Xiaomi Mi Max was announced last year and did pretty well on the large screen devices (or phablets) and Xiaomi is now back with the successor, the Mi Max 2. The Mi Max 2 comes with upgraded specs although the display size remains the same. Mi Max 2 is powered by Snapdragon 625 Octa core processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. so how does the Mi Max 2 perform in this segment? Let’s find out in this detailed review.
Design and Build:
One of the major changes in Mi Max 2 compared to the first generation Mi Max is the design and built quality. While the original Mi Max has sharp edges and boxy design, the Mi Max 2 is a lot more refined and comes with curved rear panel towards the edges. The rear panel has a superior matte finish which gives a premium look to the device. The curved edges and 2.5D glass merge pretty well giving a good feel in hand. With the discreet antenna bands and flushed camera unit, the device is quite good in terms of build.
But having said that the device is not for people with small hands as handling the device with one hand is not an easy task. During our testing, we were over cautious as it should slip out of our hand due to the enormous size. The device has power and volume keys on the right side while the SIM tray is on the left. The bottom panel has USB C Type port and a speaker unit. The top panel has the 3.5mm audio jack and IR blaster. The front panel has 6.44-inch display, earpiece (which also doubles as a speaker), 5MP camera and the three capacitive touch buttons which are backlit.
MI Max 2 is a premium phone in terms of build quality, fit and finish and looks beautiful as well.
Display:
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 comes with a massive 6.44-inch display. The display size remains the same in the second generation Mi Max, but the company has improved the display quality and it comes with a 2.5D curved glass and Gorilla Glass protection. The 6.44-inch display has full HD, 1080p resolution with a pixel density of 342PPI. The display is crisp, sharp and comes with good viewing angles and the touch response is very smooth. The display is a treat to use for watching movies and playing games. The display also has good color reproduction and you can also change the color temperature of the display from the settings.
The phone also comes with a Blue light filter which helps in better reading experience at night and gives lesser strain to your eyes. Overall, the display quality is good on the Mi Max 2.
Software:
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 comes with MIUI8 on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat. If you have used a Xiaomi device previously you might be knowing that MIUI is a heavily skinned UI provide tons of customization and it does not have any resemblance with stock UI. It comes with multiple home screens and a custom notification center along with settings panel.
The phone comes with a plethora of options to customize, be it in the form of themes, icon packs, lock screen, boot animations, sounds and more. All of these can be downloaded from the Themes app. The phone also features the security app which comes with cleaner, virus scan, block list, data usage and more.
There are a couple of useful changes to the UI in terms of features and it comes with dual apps and Second space which are new in MIUI 8. The Second space allows you to create a different space on your phone which does not share anything with the first space. You can use the second space as a completely different phone with apps, security and all features included. This means if you want two profiles on your phone like home and work, second space helps in that. Dual apps, as the name indicates, allows users to concurrently run two instances of the app. You can run two WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger etc on the device. A new feature of split screen is currently in development and this should be available to the device pretty soon.
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 and the UI looks very much polished with no lags or crashes. The phone also comes with IR blaster which means you can use the phone as a remote for your TV, A/C, set top box and other devices. There is a Mi Remote app which you can configure with Indian brands and this comes handy.
Performance
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 comes with Snapdragon 625 Octa Core processor clocked at 2.0Ghz and coupled with Adreno 506 GPU. The phone comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage with micro SD card support. While the Snapdragon 625 is not as powerful as the Snapdragon 650 or 652 (on Mi Max and Mi Max Prime), it is built on the 14nm process and this makes it highly energy efficient. The phone performs very well in day to day activities and there are no slow down or lags in the device. The processor can handle all tasks including gaming. We played high graphic rich games and there were no issues in the gaming. There was no heating on the device even when running intensive games.
The phone also packs an IR blaster similar to any other Xiaomi phone and you can configure it to use with brands in India which come really handy. The fingerprint scanner is located on the rear panel and it does a really good job in unlocking the phone. You can also use the fingerprint scanner to lock apps. The call quality and the speaker performance of the device is also really good. There are dual speakers available on the phone and the quality is really good for watching movies.
The phone has dual SIM and micro SD hybrid slot. The phone has close to 55GB of storage in the first boot.
Camera:
Xiaomi has also improved the camera on the Mi Max 2 with better optics. The Mi Max 2 comes with a 12MP camera with a Sony sensor and F/2.2 aperture with dual LED flash and PDAF. The front snapper on the device is a 5MP camera with F/2.0. The camera interface is unchanged and has the same features you would see on most Xiaomi devices in India. There is a plethora of modes and filters available for customization. The daylight captures taken with the device came out pretty well with good detailing and sharpness. The color reproduction was also quite good. But when it comes to low light experience, the camera was not as good as expected. The photos taken in low light had a lot of noise and we would have certainly expected a better performance from the device.
The selfie camera experience was quite good and the photos came out pretty well. The phone also supports 4K video recording. Here are some of the samples taken with the device.
Battery Life:
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 comes with a massive 5300mAh battery which is probably one of the highest capacity in this segment. The battery performance of the device with the Snapdragon 625 is excellent and you can get almost close to 8-9 hours of screen on time with more than 2 days of battery life with moderate usage. If you are a person who travels a lot, then the Mi Max 2 is the perfect companion in terms of battery performance.
The phone also comes with QC 3.0 which can charge the massive battery in 2 hours 10 minutes.
Verdict:
Xiaomi Mi Max 2, priced at Rs 16,999 offers good design, display, latest software, good performance and excellent battery life and it is definitely a good all round package. But the Mi Max 2 is not for all users, if you are not a person who can handle large screen devices, Mi Max 2 is not for you. Mi Max 2 is a great device for multimedia especially with dual speakers and also for gaming. If you are looking for a large screen smartphone, look no further, Mi Max 2 is the perfect choice in this segment.
