Rating:
Brand : | Xiaomi |
Category : | Smart-phone |
MRP : | 13999 |
Special : | |
Ugly : | Average camera, Not yet a reputed brand in India, Suspected of sending user data to China |
Andriod
Quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 8274AB, Adreno 330
2 GB
5-inch Full HD 1920x1080 LCD touch display, 441 PPI
3050mAh lithium-ion battery
Singlesim
144mm X 73.6mm X 8.1 mm, 145g
16 GB
No
Dirac HD sound, 3.5 mm audio Jack
13 MP
Gyroscope, Light sensor, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Electronic compass, Barometer
Android 4.3 optimized with MIUI version 5
MI-3 has now suddenly become the most talked about smart phone India. The reason behind this is the high end specification at very low price compared to other flagship devices. It’s packed with high end snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. And to sweeten the pot bit more there is full hd 5 inch display.
All this comes at the price of 13999/- for 16 GB model. So it’s a solid deal. You may still like to argue that Xiaomi is a Chinese company and it can’t be trusted in terms of quality. But the fact that Xiaomi is known as china’s apple may lighten your argument (It is said not to make mockery but in good sense). And when you hold the device in hands rest your worries about quality will quickly go away.
The handset feels quite premium with its plastic body, coated with magnesium alloy. Like apple, xiaomi adopted the minimalistic design philosophy. Volume rocker button is beautifully placed and gives sufficient clicky feedback when pressed. Power buttons and camera buttons are also quite good to use. What I love most is speaker which are placed at the top end and bottom. So it doesn’t matter whether you placed the phone upside down or the correct way, the volume level remains the same. Speaker grill looks good and shows how beautifully and precisely your phone is crafted. The speaker sound is pleasing to ears and same time they are loud also without tearing of sound.
Camera is 13 MP Sony sensor with optical image stabilization. So photo comes vivid and detailed. But I feel that it’s not as good as iPhone 5S camera or Samsung Galaxy S5.
Another unique feature about the mi-3 is the UI developed by Xaomi. Yes! Xiaomi has its own UI unlike other Chinese vendors who mostly put stock android in there models. Xiaomi likes to call it MIUI. It looks heavily inspired by iOS. All the icons are changed and all the app stays at home screen. There is no app menu. So it takes some time to get used to it but the good news is that it’s highly customizable. You can not only change the screen wallpaper but the fonts, language, look and even boot screen. More than 1000 online themes are available at your disposal. So any time you feel bored with the current look you can install new theme to give new look to your smartphone.
Now we’ll discuss the part you were waiting for, the UGLY part. So biggest ugly part is the service after sales. Although xiaomi promised to open customer services centre in India but the fact is there aren’t any as of now and mobile phone is already available. What if you receive a faulty piece which you find out later when the item is no more coved under 30 days return policy. Or you face some software glitches which obviously flipkart can’t rectify. In that case you won’t have any other option left but to wait for xiaomi to open the customer service centre. The second ugly thing is that MIUI is now being accused of sending user information secretly to the Chinese government. Xiaomi vice president or x google employee Hugo Bara quickly dismissed these accusation. But you can never be too careful. I myself stopped trusting any company since i heard the news that reputed companies like Microsoft and google supplies user information to their government. So xiaomi sacrificing your privacy may also be true.
It’s a very very good phone. It comes at the price of MOTO G and gives you the hardware of Nexus 5 and premium like Apple iPhone. So surely it offers you a lot many attractive things and no wonder its selling like a hot cake. But still it’s a product of a Chinese company. Although it’s a reputed company in china but it has a long way to go to establish itself in India with same good reputation.
So if you are more concerned about service after sales or you give privacy top most priority then you can avoid buying the this phone. MOTO G at smililar price but lesser impressive hardware is good substitute to this.