Review Xiaomi Mi3

Xiaomi announced it entry into India with the launch of Xiaomi Mi3 and also budget phones Redmi 1S and Redmi Note. Mi3 is the company’s flagship phone (although Mi4 is released in China) and comes with impressive specs for a device in this price point. The phone has a 5 inch Full HD display and is powered by Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM. The phone also comes with 16GB internal storage, but there is no expansion slot.

The Mi3 also features a 13MP camera with dual LED flash and a front facing 2MP camera for video calls. The phone runs on MIUI, a custom ROM on top of Android 4.4 KitKat and offers lots of features which is otherwise not found on core Android. The device is priced at Rs 13999 and available exclusively with Flipkart. Today, we take a detailed look into the device to see how good it is for the price.

Related Reading: Xiaomi Mi3 Unboxing

Here is the video review of Xiaomi Mi3, in case you want the text version, read on.

Design, Build and Display:

The design of Xiaomi Mi3 is pretty good with curved edges on the sides and flat edges on the top, reminding us about the Nokia N9. The device has volume keys and the power button on the right side and the micro USB charging slot along with speakers at the bottom. The top panel houses the 3.5mm audio jack along with the SIM tray. The SIM card used in Mi3 is normal (or mini) SIM card, which is kind of strange. The non removable back panel has the 13MP camera and the dual LED flash along with Mi branding at the bottom.

The device has a 5 inch Full HD display along with front cameras, earpiece, notification light and also the three capacitive touch buttons n the front panel. The device has magnesium-aluminium alloy frame which makes it sturdy, but the back panel is made of quality plastics. Overall the build quality and fit and finish of the device is top notch.

The display has a full HD (1920 X 1080p) resolution with a PPI count of 441. The display on the device has great colors and brightness level. The viewing angles and the sunlight readability is also good. Overall, the display is really the best to be offered in this price point.

Software and Performance:

The Xiaomi Mi3 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and has the custom MUI ROM which brings in a totally new look and feel to the phone. MIUI is heavily customized UI and adds lots of new features which are not found on the core Android. You can skin the UI with hundreds of free themes available from the theme store. MIUI has custom lock screen and also the home screen. Unlike the normal Android home screen which has the app drawer, MIUI is more like iOS in the looks.

It comes with a beautiful notification center which has quick toggles and these are again customizable. With all these heavy customizations, the best part of MIUI is the performance, there is absolutely no lag when using the UI. Xiaomi offers the tons of themes and wallpapers to customize the complete look and feel of the OS.

Xiaomi Mi3 runs on Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM and the performance is amazingly fast for a heavily skinned UI. Xiaomi has also added lots of useful apps like FM radio, recorder, Compass, torch and much more. Xiaomi’s attention to smaller details is simply amazing, for example if you open the clock, you can actually feel the movement of seconds hands in the form of a vibration. The device also comes pre-loaded with all the Google apps along with WPS office, a beautiful File manager, weather, calendar and a notes app.

The security app provides option to clear the cache and unwanted storage, check data usage, manage block lists, power manager and more.

The device comes with 16GB internal storage, but there is no option to expand the storage via microSD card which is kind of disappointing for many. But considering the price point, not too many users would crib about it. The device has 13.39 GB usable space. It supports USB OTG out of the box, you can connect your pen drives using the cable.

The device has good reception and the call quality was also good. The phone also offers recording calls, which is not offered in most of the phones. The speaker volume and performance was also good. The phone also comes with Mi Cloud, which is the cloud storage from the company and you can upload files there.

The gaming performance of the device was also great and we tested highly graphic rich games and experienced no lag.

Overall, we would say this is one of the best ROMs we have tested on Android. With the amount of features and customizations it offers, it will take a long time for you to get all the features tested.

Camera:

Xiaomi Mi3 comes with a 13MP camera with dual LED flash and a 2MP front facing camera for video calls and selfies. The camera UI comes in two modes, simple and advanced and makes it easy for all users to use the camera. The camera UI is totally different from the normal UI you find on most of the Android smartphones.

The camera performance was pretty good and the colors were really great. Although this device is a flagship from the company (currently Mi4 is the flagship), the camera performance wasn’t up to the mark of a flagship, but definitely great for the price point. We have also done a detailed review of camera on the Mi3. Here are some of the sample photos from the device.

The camera can record videos at 1080p and the quality of video is really good. The colors have come pretty good. Here is a video sample from the camera.

Battery Life:

Xiaomi Mi3 comes with a 3050mAh battery and the capacity is very good for a phone in the price point. The battery performance of the device was really good as MIUI is optimized and does not hog the battery performance. Apart from this, the company has also added the Power manager app which allows you to get even better battery life.

We tested the battery performance by running a host of background apps from social sites like Twitter, Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp, Instagram and more along with Mailbox and Gmail apps syncing two email accounts. The phone was connected to both 3G and Wi-Fi. With this settings we managed to get around 1.5 days with the battery which is really good performance. Even if you are a heavy phone user, you will still get a day of usage.

Verdict:

Priced at Rs 13999 for the 16GB variant, this is a phone which you cant go wrong with. The phone comes with great quality, excellent display, a functional and performing UI along with a above average camera and great battery life. Probably the only issue you might find is the lack of micro SD card expansion, but considering the price it is being offered not many would complain about it.

Xiaomi Mi3 sets a new benchmark in India for a device priced below Rs 15000 and we totally recommend this phone for anyone planning to get a new phone.