This formula of Xiaomi got the mind to the Indian customer. Today, this brand is the fifth largest smartphone vendor in India and India is the largest foreign market for this company.
The company has priced its latest product Xiaomi Mi 4i at Rs 12,999. As far as the price is concerned, it is around the range of Mi 3. But does this smartphone have everything that will retain Xiaomi’s image in the market in the coming time. Let’s know.
Design and display
The unibody design of Xiaomi Mi 4i gives this smartphone a solid look. It is made of good quality polycarbonate which is rarely visible in this price range phone. At first glance, the Mi 4i looks like the iPhone 5C to a great extent, especially due to a multi color option. By the way, Mi 4i in appearance and feel is like many high-end Lumia devices.
In the coming time, Mi 4i will be available in many colors, but at the time of launch, this phone will be available in white color (16 GB). There can be disappointment in many customers about white color because it is more likely to get dirty in Indian environment.
Xiaomi Mi 4i has adopted staded format in terms of layouts of buttons and ports. The power button is on the right edge and the volume button just below. The 3.5mm audio is at the top of the jack phone and the micro USB port on the lower part. Noys are on the back of the canceling microphone phone. There is also a rear camera in this part with dual tone LED flash. The dual micro-SIM tray is on the left side of the phone.
The Mi 4i has a full HD screen of 5 inches (truly 4.95 in this), but it is not a feeling of getting too big. Either we have become accustomed to big smortphones or the display to body ratio of Mi 4i is so good that it does not look strange in the hands. The company claims that it has taken help from the corning brand for the screen and gives protection like the screen Gorilla Glass 3 in the smartphone.
Color reproduction and viewing angles are excellent. The display is so bright that the sunlight does not have trouble looking at text and on screen elements. Xiaomi has reported that Mi 4i has sunlight display.
Actually, the job of sunlight display is that whenever you are outdoor, it should work to brighten the blurred part of a photo so that you can see all the details well. By the way, the company is presenting this function a little exaggerating, you will not be able to detect the change on screen with open eyes. By the way, this is also a kind of praise. Xiaomi also says that the sunlight display has little effect on the phone’s battery.
After using the phone, it can definitely be said that the display of Xiaomi Mi 4i is the best in this range and perhaps it is also the most specialty of this product.
Software and performance
Android 5.0.2 in Xiaomi Mi 4i. The latest MIUI is 6 firmware. The problem is that MIUI uses too much RAM. The good thing is that Mi 4i has 2 GB of RAM, with half -less than half of the alpications. Through the most left button in the phone, you can see the resent apps and there is also information on the screen how much RAM is available for the app at that time. A button appears on the screen (‘X’) sign that allows you to close the apps. By the way, on Mi 4i, many apps do not face much problem in opening and closing immediately. In such a situation, you will not need (‘X’) and should also avoid its use.
We believe that memory management should be left on the operating system itself. Because closing the apps repeatedly without meaning can slow your phone to slow down, especially when you want to use that app again.
You can also lock the app icon and lock it by going to the REP View. That is, this app will not stop only when you use X button. And it will remain intact even after rebooting the action phone.
However, MIUI also has some shortcomings. Due to many animations, it takes longer to respond to the phone. To use the Settings app, you have to start with its home page again and again. That is, this app forgets the action and position of your previous visit. Some third-party apps are closed repeatedly on Xiaomi devices, there is also this deficiency in the phone of other brands. But this happened more on this phone than others.
There was a chance when the phone was unable to complete the data sand and receive action on the 3G network. There was no talk of restarting the phone twice. But this problem was cured after closing 3G data option for the third time and resuming it. On several more occasions, there was a problem in responding to the e-mail app on touch input. At first we felt that probably the deficiency was related to touchscreen, but after research found that the problem was coming only in the mail app which was very disappointing.
Xiaomi also informed about the visual IVR specification while launching the product. In fact, by studying the data of the users, the company will create a menu of the IVR number to be used in the use of companies like Railways, Vodafone and Cleartrip. Meaning next time you call in Indian Railways, the message of 1 for English and 2 for Hindi will already come on the screen. That is, you will not have to listen to the whole message to tell you your choice. You can just choose the option by tapping on the screen. We were waiting for this feature very keenly, but it is still in the testing stage which will come on Mi 4i and then other phones of Xiaomi through software updates in the coming time. Let us tell you that this is not an app, Xiaomi has not partnered with any company for this, but is preparing to provide you this facility through user behavior.
There was no shortage in the performance of the phone. In synthetic benchmarks, Mi 4i performed better than Mi 3 besides Mi 3, which was slightly shocking. While playing games and during the battery loop test, the smartphone was a bit hot, but the situation was not worrisome.
The Mi 4i has 16 GB of internal storage, of which 10.68 GB is available for applications and user data. The just disappointment is that this phone does not have a slot for micro SD card. By the way, there is talk of the 64 GB variant being launched soon, although no official information is available when it will happen. Support for USB OTG is available in Mi 4i, this means that any USB drive and other devices can be connected to the phone via Micro USB port.
Xiaomi claims that 6 Indian languages support is available on MIUI. This is good news for customers using Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali. By the way, we also saw the option of Marathi in the Settings menu.
We did not face any problem during the phone call from Xiaomi Mi 4i, the phone supports 4G on both SIM cards, although it could not be tested due to lack of 4G network in our area. The performance of loudspeakers was good, whether it was a call, watching the film or listening to the song.
Camera and battery life
Xiaomi Mi 4i has a 13 -megapixel rear camera that takes better photos in good light. Whereas in medium or low -light situation, the quality of the photo does not seem to have that power. Performance is good in HDR mode.
Dual-tone LED flash works well, gives lights in every area of the subject while taking photos. The video shot by the rear camera is better than the average. However, the reduction in the case of color reproduction remains in this feature. In-Bilt Mike works well in audio recording.
The story of the front camera or selfie camera is also the same, when the light is good, the photo quality is excellent. But the results were poor in low lights on more occasions. Mi 4i has a beautification feature through which you can make your picture more beautiful. That is, there are pimples and there is a stain on the face, everyone will disappear through this app. If you believe in natural photos, then you can also turn off this feature.
Xiaomi Mi 4i has a 3000mAh battery and the company claims that it is designed for the use of at least one and a half days. However, on using the phone, we found that it went well one day, but till the next morning there was very little life left in the battery. This performance was received from simple to heavy use. Two e -mail accounts were active on the phone. During this, social media was also used for some time. 20 minute phone calling and a few minutes of gaming. The display was placed on auto brightness and the phone was connected to 3G data connections throughout the day. Apart from this, we also pair our phone from Mi Band via Bluetooth.
The battery results of Snapdragon 615 smartphones are poor. In view of this, Xiaomi has done a good job by giving a big battery and its performance results have to be considered good.
Our decision
Xiaomi has once again won through Mi 4i. The price of this phone is about half of the smartphone on the powerful platform like Snapdragon 615, but in terms of performance, Mi 4i gave good results in every department. In this price range, Mi 4i should get herpes for the best screen and good build quality.
On the other hand, there are some shortcomings in MIUI. The performance of the camera could have been better. If you look at the standard Android UI, expandable memory, and are ready to compromise with the camera, then trust Moto G (Gen 2). The rest register themselves for the next flash cell of Xiaomi Mi 4i.