Xiaomo of China, which was unknown brand in India few days ago, is now making news for not easily availbale to thousands of its prospective customers. Since its launch last month, Xiaomi has been able to sell 35,000 units of its flagship Xiaomi Mi3 smartphones in few seconds via flipkart in novel method of selling in India known as Flash Sale. That they are able to sell so quickly, speaks volumes about the success of this device in India. Why it is selling in India so fast is due to its powerful hardware features and affordable price of Rs. 13,999. At this price, you do not get branded smartphone from any established company which is doing business for long with India. Despite the fact that Xiaomi is a Chinese brand, but when you hold this phone, it looks like any premium smartphone and will not bother you with Chinese tag attached to it. If you do not care about the Chinese origin and are interested in powerful features then you will definitely consider Mi3. We had a chance to use this samrtphone for few days and our findings are based on our experience :
Hardware
Xiaomi Mi3 is making waves because of its solid hardware features in affordable range and that is the main reason, which is attracting the buyers to grab it. The Mi3 comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chipset under the hood paired with 2GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage. The drawback is tha this phone does not have provision to extend the internal storage. Xiaomi is selling 64GB version of Mi3 in China, but the same is not available in India.
Xiaomi Mi 3 sports a 5-inch full-HD (1,920×1,080 pixels, 441ppi,) IPS LCD display, which is quite impressive. Its display reproduces bright and vivid colors. The quality of text and pictures is crisp and sharp and the viewing angles are also very good.
In optics department, Xiaomi has also done well on Mi3. This smartphone is equipped with a 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and 2-megapixel front facing cameras for selifes. Both the cameras have the capabilites to shoot videos in 1080p resolution. We snapped few images in daylight on the camera of Mi3 and found the quality to be quite decent. However, when you click the images in fading light then the results are not as sharp as one would expect from 13MP camera. You can not compare its camera with high-end smartphones camera of Galaxy S5, LG G3, Xperia Z2 etc., but considering the price of Mi3, it is still good value for money.Unlike other smartphones which have camera hole in a circle, the Xiaomi has changed the design, which shows camera hole in square.
Connectivity-wise, the Mi3 has all the features which is required from a high-end smartphone. It has options of 3G, NFC, Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS with GLONASS, for connectivity.
Design
The design of Mi3 has been meticulously crafted that its look are quite impressive. Its build quality is solid and it gives the apperance of any premium smartphone. Its body is made of anodized aluminum metal and has curved edges, flat top which also houses a sim card slot and 3.5mm headset jack. This smartphoe reminds one of Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone. This phone is 8.1mm thick, weighs 145 grams and is easy to carry. Moreover, the feel of the phone is so good that you cannot make out that you are not carrying the premium branded phone. On this phone, the power and volume keys are placed at the right edge. The speaker grill and micro-USB port have been provided at the bottom edge. For navigation, there are three capacitive keys below the display and a 2MP front-facing camera has been fixed above the display on the front. The bright silver MI logo has been placed on the left corner above the screen.
We have noticed one drawback in the design and that is its SIM card slot does not accept micro or nano-Sim card. On the contrary, it has provsion for old-fashioned SIM card. The other disadtvantage noticed by us when we opened the box that all the instructions were in Chinese language and even on the back cover of the box, you will find all the details in Chinese. Probably, it is early days for Xiaomi in India and in due course of time, they will also incorporate English language instructions and details.
Software
Xiaomi Mi 3 runs MiUi 5, which is Xiaomi’s own operating system based on Android 4.4 KitKat. Although, I am not fan of customised UI’s, but Xiaomi claims it is user friendly. The advantage of Xiaomi Ui is that they keep on updating its software with weekly software updates and tweaks. However, you will have to spend some time to get used to MiUi. During our brief handling, we did not face any problem to run it and non-Android users will be familiarised with it quite fast.
The key feature of MIUI software is its various themes, wallpapers and clocks, which are freely downloadable in India. The user interface of Xiaomi does not include any stock Android app and the Gallery, Music, Calculator, Calendar and Email apps have been developed by MIUI software development team.
The MI3 has built-in security features, which enable you to block calls and messages from select numbers. It also has feature with which one can record calls for all the numbers or selected numbers. To save your data cost, it also has data monitoring tool which permit you to set apps in such a way that they are allowed to use mobile data or Wi-Fi depending upon your choice.
Overall Performance
The Mi3 is a powerhouse as it is driven by powerful Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 processor and you can switch the apps or play any high consumption game, it will not let you down and I did not notice any lag during my use of this smartphone. The battery of this smartphone is strong enough ( 3050mAh) and is capable of lasting for a full day with moderate usuage. Moreover, the battery comes with different power modes. One can select the battery saving option to increase its longevity. The call quality of this phone is quite good.
What else you demand from a smartphone if it has good quality camera, calls are sharp and crisp, the chipset and RAM is powerful and you have to shell out just Rs. 14,000 to own this smartphone. This is the most affordable deal available to Indian customers. If you have no issue with Chinese brand then this device is the one, you should be scouting for.
Images of Mi3:
