Review: Why Xiaomi Mi 3 is the best mid-range smartphone?

Xiaomi Mi3 comes equipped with Full HD display, 13 MP camera, 2.3 GHz Quad-core Processor and 2 GB RAM

It’s been only 4 years since the company Xiaomi was founded. Now, it has already become one of the best selling smartphone companies in China. More interestingly, Xiaomi has placed 2 smartphones - Hongmi Redrice and Mi 3 in the top 10 list of world’s best selling phones. Now, the firm has approximately 3000 employees and revenue of CN¥33 billion, which are certainly awesome for a 4 year old firm. And for your kind info Xiaomi is known as ‘the Apple of China’ for it brings out unique stuffs unlike its competitors. Now let’s have a run around the current trend setter in the Indian smartphone market that made Flipkart’s store vacant and crumbled within half an hour.

Design
The device looks cool and refreshing, though it has a slight resemblance to the Blackberry Z3. Xiaomi has given a premium touch to the gadget by brushing a magnesium alloy frame coated with three layers of thermal graphite. Well, it certainly gives the look of a metal-cased phone. The gadget has a dimension of 144 x 73.6 x 8.1 mm and weighs 145 grams. The other feature with the design is 120 laser-cut speaker grills and metal-reinforced USB port at the downside of the gadget.



What is unfortunate with the Mi 3 is its non-removable back panel, which offers a non-removable battery as well. If your phone is stuck, the only thing you have to do is reach the service centre as soon as possible.



Display
The Mi 3 sports a 5-inch Full HD IPS retina 1080p LCD touch display with a massive resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a wowing 441 ppi. It ensures you the best experience in a mid-range smartphone and even competes to the highend stuffs too. The IPS retina display is manufactured by LG and Sharp. Giving a full stop to all your anxieties, the Mi 3 comes with scratch resistant Gorilla Glass 3 protection. As this feature isn’t mentioned on Xiaomi’s official Indian partner, Flipkart’s website, the company itself revealed the matter later.



Processor and Performance
This might be one of the ultimate powerhouses among smartphones currently available in the market. It is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8274AB Snapdragon 800 chipset that clocks up to 2.3 GHz speed coupled with a quad core Krait 400 processor, which is further assisted by 2 GB of RAM. The firm had given something additional for game freaks and that is the Adreno 330 graphics chip. With all these stuffs your multi-tasking will go with no buffering, but to the next level of experience.



Operating System
The machine runs on Android v4.3 JellyBean. Xiaomi has tiled a certain piece of user interface- MIUI V5. It looks like a mix of iOS and Android. Yup! It, of course, redefines Android with its own customized pattern. However, it doesn’t feature app drawer option just like in iOS. All you will have are multiple desktops and 4 bottom icons for quick touch.

Storage
It features a massive 16 GB internal storage to store almost all your needful stuffs in it. However, the device lacks an external storage slot. So, it might be a huge disappointment for those who need to store up more things in their personal gadgets. But, still I think 16 GB is fair enough to push up your daily stuffs. Just consider iPhones and Nexus gadgets with 16 GB inbuilt memory. They are doing things absolutely fine, right?



Camera
The Mi 3 features a 13 MP rear camera with dual LED flash. The camera is packed up with Stacked CMOS sensor as well. Meanwhile, a 2 MP camera in front is impressive to capture selfies and to make video chats. Interestingly, both cameras support 1080p HD video recording. The pics taken by the Mi 3 shows that the 13 MP camera is not made for just name sake. It is working just like a 13 MP camera itself. There are so many brands available in the market with high-end pixels in papers. They are good at papers only. But, the Mi 3 is a real master of photography. The system performs well in the video test as well. There was seen a slight jitter while shooting a fast moving object. Still, it’s worth the penny spent having auto and manual focus, macro mode, self-shots with auto skin correction, 99-picture burst mode, shutter speeds, HDR, picture capture with smile or sound, panorama, filters, manual ISO etc.



Battery Backup
It is backed up by a mammoth 3050mAh lithium-ion battery to ensure a talk time of up to 25 hours on 3G, 21 hours of internet use on 3G, 50 hours music playback, and 500 hours of standby time. Undoubtedly, it is more than awesome.

Price
This is the place where we all will or will not fall in love. At a killer price tag of Rs. 13,999, Xiaomi makes everyone fall in love with it.



Verdict
In short, Xiaomi Mi 3 is a highend smartphone with midrange price tag. The device has decent build quality, and mesmerizing features as well. The only major issues I see with the device are non-removable panel and battery. And since it’s a new brand in India, Xiaomi lacks adequate number of service centers in the country. So the customers will have to struggle for any repair and all. Hopefully, Xiaomi will update with more service centers in the country soon.

Pros:
• Impressive camera.
• Great battery back up.
• Excellent screen quality.
• Superb performance.
• Unique User Interface.

Cons:
• Non-removable panel.
• Non-removable battery.
• Lack of adequate service centers.

Written by .
Last updated on 24-07-2014. Published on 24-07-2014.
Published by Mobiles4Sale in category Reviews


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