NEC 2018 LaVie Note Mobile: Fanless 12.5” Core i7 with 12hr Battery, Under 2 Lbs
by Anton Shilov on January 29, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Systems
- Intel
- NEC
- Laptops
- Kaby Lake-Y
- Lavie
- Lavie Note Mobile
This month, NEC has introduced its first 2018 LaVie notebook: The LaVie Note Mobile. The LaVie line is known due to its design philosophy of being lightweight: when we had a chance to hold the LaVie Z back in 2015, it was so light it felt like picking up an empty shell of a system. For 2018, the Lavie Note Mobile is the newest member of the family, being updated from the previous model. This design has a 12.5-inch screen, and since Intel has not released any new ultra-low-voltage CPUs recently, NEC had to retain usage of Kaby Lake-Y SoCs. Despite featuring a larger LCD, the new 2018 Lavie Note Mobile still weighs in the range of two pounds (~900 grams) and is rated to work for nearly 12 hours on one battery charge.
NEC’s Lavie Note Mobile is the company’s most compact laptop lineup. The previous-gen Lavie Note Mobile came with 11.6” IGZO IPS FHD displays, but for the 2018 (NMx50/KA) family NEC decided to update it in three ways: an 12.5” IPS FHD monitor, reduce the system’s thickness to 17 mm, and increase the amount of DRAM on high-end models. The LCD gained nearly an inch of real estate, but lost its IGZO material in the process. Compared with the 2017 model, it is worth noting that the updates cause a couple of minor changes: the 11.7-hour rated battery life is slightly down from 13, and the weight is slightly up by a few grams.
The increase of the display size, reduced thickness and enhanced RAM size will make the new Lavie Note Mobile more competitive against ultra-compact products like Apple’s MacBook, so NEC’s design decisions look rather logical. As for visual aesthetics, NEC also adjusted its Lavie Note Mobile lineup this year: the new notebooks will be available in pink, pearl white and pearl black.
Overall other specifications of the 2018 NEC Lavie Note Mobile range are similar to the 2017 versions: at retail, available systems are based on Intel’s Kaby Lake-Y SoCs: the Core i5-7Y54, the Core m3-7Y30 or the Celeron 3965Y. In order to get the Core i7-7Y75 model, according to PC Watch, the unit has to be bought directly from NEC. The Kaby Lake-Y SoCs feature two cores, Intel’s UHD Graphics 615, and are around 4.5 W rated TDP, which is of course their main feature that enables NEC to use passive cooling. The new Lavie Note Mobile machines are equipped with 4 or 8 GB of dual-channel LPDDR3 memory (up from 4 GB on previous-generation Lavie NM laptops), as well as a Samsung PM871b SATA SSD featuring 64 GB, 128 GB or 256 GB capacity. The higher-end Core i7-based SKU also has a 512 GB PCIe SSD option.
When it comes to connectivity and I/O interfaces, everything looks pretty standard: the NEC Lavie Note Mobile laptops are equipped with a 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 wireless module, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a 3.5-mm TRRS audio connector, a Windows Hello-compatible fingerprint reader, an HDMI output, a webcam located under the display, a built-in microphone, stereo speakers, an SD card reader and so on. All the physical ports are located on the backside of the notebook. Some might consider the lack of a USB Type-C port in 2018 a drawback.
A sharp-eyed reader might also notice a rather small space bar that is barely six centimeters long. While this looks like a problem for people using European languages, this is not a problem for Japanese, who do not have to use spaces often, which is why short spacebars are common on laptops for the Land of the Rising Sun.
The NEC Lavie Note Mobile General Specifications | |||||
NM550/KA | NM350/KA | NM150/KA | |||
Display | 12.5" non-glossy IPS 1920×1080 resolution |
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SoC | Core i5-7Y54 Core i7-7Y75* |
Core m3-7Y30 | Celeron 3965Y | ||
RAM | 8 GB LPDDR3 | 4 GB LPDDR3 | |||
Storage | 256 GB SSD SATA 512 GB SSD PCIe* |
128 GB SSD SATA | 64 GB SSD SATA | ||
Camera | 720p webcam | ||||
Wireless | 802.11ac Wi-Fi 867 Mbps Bluetooth 4.1 |
802.11ac Wi-Fi 433 Mbps Bluetooth 4.1 |
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I/O ports | 2 × USB 3.0 Type-A 1 × HDMI SD card reader |
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Audio | Integrated speakers 1 × TRRS 3.5-mm jack for headset Yamaha AudioEngine software enhancements |
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Dimensions | 289 × 197.5 × 17 mm | ||||
Weight | 904 - 925 grams | ||||
Battery | unknown | ||||
OS | Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Pro* |
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Fingerprint | Yes | ||||
Finish | Pink Black White |
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Price | ¥144,800 ($1330) | ¥124,800 ($1148) | ¥104,800 ($963) | ||
Notes | *Available only directly from NEC |
NEC’s Lavie Note Mobile is already available. The most affordable Celeron-based model costs ¥104,800 ($963), whereas the more advanced Core i5-powered SKU is priced at ¥144,800 ($1330).
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cfenton - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Is it safe to assume these will never see a North American release? It looks terrible, especially the bottom bezel and hinge; the spacebar is too small; and the specs are embarrassing for the price. It make a lot of compromises to be slightly smaller and lighter than similar laptops.nerd1 - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
It's not really lighter than LG gram series - it has 15.6" screen, Kaby rake R CPU, dual ram slots and SSD slots, large battery and weighs around 1000gr.shabby - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Doesn't look like they're aiming for north america at all, usb and sdcard reader in the back? Who does that?!?DanNeely - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
It gets them out of the way of the keyboard. Like most ultrabooks it's too thin to put the ports under the keyboard,and at 12.5" wide vs 13.3" it means you either need to squash the keyboard slightly or move the ports somewhere other than beside the keyboard. You only really have room for 1 full size (USB-A/HDMI) or 2 small (USB-C, audio) ports on a side behind the keyboard, more than that either need to go in front of the keyboard, around the back or on the front edge.mr_tawan - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
Notice that there is an extra key on the bottom row. This is the common layout in Japan. If they want to ship this to anywhere else, they would have to change it to ANSI/ISO layout which has longer space bar (comparing to JIS layout used in Japan).timecop1818 - Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - link
Yeah don't worry, nobody in Japan buys this NEC trash either. Overpriced, completely useless, and I've never seen any business people with NEC gear. It's usually panasonic with those round mousepads. NEC just makes shit to put on retail shelves where they collect dust while everyone walks by them into apple junk section and buys an ancient fagbook air.iwod - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Well if NEC is charging this price I can see why Macbook wont hit the $999 marks this year.peterfares - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Who else is sick of webcams placed below the screen? Just remove it if you're going to put it there, it's useless.Santoval - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Expensive, *way* too expensive for what they offer.ssnitrousoxide - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
Whoever designed and approved the nosecam should be sentenced to 30 years of hard labor in Siberia.