Review: Xiaomi Mi 3 - Finally, Premium Smartphone At Budget Pricing

Xiaomi Mi 3
Price: Rs 14,000 (Flipkart.com)

The smartphone market is probably the most varied today, when it comes to the sheer number of mobile phones and models by various manufacturers, each trying to up the ante in face of competition. In a budget market such as India, price is considered to be the driving force for sales of any product, and the mobile phone is not an exception. The Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, which had taken China by storm last year with its Xiaomi Mi 3 Android smartphone with high-end specs, registering record sales, has finally turned its attention to one of the most lucrative markets - India. The phone has been finally launched in India at an attractive price of Rs 14,000. Some of the high-end features of the phone includes a Snapdragon quad-core CPU with 2 GB RAM, 5" Full HD IPS screen, and 13 MP camera with Full HD recording. Xiaomi has been generous enough to send across a review unit, therefore, a review was in order. Do the high-end specs really translate into a pleasant smartphone experience? Read on.

Accessories
The Mi 3 is priced in the mid-range segment, at least from the price point of view. Naturally, the accessories were scant.

• USB Charger (100-240V ~ 50/60 Hz 0.2 A AC to 5 V 1000 mA DC)
• Micro-USB data/charging cable
• SIM card tray eject pin
• Manuals and warranty card

Yes, there are no bundled headphones/earphones. You'll have to buy them separately.

The power adapter has flat pin plugs, which will require you to buy an adapter or you can plug it into a power strip.

Features

The Xiaomi Mi 3 may be priced in the mid-range, but the company has managed to incorporate the looks of an expensive phone. It comes in a unibody design with the glass covering the entire front area. Of course, the cover cannot be opened, so the battery is not removable. The body is made of magnesium alloy coated with three layers of graphite film, as per the company. In plain sight, it has an anodised aluminium finish, which gives it a premium look. The phone weighs just 145 grams, which is considerably light. Its dimensions of 144 mm x 73.6 mm don't allow one-handed operations. At just 8.1 mm, this is one of the slimmest smartphones in its price range. The build quality is very good. In fact, it survived a few drops on carpeted flooring without a scratch.

The front is dominated by a 5" IPS display with Full HD pixel dimensions of 1920x1080. This gives it a very high pixel density of 441 PPI, which makes images appear extremely crisp. Being an IPS display, it sports wide viewing angles without loss of colour. The colour reproduction is good in general. The screen is bright enough to be able to comfortably viewed in sunlight. The high pixel density makes it a joy to read on this device because of the noticeable lack of jaggedness of the fonts.

It is interesting to note that the touchscreen has a super-sensitivity setting, which basically means that when it is switched on, it is possible to operate it even with gloves on. Of course, it doesn't matter in India, as this is only of use in cold countries where people need to wear gloves in winter.

There are capacitive buttons at the bottom of the screen. The top has a speaker at the centre, a proximity sensor on the left, and the front camera on the right of the phone. A silver MI logo adorns the far right of the phone at the top. The entire front area is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The SIM tray is present at the top. This requires a SIM eject pin to be opened, similar to most premium phones these days. The tray accepts a mini SIM, as against a micro SIM required by most new phones. A 3.5 mm headphone jack is present, which accepts standard headphones and also handsfree headsets. Two noise cancellation microphones are also present at the top, to filter out unwanted noise while you have a conversation, so that the other party hears only your voice clearly. In practice, I found out that this indeed works very well for mobile phone as well as Skype calls.

The loudspeaker is present at the bottom, along with the micro-USB port. I must mention here that the micro-USB socket is rectangular, without any demarcation about how to orient the plug while inserting. This may result in some confusion as some may try to forcefully insert the plug in the wrong direction, causing physical damage to either the port or the plug. Before I forget, the Mi 3 supports MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) interface via microUSB, so it is possible to hook it up to a HDTV to bring the action to a large screen.

The only other buttons on the unit are the volume and power buttons on the right.

Camera

The Mi 3 comes equipped with dual cameras. The rear camera with is a 13 mp Sony image sensor and has 5 lens elements with a special filter element to reduce infrared light. Image stabilisation is there to reduce the effects of shaky hands. The camera can also snap HDR photos via a built-in mode, although you need to be able to hold it still while it takes a few shots for a split second and combines them internally to produce the HDR photo. Needless to say, the camera can also record Full HD videos. Dual LEDs are present to allow flash photography or videography in the dark.

The front camera has a 2.1 mp image sensor and is also capable of Full HD recording. This is mainly for use in video calling over 3G or in IM applications such as Skype.

The camera performance is quite good even in low light conditions, and definitely better than other smartphones in the price range. The image stabilisation is available only for the rear camera and it does work as it should. The camera app allows you to assign the camera shutter function to the volume buttons, which gives more control over the shot than it is possible via the touch interface shutter button. Of course, there is still no half-press for focus functionality, so you need to use either auto-focus or touch-to-focus. I will be posting the camera sample shots soon.

Technical Features

The Mi 3 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, which includes a 2.3 GHz Krait 400 (8274AB) quad-core CPU. Remember, this is not the same as the inexpensive MediaTek quad-core CPUs found in most Android phones. It is more powerful and is usually found in high-end smartphones. Graphics is handled aptly by the 450 MHz Adreno 330 GPU. Xiaomi has equipped the Mi 3 with a generous 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM to make sure that everything keeps running smoothly. While there is no expandable storage via microSD, there is sufficient amount of internal storage with 16 GB, of which 12.5 GB is actually available for use. This amount of storage is enough for a regular user, unless you dump too many huge movies and HD games onto the phone.

The device runs Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat) with the company's own MIUI interface. The MIUI interface actually makes it easier to use the phone's features and doesn't seem to take away anything from the stock Android interface. Likely due to the powerful processor and ample RAM, the UI feels snappy and fluid without any lag anywhere. There are various nifty features such as the ability to select a system default font.

Some of the other specs include 3G (HSPA+), Wi-Fi with hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, GPS (assisted), GLONASS, NFC, FM Radio, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, compass, barometer, and USB OTG

Additional Features With Screenshots

Swiping down the notification bar reveals a tab called Toggles. This is where there are eleven of the phone features we are used to toggle. This shortcut is great for convenience and saves time.

The Mi 3 allows you to specify notification light colours for default notifications, calls, and messages. You can choose from amongst seven colours as can be seen in the below screenshot.

While there is nothing wrong with the screen colour, it is possible to calibrate the colour to some extent and preview the setting before applying it.

To keep your system running in top notch condition, Xiaomi provides a set of tools to optimise the system performance. These utilities also include a virus scanner, power manager, data usage controller, and a facility to manage blocked phone numbers.

Multimedia Performance

Like any Android device, the Mi 3 supports just about every audio and video format, as long as the proper player is installed, and they are available aplenty in the Google's Play Store. Movie playback is smooth. Just out of curiosity, I tried playing a 4K video and was surprised that the phone is powerful enough to play such a video without even breaking into a sweat.

The audio performance is not bad, although it will depend mostly on the quality of headphones/earphones you plug in.

Mi 3 comes with Dirac technology, which optimises audio quality according to the type of headphones being used. In fact, there are several presets to choose from, depending on the type of headset, altering the way the audio is rendered.

A 7-band equalizer is provided to further control the audio output. There are several presets as well as the ability to create custom settings and save them.

Volume levels can be controlled independently for ringtone and notifications, alarm, voice, music and multimedia, and Bluetooth.

There is an option to configure the buttons of a headset plugged into the phone. You can assign the buttons various functions for volume control as well as music playback.

The loudspeaker is loud and clear as well, in case you don't want to remain shackled to the phone by headphones.

Network Performance

Call quality was found to be excellent. The voice clarity is remarkable and it continues to be so even when the network coverage is weak.

Wi-Fi performance was also found to be superlative to ordinary smartphones. The device remain connected to my home Wi-Fi connection even through several walls. The reason for this is the dual Wi-Fi antenna inside, which is similar to what the Amazon Kindle Fire HD/HDX uses to maintain a high data throughput even when the Wi-Fi signal strength drops due to distance and obstructions.

Gaming Performance and Benchmarks

The Xiaomi Mi 3 is great for gaming. HD games such as GTA San Andreas ran with ease. Probably the only limiting factor to running games with HD graphics is the limited storage capacity of this device, which will not allow you to install too many such games at a time. Mi 3's Immersion vibration technology, which is nothing but haptic feedback, makes gaming all the more fun, leaving you with an experience similar to using a force-feedback joypad, albeit, less forceful.

For those who are interested, here are the scores for the three most intensive and popular benchmarks for Android.

AnTuTu

Quadrant Standard Edition

3DMark - Ice Storm Unlimited

As you might have already noticed, this device is really a beast when it comes to sheer performance.

Battery Life

The 3050 mAh battery lasted for over 2 days without a recharge. This is something hard to find today in smartphones, regardless of platform. This also indicates a very efficient battery management under the hood, considering that the device runs power-hungry components such as the quad-core CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, and a 5" Full HD screen.

My Verdict

Before I started reviewing the Xiaomi Mi 3, I was sceptical about its tall claims. However, during the course of the review, I have become more of a believer. The Mi 3 is not just any "Chinese" mobile phone, but a worthy challenger to high-end smartphones that cost well over twice as much. Xiaomi indeed delivers high-end performance at a mid-range price of Rs 14,000. Keep in mind that this is the same price range as that of the hot-selling Moto G. If brand name is not a deal-breaker for you, there is no other phone that will give you as much bang for buck as the Xiaomi Mi 3 at present. I have no qualms in saying - heartily recommended!

Pros: Excellent specs and performance, Gorgeous screen, Looks good, Good camera, Great battery life, Outstanding pricing.

Cons: No expandable memory option.

Features: 5/5

Performance: 5/5

Build Quality: 5/5

Ease Of Use: 5/5

Value For Money: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5