Xiaomi Mi3 Mobile Top 5 Pros and Cons
The Xiaomi MI-3 has been officially launched in the Indian market and judging by the spec sheet, it is quite an impressive device. Not only it offers excellent hardware at an attractive price tag but has also got a highly customisable operating system. It has got an attractive design and an impressive built quality. The smartphone will be available via the online retailer in the Indian market. The device is available in 16 and 64 GB storage variants but the 64 GB variant is sold only in the Chinese market. Despite being an impressive device, there are minor drawbacks that might be the deal breaker for some. We take a closer look at the device and see what it has to offer.
>>Pros
Design
The manufacturer has made some impressive android devices in the past and it is the same story with the MI-3. It has been designed very well and has got top notch quality. You rarely find Chinese devices that are built so well that they can beat many popular smartphones in this regard. The attention to detail is impressive here and the weight is well controlled. You can see seamless blending on different materials on this device and it is a job executed better than some of the flagship devices from other manufacturers.
Display
The device has got a 5 inch full HD display. This display is an IPS panel so you get excellent colour replication with quite impressive contrast ratios as well. You get a pixel density of almost 440 pixels per inch. Viewing angles are very wide and you won’t really have problem in this regard. The display is covered in gorilla glass 3 so it will be safe from minor scratches that you might get from other stuff in your pocket. The display is one of the strong points of this device.
Hardware
The device has got a potent hardware considering the price point at which it has entered the market. It runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset with the quad core Krait processor running at a maximum clock speed of 2.3 GHz. You get the familiar Adreno 330 GPU which is an ace at handling graphics. It is coupled with 2 GB of RAM which is plenty for the device. You get almost all the connectivity options you would need though they have missed out on support for 4G.
It gets a 13 megapixel primary camera which is a decent performer. It gives you nice shots in day light and might also give you occasional impressive shots in low light. The hardware is powered by a 3050 mAh battery which is significantly bigger than the 2300 mAh on Nexus 5 which has got similar hardware.
Software
We are not a fan of custom android operating systems that manufacturers put on their smartphones but the software here is an exception. It is based on the popular MIUI ROM so you have an idea what sort of ROM are we talking about here. It offers an experience close to stock android in terms of usability while addition various design elements to it. You also get a large number of customisation options so that tailor it to suit your needs. The UI looks nice and is a very well executed job of skinning the stock android.
Price
The device is available at a price of 14,999 and with that price tag; it offers features better than the Google Nexus 5. At this price point, you will be able to find many quad core devices with full HD display but most of them would compromise on something or the other. Most of the times, they are in terms of built quality or cheaper chipsets. Here they haven’t made these compromises.
>> Cons
No 64 GB
The device is also available in a 64 GB variant in the Chinese market but for some reason they have decided not to sell that variant in any other market. Here you can only buy the 16 GB variant and that might not suffice many people. Moreover people would use the excellent display for multimedia but the limited storage would reduce the possibilities.
No memory card slot
It would have been okay that they haven’t introduced the 64 GB variant if the device came with a micro SD slot. It hasn’t got a memory card slot and this would really keep many buyers away from this device.
Non removable battery
The device comes with non removable battery. Now that is okay on the nexus 5 as it is a product of LG and you can easily find a store that would sell you its battery and install it inside the device for you but it would be tough to find a replacement for Xiaomi and even tougher to do so in case of a non removable battery.
Brand value
Xiaomi is a relatively new brand in India and it would take a while before the people here start receiving it well. So for now, if you are looking at brand value, you might want to stay away from this manufacturer. The low prices would surely help the sales of this device but still you can spend some more and go for the mainstream brands if the brand plays a bigger role for you.
No 4G
Xiaomi Mi3 doesn’t support 4G networks. While this might not make a difference for most people, there are already markets where 4G networks are up and running. Such people would have to limit themselves to 3G speeds on this device. In India, there are very few regions where operators have set up their 4G networks so it isn’t a really big deal at the moment. You can easily ignore the lack of 4G support for now and you won’t even notice. But operators are working to start 4G services in many more regions in the near future. As people migrate to 4G networks in future, you will be left behind stuck on 3G.
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