Mi 3 Review: Premium Specs, Affordable Price (Plus Side-By-Side With S5)

Xiaomi have landed on Philippine shores only this month; created a facebook page and set-up their website. Since then the news have flown and created a hype on social media. Hence, made our countrymen aware of its presence.

Mi 3 - Philippine Theme

Intro

Announced first was the arrival of their flagship phone, Mi 3. This smartphone has attained its prominence in the global market for its impressive specs at a bang-for-the-buck price tag. In fact, the Mi 3 can battle with other well known brands and possesses processing power with the likes of LG G2, Xperia Z1, and Galaxy Note 3. But that's without breaking the bank for half of their prices.

The Xiaomi's marketing prowess was displayed last June 26 as 3000 units of Mi 3 were sold out in less than one and a half hours. Although not a record-breaker, it's still a good sign of a great market.

Specs Overview

• 2.3GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 8274AB , Adreno 330 GPU
• 5-inch IPS Full HD, 441ppi
• 13MP F2.2 Back Camera (Sony sensor), Dual LED Flash, 2MP Front Camera 
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS, AGPS
• GPRS/EDGE/DC-HSPA+(42Mbps)
• 16GB Internal phone storage, 2GB RAM
• 3050mAh Lithium-ion battery
• Gyroscope, Compass, Light sensor, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Barometer, NFC
• Android MUIU 4.4.2
• 144 x 73.6 x 8.1 mm, 145g

Packaging

Mi 3 on the box

Manuals

The box covered by a thin plastic

My Mi 3 came from the first batch of flash sale in the country. I ordered it at Lazada through Cash On Delivery (COD). I'm from Batangas (~90km from Manila) and the package arrived around 48 hours later (which was fast).

The Packaging was small, similar to other flagships nowadays. The box portrays love of nature as it was made from a simple cardboard. Together with the Mi 3, a mandatory charger and data cable was there, sim ejector, and manuals. There was no earphones included, as others whined.

Looks

Seriously speaking, we were amazed upon holding the phone for its premium build and aesthetics. I can't believe for a phone at P10,599 to be this way -- the precision is there in the edges, buttons, holes, etc. At 8.1mm thin, it's easy to hold and nice to touch.

Volume Rocker and Power Button

The Mi3's frame is made up of Magnesium alloy coated with three layers of thermal graphite. The metallic gray back panel is actually plastic but stands-out even with other expensive flagships. The front is fully covered with glass, not a Gorilla Glass but Xiaomi said its an equivalent.

Metallic-look Back Panel

The capacitive buttons hide itself perfectly when the screen is off. Although other flagships turn its back on using capacitive navigation buttons, it's not a move backwards, rather a good step to utilize the screen. The LED notification have several colors and seats near the front camera.

There's no buttons on the left side apart from the stylish curved edges. On the right sit the volume rocker and the ergonomically positioned sleep/power button below it.

At the bottom, you can find the good-looking, laser-cut speaker grills together with the micro usb port. While at the top, the 3.5mm audio jack and the sim card slot are located. It surprised me when I saw that a regular sim must be used. I have adapted to micro sim two years from now and I needed to search for an adapter to lock my micro sim onto it. The sim ejector is sharp and may damage the coating, so be careful on using it.

Cool Speaker Grills

Display

After turning on the device, the 5-inch screen greeted us with vibrance and clarity. My doubt was erased MI 3 being a contender of other smartphone giants. The Full HD screen at 441 pixels-per-inch showcases its vivid but natural colors, contrast and crisp. You can adjust the Color Temperature and Color Saturation on the display settings.

The Colors are Constant at Almost All Angles

The viewing angle is also an asset, thanks to the IPS LCD. You can also type even when your gloves are on, or your hands are wet.

Xiaomi Mi 3 Screen VS Samsung Galaxy S5

I added this section few hours prior to posting this article to give readers a hint of how well this smartphone's screen performs with a very popular flagship, the Galaxy S5. I did it in a jiffy because I just borrowed my colleagues' phone. I will be comparing these two in more details in a separate post.

Both at 100% Brightness

Do note that Mi 3 was using a Clear screen protector and a Matte one on the S5. Also, the S5's app drawer background was translucent.

Both at full brightness still. My DSLR was left at home so I used a Bridge Canon Camera with Auto Setting but the outputs are washed out. Both screen are vivid and sharp on real life.

In this picture, it was evident that the S5 was protected by a Matte screen, thus, appearing dull. In my jiffy comparison, I saw the Mi 3 performing better on full brightness, while on Auto, they are on par with each other. I just knew after that the S5's setting was in Standard and the Mi3 is in Vivid. But still, the point is that they are in close battle in terms of visual experience. Anyway, it's just a preview.

Software

Xiaomi has its own version of Android dubbed as MIUI. I know that many users haven't saw or heard this Custom UI before because only advanced android users have the ability to get it. With all those rooting and flashing of custom ROM, it was never a simple task. Although I'm not an expert, I have tried flashing this ROM years ago but I didn't liked it because of the absence of app drawer. But upon seeing this now on a gorgeous screen, it did got my vote. Much was changed. You can use a different launcher if it doesn't suit your taste. It taunts the geek in me to tinker it. The room for customization is really huge. Due to those facts, I will do a follow up review on MIUI upon checking it thoroughly.

Performance

Great score from Antutu.

While Mi 3's hardware is not the newest out there, it can still punch other expensive flagships in the ring. It is powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor together with 2GB RAM. I've run AnTuTu Benchmark on the device and look at the results, just a negligible difference with Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One's (M8) scores. The test was done on Performance mode. On Balanced mode, it still scored a respectable 30914.

On real life performance, I didn't experience any lags or hiccups. The animations were smooth and the screen was very responsive. Anyway, that fast experience was expected upon knowing it's powered by a Snapdragon 800 and Adreno 330 GPU.

Real Racing

For gamers out there, should you use this phone for gaming? My answer would be absolutely yes as it can play any games you want even the most demanding 3D ones out there. The only worry would be the capped storage on installing those large games. We tried CS Portable and Real Racing; easy as pie.

CS Portable

Camera

The 13MP camera is Sony-made so expect to get high quality photos and videos. The Dual -LED flash beside it is from Philips. The f/2.2 aperture allows more light to enter, thus giving you sharp and impressive results. The 28mm wide-angle lens would let you take group pics and breath-taking sceneries without having to step back to take the whole scene.

For the front camera, I'm sure girls would love it like my gf did. Why? Because they take selfie shots more often, and the Mi 3's front cam performs well. We were surprised and entertained with the front cam identifying our gender and age -- available when you're connected on the net. Although not very precise, but we did have fun. I encountered a minimal lag when using the shortcut (press back when you're on the launcher) but that's a rare case.

Audio Quality

The dominating speakers at the bottom didn't necessarily account a louder sound. I tried playing it with other phones but the loudness is just average. On the positive note, the dynamic is there. Yes, other phones are louder but the Mi 3 enables more instruments to be heard when using the loudspeaker, specially the bass. The overall audio quality can be compared to tablets that house large speakers.

Connectivity

One of the drawbacks of this device is the absence of LTE connectivity. But that's not a deal-breaker for some because of that signals unavailability nationwide. The Wi-Fi reception is great, almost on par with my laptop. The usb and bluetooth data transfer are fast.

Battery

The battery has a 3050 mAh rating. Of course, our usage patterns differ. But generally, the battery performance is acceptable. The device can last a day even with heavy usage -- games, internet browsing, taking pics. For light usage, it would add plenty of hours, or even days. I can now leave our home without my battery bank on my bag. But I noticed something on the charger -- the output is only 1000 mA. I wonder if it's safe to use our normal charger nowadays that has 2000 mA rating. It's also ironic that the Mi Power Bank has a 2100 mA output instead of 1000mA included charger.

Bottom Line

Impressive. Xiaomi's Mi 3 does leave a positive mark to people who put their hands on this device. The Xiaomi's marketing stunt is amazing, keeping in touch closely or directly with the market ensuring profits as well. It's arrival on our archipelago also emanates threat to the local smartphone market as this gadget is really a bang for our hard earned peso. It is very easy to recommend this phone even to my iPhone fanboy/fangirl friends.

The Mi 3 might not have LTE, microSD card slot for memory expansion, nor bountiful set of accessories out there. But the overall performance and experience make this phone worthy of our money. Many flagship phones from Sony, Samsung, LG, HTC, etc, offer extra-added features like waterproofing, heart rate sensor, superior mobile audio, infrared, stylus pen, and others. They are prominent, great and well recommended of course, but those come with a much higher price. I do hope that other accessories and cases will come at hand so we can also tweak the physical look according to our liking, not just the software.

The partnership with Lazada has gathered positive feedbacks. It's a thumbs up, in my case. The item was delivered just when I expected. The maximum delivery was said to be 10 days at most outside Metro Manila, maybe applies to the other part of the Philippines as well. We don't know how many units will come, or when the next sale will be. But its a good idea to plan ahead if you want to get one.