Xiaomi Mi3 Metallic Grey

Introduction

Chinese brands have always managed to stay afloat in the electronics market and if we narrow it down to the smartphone sector, there are certainly many to ponder over. Huawei already has a healthy line of smartphones in the country and Xiaomi seems to another name that has been creeping up in the media. The Chinese firm has been highly successful in its native land increasing its market share by 6 percent last season and would be hoping to replicate the same in the developing Indian economy. The company has often been dubbed as the Apple of China and it would be interesting to see, if it can get close to achieving the aura of other tier1 brands.

The company has adopted the same path of Motorola by leveraging online sources for sale and thereby making the virtual space, an interesting and potentially game changing tool for the future. Xiaomi Mi3 is the first device from Xiaomi for the Indian market and is its flagship model. The gadget comes with a 5 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen. The device is light weight at 145 grams and comes with a length of 144mm, breadth of 73.6m and thickness of 8.1mm. The device looks spectacular and with sharp edges gets a clean rectangular design. The smartphone looks well placed when it comes to the hard and soft keys along with the alignment of the IPS screen with respect to its spacing from the corners of the gadget.  The smartphone has compatibility with 3G, which means, faster web access but we would have liked to see 4G compatibility as well considering Xiaomi Mi3 is a flagship device.

The device comes loaded with a Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz quad-core processor, which in addition to the presence of 2GB RAM, gives it a big boost in multi-tasking operations. The software platform remains one of the weaker points of the device with Android Jelly Bean 4.3 under its belt, which though is good enough for loads of entertainment, does add a touch of disappointment due to the lack of a more updated version like KitKat 4.4. The smartphone features a 13 megapixels primary rear camera and a 2 megapixels secondary front camera along with a hulking 3050mAh standard lithium-ion battery. Xiaomi Mi3 has covered most of the basic aspects that a flagship model should have including plenty of tethering facilities in the form of Wi-Fi direct and Wi-Fi hot spot.

Another drawback in Xiaomi Mi3, among the very few to be honest, is the lack of a microSD card slot, which restricts the user from having a flexible storage capacity, although the two versions of 16GB and 64GB should suffice on most occasions. 

Operating system and UI

Xiaomi Mi3 features a 5 inches IPS LCD display that is backed by a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels and a phenomenal pixel density of 441ppi. The display is expected to be smooth and bright with accurate color projection, even from the corners.

Other Features

There is not much to say about the multimedia department of Xiaomi Mi3 as the firm has not provided any additional sound boosting technology but the music player and FM radio applications should provide plenty of options for the user in the music territory. As far as the videos are concerned, it would be fun to watch them on the 5 inches display that has a fantastic pixel density of 441ppi, thus providing utmost clarity.

Camera

Xiaomi Mi3 smartphone is powered by a powerful 13 megapixels primary rear camera that boosts the photography prowess of the gadget by enabling beautiful image snapping. There is dual LED flash available along with other features like geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection. There is HDR facility as well for shooting images and videos. The secondary camera at the front end of the device with 2 megapixels strength is good enough for making video calls and snapping selfies. 

Connectivity

Xiaomi Mi3 comes with Wi-Fi hot spot and Wi-Fi Direct, thus taking care of the tethering department for the gadget while other features like Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE and HTML5 browser allow faster download of up to 42Mbps and a brisk web surfing speed as well. 

Memory

Xiaomi Mi3 lacks a microSD card slot, which may be a problem for those who opt for the 16GB version of the smartphone. However, there is a 64GB alternative as well which would eliminate any need of memory expansion by allowing a huge data collection of songs, games, images and videos. 

Other Features

Xiaomi Mi3 is not the most capacious of gadgets when compared to other flagship Android gadgets as far as games, apps and general interface are concerned. Android Jelly Bean 4.3 is not exactly the most desired Android version today and there is no information about the kind of upgradability to be provided by the company in future. Still, various games like Temple Run 3 and NFS or apps like Viber and WeChat can be downloaded from the web.

Battery

Xiaomi Mi3 comes with a non-removable standard lithium-ion battery of 3050mAh, which reaches pretty close to the industry benchmarks for power supply offered by formidable phablets. Although, we do not have the official numbers to divulge, users can expect a reasonable amount of talk time and standby time. 

Connectivity

The connectivity section is rich in Xiaomi Mi3 offering Wi-Fi hot spot, Wi-Fi Direct, USB port, NFC, Bluetooth and HTML5 browser. The gadget delivers a faster internet access speed with the help of GPRS and EDGE technologies. For 2G network, the device supports compatible frequencies of 850, 900, 1800 and 1900MHz. And for 3G network, the smartphone is well tuned with compatible frequencies of 850, 900, 1900 and 2100MHz. 

Other Features

Xiaomi Mi3, when compared to LG Nexus 5, has an almost similar display size with 4.95 inches for the latter and 5 inches for the former. The display quality is going to be neck and neck with both the gadgets since the pixel density is 441ppi for Xiaomi Mi3 and 445ppi for LG Nexus 5. LG Nexus 5 comes with True HD IPS+ capacitive touchscreen as compared to IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen of Xiaomi Mi3. Both the devices feature a Snapdragon quad-core processor with 2.3GHz frequency while RAM is 2GB for both the gadgets as well. LG Nexus 5 beats Xiaomi Mi3 in terms of software platform, which the former has done on quite a few occasions but here it does it by quite a margin. Xiaomi Mi3 runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system, which is far off from the Android KitKat 4.4 operating system of LG Nexus 5. Moreover, LG Nexus 5 is compatible with Android KitKat 4.4.4 as well and can be upgraded to the same.

The camera department is better with Xiaomi Mi3 offering a 13 megapixels primary camera and a 2 megapixels secondary camera as compared to the 8 megapixels primary camera and a 1.3 megapixels secondary camera of LG Nexus 5. LG Nexus has a weak battery backup with just 2300mAh standard lithium-ion battery under its belt as compared to the 3050mAh standard lithium-ion battery of Xiaomi Mi3. Both gadgets lack a microSD card slot but Xiaomi Mi3 has a 64GB version as the highest internet memory option as compared to the 32GB variant offered by LG Nexus 5.    

Other Features

July 8, 2014: Another smartphone maker has entered the Indian market and this time it’s a Chinese firm Xiaomi that is making a mark by choosing the same path that Motorola adopted. The company is going to sell all its devices through the online space thus eliminating the distributor part. Xiaomi Mi3 is the flagship model from the company that is often tagged as the Apple of China in its native land. The firm would be hoping be hoping to carry off its reputation with the gadget that features a 5 inches screen and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor along with 2GB of RAM. The device runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system and has a powerful camera section with 13 megapixels primary camera and 2 megapixels secondary camera. The device is priced at Rs.14,999 and is only available on online stores. The highlights of the device are as follows:

*        5 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen

*        Android Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system

*        2.3GHz quad-core processor

*        13 megapixels primary camera + 2 megapixels secondary camera

*        3050mAh standard lithium-ion battery

*        16GB or 64GB internal memory

*        Wi-Fi hot spot + Wi-Fi direct