Xiaomi Mi3 Review


Top of the line performance at an unbeatable price.

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August,2014


Xiaomi is the latest Chinese smartphone maker to bring their fagship device to India.The company which is known as the "Apple of China",enters the Indian market with the Xiaomi Mi3,which hopes to stand out from the competition in terms of pricing.The Mi3 boasts specs that would rival any top tier offerings in the market today.Xiaomi has managed to enclose enough tech in the device and still flaunt a price tag of Rs.13,999.
So much that,labelling the Mi3 as another value for money offering would be an understatement.

IS THE Mi3 THE DEVICE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR? 


If you are hoping to get the best smartphone in the mid-budget segment(Rs.10,000-Rs.20,000),then you need not look much farther;the Xiaomi Mi3 is definitely the best choice you can make;at least based on raw specs.
There's much more to be had other than raw specs when you choose to go with a Moto G(Rs.11,999) like updates to the latest version of Android without waiting for months,or if you're in India you might want to consider the fact that Xiaomi do not have a lot of service centers,in case your device happens to fail on you;something which smartphone makers like Sony,Samsung,Micromax and the like have all sorted out.Lastly,another reason that may turn you down is that Flipkart is the only licensed retailer od Xiaomi Phones in India at moment,and with limited stock available you might find it hard to get one,even if you wanted to.

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The HARDWARE


Look & Feel
The Xiaomi looks premium at first glance,but thats just about where it ends.Once you pick it up,the matte finish plastic which Xiaomi refers to as an Alluminium-Magnesium alloy,doesn't feel all that premium.
The device is 8.1mm thick(or rather 8.1mm thin) and sports a rectangular slab design akin to the Xperia flagship devices,although the Mi3 has sharper corners and the choice of materials in the device makes it feel more like devices in its price range,and not a top tier device.On the whole we could say that the design is simply not one of its selling points.



Display
Type            : IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors;Multitouch
Resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Protection : Corning Gorilla Glass 3
The 5"inch Full HD IPS LCD display offers visually crisp images and text as well as acceptable viewing angles.The colour reproduction is vivid,but the display seems mediocre at best in broad daylight,with the screen being a bit too reflective.
The Corning Gorilla Glass 3 has been publicised to offer premium protection from scratches et al.Overall,the Screen of this calibre is more than welcome for a phone priced under 15k.



Under the Hood
CPU          : Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400
GPU          : Adreno 330
RAM        : 2GB
Memory : 16GB (Internal)/No expansion slot
The Xiaomi Mi3,powered by the quad core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3Ghz offers some serious power and with 2GB of RAM,multitasking won't be a bother as you can expect really smooth performance even while running a few apps simultaneously.The Adreno 330 GPU will comfortably take on any HD game,without lagging off.In fact the Adreno 330 is a step ahead of the Adreno 320 GPUs which were part of last year's flagship Phones from Sony and Samsung.
The only feature that disapionts is the lack of a Micro SD expansion slot,considering the fact that the 16GB(12GB available to user) of onboard storage can only hold out for so long.Throw in a few HD games,videos and you would find yourself limited to adding just a part of your music collection,just because the internal memory just isn't sufficient.

Camera
Primary      : 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash
Features     : Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, HDR
Video           : 1080p@30fps, HDR
Secondary : 2 MP, 1080p@30fps
The Xiaomi Mi3 sports a 13 Megapixel shooter which takes spendid photos in well lit conditions with great colour reproduction and detailing albeit with some noise in them.But as soon as the lighting fades,the images appear washed out and sadly poor level of detail.But all these faults can't keep it from being the best smartphone camera at its pricepoint.
The Mi 3 has a custom camera interface,where we could opt for a Simple Mode of operation or the Advanced Mode for the more enthusiastic.The camera offers features like HDR mode for low light photography,filters,panorama,facial recognition and the like.

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The OS


The Xiaomi Mi3 runs the latest version of Android, Kitkat 4.4.2.The Mi3 also uses a heavily customized UI on top of the stock Android,which makes the Mi3 looks as if it runs the iOS and not the Android.
The custom interface which merges the homescreen and the app menu may not be in everyone's liking.But this UI does more than just visually change the feel of stock Android;it allows the user to create a shortcut to an app,menu function
or widgets which can be accessed right from the app drawer or better yet from the homescreen.The notifications shade is also heavily customised,with option to further customise the quick settings area.

Benchmarking using the Antutu gives the Mi3 a score of around 26000 and 15000 in Quadrant,which is infact on par with that of the Samsung Galaxy S4.The Mi3's nearest competition atleast in terms of pricing,
the Moto G scored 11,800 in Antutu and 8,500 in Quadrant.The Mi3 also put up a consistent 28fps in 3DMark Ice Storm Test,while the Moto G could only manage 11fps in the same test.


The Xiaomi Mi3 packs in almost everything it can and a whole lot more for its price.It will certainly appeal to those who have been looking forward to buying a Moto G.But with limited stock coming in,you might find yourself waiting a while to own one.Overall,it certainly impresses for a smartphone priced at just Rs.13,999;and we feel that the Mi3 is certainly the best phone under Rs.15,000 or under Rs.20,000 for that matter.




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