A Chinese phone like never before - Xiaomi mi3

Xiaomi.... What is it??

This is a typical response that I get whenever I flaunt my phone in my company. Many people don't even know how to pronounce the name in the first place. I know you are also struggling with the same, so let me make it simpler for you, its pronounced as Sha-o-me.

On 15th July Xiaomi officially entered the never ending list of handset companies in India. It was a very casual launch event with only selected few bloggers attending it. Nevertheless, the people who represented the company here are high ranked. One of the them was none other than Mr. Hugo Barra, who used to serve as VP Android in Google. He joined Xiaomi as VP of international business and mainly looks after expanding the company outside Mainland China. Xiaomi has recently moved up to 5th place worldwide as a phone manufacturer. In China they are current no. 1, displacing the likes of Samsung and Apple.

So the first product that comes out of this company for Indian market is their flagship phone called "mi3". Xiaomi has announced their another top of the line phone called "mi4" which might come to India by year end. Also we would get: RedMi 1S, RedMi Note, MiTV and MiPad.

I hope the prologue might have helped you to come to senses as far the company is concerned. So lets get down to the review of Mi3 then.

Hardware: This phone has top of the line hardware specifications and when you look at its price, you would surely vote it as World's newest wonder. This phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset (Krait 400 architecture) along with a DDR3 2 GB RAM. The display is of size 5 inches which packs the Full HD resolution with a mind blowing pixel density of 441 ppi. In a layman's term, the display is quite clear and there would not be any pixelation. It comes up with 16 GB fixed storage without a memory card slot. The only saving grace in storage is that it supports OTG connectivity. There is a never ending list of sensors installed in the phone, some of them even exclusive in this price range like Magnetic and Barometer sensor. It works on the 3G band with HSDPA+ along with the 2G band.

Form factor: The phone has a sleek design but the overall size is pretty big for a 5 inch phone. The bezel at top and bottom are too much for the actual display size it offers. One hand operation is challenging for sure. The body is made up of magnesium alloy and the back cover gets metallic finish, which is quite slippery. A back cover with rubberized finish is highly required. It is not a heavy phone and that further worsens the grip problem.

The volume and power buttons are on the right hand side and are made up of metal. The top side caters to the SIM tray (which takes in a regular SIM card) along with the 3.5mm audio jack. The bottom has the microUSB port for data sync and charging. There is a mono speaker at the bottom with laser precision drilling on the chassis. The sensors are on the left side of the earphone and right has the 2MP camera and notification light. The back panel houses the 13mp Sony camera which is made up of 5 pieces lens and has f2.2 aperture. Lighting is taken care by the dual LED flash and claims to have a 30% more light.

Operating System: The company is known for their home made UI wrapper (ROM) on top of Android called MIUI. The phone gets the latest version 5 (Released) of this UI with underlying Android version of 4.4.2. I will get to the MIUI later on.

Display: Its a 5 inch Full HD display covered with a Gorilla glass 3 protection. It has impressive density at 441 pixels per inch. The display quality is quite good and vibrant. Its a treat to watch HD and Full HD content on this screen. Viewing angles are also good and you wont face the problem of color fading even at an extreme angle.

Camera: This is a Sony 5 piece lens camera which outputs 13mp still images at a blink of an eye. The auto focus system has its limitation but then once its locked its super fast to capture the image. The camera s/w has a lot of settings to tweak your images. The advance mode also allows one to set the ISO and shutter speed. Such settings are unheard of in this price range phones. The day light images are superb and offer a lot of details while the low light imaging is its Achilles's heel. The front is a mere 2 mp camera but still can capture Full HD video. Overall its a pretty good camera at this price range.

Processing power: The Snapdragon 800 wins hands down in the processing prowess. Its so snappy that you feel delighted to do multitasking on this beast. This Krait 400 architecture has become a celebrity in the technology world for its processing power. The 2 GB RAM further compliments the package and you get around 1.2 GB free RAM on start up.

Telephony: The in call sound quality is quite good, thanks to the 2-3 noise cancellation mics. Both the parties can hear voice without any issues. The mobile network reception is also good, however I faced an issue of the network bar icon showing zero (No reception) even then I was able to make calls. This s/w issue is no more present on the latest update (V23) of the MIUI 5.

Music: Listening to music is a pleasure on this phone. The Dirac-HD processing takes care of generating deep bass while keeping the crisp notes. The MIUI baked music app is good and handy. You can double tap on the home screen unlock circle to change the lock screen to a music player :). The player also supports shake gesture for toggling the songs.

MIUI 5: This is where Xiaomi started their march in the market with. This is a custom ROM and much loved in the developer community. Xiaomi has further optimized this ROM for this specific in house hardware and the combination gels perfectly well. MIUI is known for its customization flexibility and the Themes apps allows you to change the whole look and feel of your phone with the use of these available themes. Few of them are free, so you don't have to pay even a single penny.

MIUI has so many features and covering it in this review is impossible. It would certainly require a chapter of its own. Below are few simple tweaks available out of the box:

1. Silence the incoming call ringtone by a flip of the phone.
2. Close all apps with a single tap
3. Incoming call would be shown as a mere notification on the top of the screen if you are working in a full screen app, like Notepad.
4. You can assign different color for the notification light
5. A double click on the lock screen circle makes the lock screen a music player
6. Hold down the home button in the lock screen mode and it starts the LED in torch mode

Following are few of the screenshots of the MIUI 5

Compass app - Notice the Barometer sensor input in form of ATM

Radio App - simple interface

Android Kitkat and MIUI 5

16 GB fixed storage - A challenge for gamers

Glove mode is supported for extra sensitivity

It has a built in security app

Stock MIUI music player

Pros:

1. Awesome combination of HW and SW at an affordable price tag of 14000/-
2. Decent and fast camera for day light photography and Selfies
3. MIUI can be customized in a lot of ways
4. Warranty stays even if you root your device. Dev ROMs are available for geeks.
5. The MIUI is constantly under development so you get all the new features regularly.
6. Network reception is good for both telephony and wifi. It also supports dual band wifi
7. The music reproduction through in-ear headphones is awesome. 
8. The sales model is very disgusting. Last heard 20000 units were sold in 2.3 seconds on Flipkart.

Cons:

1. The back cover is slippery and you would have to shift to a third party/Xiaomi add-on back panel
2. The overall form factor of the phone is a bit too much for a 5 inch display
3. Limited service centers as of now
4. The phone gets heated if the battery mode is not kept at optimum. A gaming session of about 20 mins makes you keep the phone away because of the heat.
5. No ear phones in the package

Bottomline: I would say its a steal at the price it is offered!!!