single frame: with low contrast, individual details located in the darkest or brightest parts of the picture may be lost, increasing the contrast allows you to eliminate this phenomenon to a certain extent. The flip side of these benefits is an increase in cost.

Separately, we emphasize that in this case only static contrast is indicated — the difference provided within one frame in normal operation, at constant brightness and without the use of special technologies. For advertising purposes, some manufacturers may also provide data on the so-called dynamic contrast — it can be measured in very impressive numbers (seven-digit or more). However, you should focus primarily on static contrast — this is the basic characteristic of any display.

As for specific values, even in the most advanced screens, this indicator does not exceed 2000: 1. But in general, modern laptops have a rather low contrast ratio — it is assumed that for tasks that require more advanced image characteristics, it is more...reasonable to use an external screen (monitor or TV).

The colour gamut of the laptop matrix according to the Rec.709 colour model or according to sRGB.

Colour gamut describes the range of colours that can be displayed on the screen. It is indicated as a percentage, but not relative to the entire variety of visible colours, but relative to the conditional colour space (colour model). This is due to the fact that no modern screen is able to display all the colours visible to humans. However, the larger the colour gamut, the wider the screen's capabilities, the better its colour reproduction.

Specifically, sRGB and Rec.709 are the most popular of today's colour models; they have the same range and differ only in the scope (sRGB is used in computers, Rec. 709 is used in HDTV). Therefore, the closer the colour gamut is to 100%, the more accurately the colours on the screen will match the colours that were originally intended by the creator of the film, game, etc. At the same time, note that such accuracy is not particularly needed in everyday use — it critical only for professional work with colour; and even in such cases, it is more convenient to buy a separate monitor with a wide colour gamut for a laptop, rather than looking for a laptop with a high-quality (and, accordingly, expensive) matrix.

The colour gamut of the laptop matrix according to the Adobe RGB colour model.

Colour gamut describes the range of colours that can be displayed on the screen. It is indicated as a percentage, but not relative to the entire variety of visible colours, but relative to the conditional colour space (colour model). This is due to the fact that no modern screen is able to display all the colours visible to humans. However, the larger the colour gamut, the wider the screen's capabilities, the better its colour reproduction.

The Adobe RGB colour model was originally developed for print applications; the range of colours covered by it corresponds to the capabilities of professional printing equipment. Therefore, theoretically, the extensive coverage of this model will be useful to those involved in the design and layout of high-end printed products. However most laptop screens have very limited Adobe RGB values, rarely exceeding 74%; however, you can also find high-end models where this figure approaches 100%. Of course, the cost of such laptops will also be appropriate; therefore, it makes sense to pay attention to them, first of all, when the ability to work with colour “on the go” is of key importance. If this is to be done in one place, it may be more justified to buy a separate monitor with a wide colour gamut (especially since a monitor with such characteristics is easier to find than a laptop).

The presence of Gorilla Glass in the design of the laptop display, also in this paragraph, a specific version of such material may be specified.

Under the Gorilla Glass brand, a special tempered glass is produced, which, with a small thickness, has excellent characteristics of strength, transparency and scratch resistance. In general, this coating is more advanced than more traditional materials used in laptops (such as matte or glossy plastics), but it also costs more; therefore, it is found mainly in fairly expensive models with high-end displays, including touch ones.

As for the different versions of such a coating, they differ both in protective properties and in a number of other characteristics. Here are the main options for today:

— Gorilla Glass v3. The oldest current version was released in 2013. Nevertheless, even such a coating is noticeably superior to traditional glass (not to mention plastic) in terms of transparency and scratch resistance.

— Gorilla Glass NBT. The same age as the v3 version described above, released back in 2013. The main feature is that the NBT coating was originally developed specifically for laptops with touch screens (whereas v3 was created mainly with an eye on smartphones). The manufacturer claims, among other things, 8 to 10 times greater scratch resistance than ordinary glass (including retention of resistance to scratches and reduced visibility of such dam...age), as well as impact resistance and low sensitivity to fingerprints. However, no data on the fundamental differences between such glass and ordinary v3.

— Gorilla Glass v4. Version released in 2014. A key feature was that the development of this coating focused on impact resistance (whereas previous generations focused mainly on scratch resistance). As a result, the glass turned out to be twice as strong as in version 3, despite the fact that its thickness was only 0.4 mm.

— Gorilla Glass v5. Gorilla improvement released in 2016 to further increase impact resistance. According to the developers, the glass of the v5 version is 1.8 times stronger than its predecessor, remaining intact in 80% of 1.6m face-down drops onto a rough surface.

— Gorilla Glass v6. Version introduced in 2018. For this coating, a 2-fold increase in strength compared to its predecessors is claimed, as well as the ability to endure multiple drops on a hard surface (during testing, v6 glass successfully endured 15 drops from a height of 1 m).

— Gorilla Glass v7. Corning Gorilla Glass v7 protects your laptop screen from bumps, drops and scratches. This generation promises an increase in drop resistance by about 150%, and scratch resistance by as much as 200%.

— Gorilla Glass DX. A version originally created for smartwatches and other compact gadgets; among laptops it is extremely rare — in separate models of the "2 in 1" type. It was introduced in 2018 along with Gorilla Glass v6. Of the key improvements in this version, in particular, increased anti-reflective properties and an increase in the contrast level of the visible image by 50% are announced; the latter, among other things, allows you to reduce the actual brightness and, accordingly, the power consumption of screens without compromising image quality.

Each series combines chips that are similar in general level, purpose, and often also in individual specific features. Moreover, most series include processors of several generations at once, which can differ significantly in actual characteristics. It is worth noting that until recently laptops were equipped almost exclusively with processors from AMD or Intel - until in 2020 Apple introduced its own chip Apple M1 (with updated versions Apple M1 Pro and Apple M1 Max), Apple M2 (2022) with powerful chips M2 Pro, M2 Max and Apple M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max (2023). At the moment, the following series are mainly relevant in laptops:

— AMD Ryzen 3. The most inexpensive series of AMD chips in the Ryzen family (Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9) using the Zen microarchitecture. In terms of the general design, Ryzen 3 is similar to its older brothers, but half of the computing cores are deactivated. However, it is quite advanced and is found even in ultrabooks.
...> — Ryzen 5. The second series based on Zen architecture is a more affordable alternative to Ryzen 7 chips. Ryzen 5 chips have somewhat more limited performance characteristics (in particular, a lower clock frequency and, in some models, L3 cache size). Otherwise, they are completely similar to the “sevens” and are also positioned as high-performance chips for gaming and workstations. See "Ryzen 7" below for more details.

- Ryzen 7. The first series of processors from AMD, built on the Zen microarchitecture. It was introduced in March 2017. In general, Ryzen chips (of all series) are promoted as high-end solutions for gamers, developers, graphic designers and video editors. One of the main differences between Zen and previous microarchitectures was the use of simultaneous multithreading, due to which the number of operations per clock was significantly increased at the same clock frequency. In addition, each core received its own floating-point calculation unit, the speed of the first level cache increased, and the L3 cache capacity in Ryzen 7 chips is 16 MB as standard.

— Atom. Processors specifically designed by Intel for mobile devices (including smartphones). They are mainly used in ultra-compact laptops.

— Core M. Processors designed for portable equipment (in particular, ultra-compact laptops) and characterized by extremely low heat generation, allowing the use of passive cooling systems. They were introduced in 2014 as the first serial chips based on the 14 nm process technology.

— Celeron. The most budget series in the modern line of desktop processors from Intel. However, the latest generations come with integrated graphics.

— Pentium. Budget desktop processors from Intel, slightly superior in performance to Celeron, but not up to the Core i3. Also carry integrated graphics.

— Processor. The entry-level processor line that precedes the Core i3 family in the modern Intel hierarchy. Such chipsets are found in entry-level laptops designed for everyday household or office use, as well as undemanding games.

- Core i3. A series of entry-level and mid-level processors, the most budget series in the Core ix family; however, it outperforms the Pentium and Celeron series.

— Core i5. A series of mid-range processors, both in general and in the Core ix family. The architecture is dual- or quad-core, they have a third-level cache, and many models are also equipped with a built-in graphics chip.

— Core i7. A series of productive processors; before the advent of i9 was the most advanced in the "Core i" family. Core i7 chips have at least 4 cores, large level 3 cache and integrated graphics.

— Core i9. Top-level processors released in 2017; the most powerful line of consumer-grade laptop processors at the time of its introduction, displacing Core i7 chips from this position. They have from 6 cores and a volume cache of level 3.

— Apple. A series of processors from Apple, which debuted in November 2020 along with the release of the next generations of MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. In the initial configurations, they are equipped with 8 cores - 4 productive and 4 economical; the latter, according to the creators, consume 10 times less energy than the former. This, combined with the 5 nm process technology, has made it possible to achieve very high energy efficiency and at the same time performance. It is also worth noting that the processors of this series are made according to the system-on-chip scheme: a single module combines a CPU, a graphics adapter, RAM (in the first models - 8 or 16 GB), an NVMe solid-state drive and some other components (in particularly Thunderbolt 4 controllers).

The specific model of the processor installed in the laptop, or rather, the processor index within its series (see above). Knowing the full name of the processor (series and model), you can find detailed information on it (up to practical reviews) and clarify its capabilities.

The number of threads supported by the laptop processor.

A thread is a sequence of instructions executed by a processor. Initially, each processor core was designed for one such sequence, and the number of threads was equal to the number of cores. However, in modern CPUs, multithreading technologies are increasingly being used, which allow loading each core with two instruction sequences at once. Such technologies have different names for different manufacturers, but the principle of their operation is the same: during the inevitable pauses in the execution of one of the threads, the kernel does not idle, but works with a different sequence. Accordingly, the total number of threads in such processors is twice the number of cores; such a scheme of work significantly increases productivity (although, of course, it also affects the cost).