Summary
01) Introduction
02) Design and Handling
03) 5 Inch Full HD Display
04) ROM MIUI V5
05) Web Browsing
06) Camera & Photos
07) Benchmarks
08) GPS
09) Keyboard
10) Call Quality & Battery Life
11) Conclusion
Part 01 : Introduction
Brace yourself, this is easily the most anticipated Chinese Smartphone of the year. Welcome to the world very first English written review for the Tegra 4 based Mi3.
Finally, Xiaomi is coming to the 5 Inch FHD world, finally the Chinese brand focuses on its design adopting one of the best out there. The King has arrived and is here to stay.
Specs sheet :
- 2G:GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 3G:TD-SCDMA 1880-1920/2010-2025MHz
- 5 inch FHD 1920x1080 display with Gorilla Glass using OGS technology supporting wet fingers and gloves. Very high pixel density of 441 ppi
- Tegra 4 Quad Core Cortex A15 running @ 1.8 GHz
- 72 "cores" GPU
- 144 x 73.6 x 8.1 mm (5.67 x 2.90 x 0.32 in) and weighs 145 g (5.11 oz)
- Sony 13 MP Rear Camera with a F2.2 Aperture lens, a 28 mm wide angle and a double LED flash
- 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM
- 16 or 64 GB flash storage eMMC 4.5
- MIUI V5 on top of Android 4.2.1
- GPS + GLONASS, AGPS
- NFC
- WIFi Display, WiFi Direct, 5GHz WiFi
- Bluetooth 4.0 and HID
- Metal Unibody design
- Standard SIM Card Slot
Main disadvantages :
- the back cover is no longer removable, so we can't replace the battery
- the back cover is prone to fingerprints
- no MicroSD card slot
- no Dual Sim
Part 02 : Design and Handling
The Mi3 is definitively exceptionally well designed and well finished. Full metal unibody that only weighs 145g : this is the hidden value of the Mi3. Before, I never thought I could love so much exterior design. I was always a person who only focuses on what a device can offer, power wise, how it performs but this time, on top of the "fastest smartphone ever", it is also one the most beautiful one.
With the new gorgeous design and the metal body, Xiaomi addresses its only main weakness. The Mi2 series were fine but only using plastic and used common design. Nothing in comparison to the feel the Mi3 gives you.
Any given 5 inch phone is big, let's not kid ourselves and the Mi3 is certainly not among the smallest 5 inch out there. It is bigger than the Galaxy S4 or the LG G2 but build wise, it is better in almost every aspect. While the phone is quite big, the rounded edges, the lightweight and there are also small raised edges around the screen really help using the Mi3. Still, most of the time, 2 hands will be needed.
Others than that, the overall use has not drastically changed :
- Volumes and Power buttons are still on the right
- on the bottom side, there are the MicroUSB port which is MHL enabled with the speakerphones which is new, there were previously on the back of the Mi2S
- on the top, there is the 3.5 mm Jack with the SIM card slot
- on the front, there are the light and proximity sensors and the 2MP front facing camera
- on the back, the 13MP rear Camera with a F2.2 Aperture lens and a double LED Flash
Part 03 : Gorgeous FHD Display
The Xiaomi Mi3 has a brilliant 5" FHD display with a 441 ppi. Xiaomi enters the 5" realm with beauty and style. The display is provided by LG and uses the Corning Gorilla Glass Technology.
It also uses the One Glass Solution (OGS) to enhance touch controls. Now you can use your phone with gloves and wet hands.
In direct sunlight, you will need to turn to brightness to its maximum level but everything remains quite easy to read.
Part 04 : ROM MIUI V5
So, the Mi3 is running MIUI V5 on top of Android 4.2.1. I have been using my Mi2S for 6 months now and it is the same rom. MIUI is a fork of Android, so it will bring its added value regardless of the Android version that it is based on.
I really can't tell what 4.2.1 brings to MIUI. The experience is different because of the larger display and the new SoC but the software feels exactly the same. It is still very smooth and there is no hiccup or mini freeze whatsoever.
MIUI V5 is clearly an upgraded experience from the stock Android version. You feel it right away from the get go : the lockscreen offers you to launch essentials apps such as Phone, SMS or Photo App. It also shows you your latest notifications under the clock widget (none here).
MIUI V5 Multitasking is among the best out there for a phone. While it doesn't display thumbnail of the state of the app, it allows you to grant ram and (little) processing power in order to keep the app from closing by swyping done. Little features like this are what make MIUI so widespread.
Otherwise, just swype up to close an app or click on the central button where the ram usage is shown to close everything.
Even the Settings Menu offers a large panel of possibilities. For casual users, there is a standard menu with little choice of customization. But if you swype on the right, you have access to the full Settings Menu where you can customize virtually everything like different volume levels according to what the sound came from : media, system, voice, alarm, bluetooth.
All of that would have been pointless if we couldn't change intensively the looks because ultimately, everything comes down to the looks.
There are several MI Stores within the Rom. The Mi App Store which we won't cover, the Mi Wallpapers Store and the Mi Themes Store.
It is so easy to change the lockscreen or the desktop wallpaper independently and if you don't like what the device offers you, you can browse the Free Online Wallpapers Store. In order to access it and download extra wallpapers, you need to create a free account at Xiaomi via the phone or through any Internet browser.
Well, sure wallpapers are cool, but people want more, way more. So, let's check out what the Themes Store has to offer... and it is huge. The real added value is the ability to mix things up. For example if you only like some features from a theme and others from several others ones, you can choose to apply only those features. In just a few seconds, you have a very different phone from before and it won't look like others MIUI device.
One of the things you are going to use extensively : the quick action buttons to activate/deactivate Wi-Fi, the LED Flash, change the brightness, etc... Those buttons are on the right of the notifications bars and they were there way before others roms. But MIUI buttons are very practical and if you don't like the original ones, you can change them.
Customization everywhere is easily one of MIUI strongest suits.
Last but not least, one particularity of the MIUI launcher is the lack of an app drawer. All the apps will be displayed on the homescreens. New downloaded apps will be placed on the last page but you can create extra pages if you like before filling them out.
Part 05 : Web Browsing
Everyone will tell you that the 5" inch FHD display bring an entire new experience mainly because it is true. For those who prefer the stock Android Browser, it is there and it is very snappy thanks to the Tegra 4 SoC. Pinch to zoom, browsing the web is very comfortable and tabs can be managed fairly easily. You can also add website shortcuts to your homescreen. Everything is very responsive.
That being said, it is not my favorite web browser because it has some downsides. First of all, when you have opened more than 4 tabs, it is not the easiest thing to browse between them.
Secondly, some websites has a poor rendering like our French blog.
That is why I prefer to use Chrome as my default browser. Chrome is heavier as an app and a browser, it doesn't perform as well as the native one but you really can't feel it. I didn't thanks to the Tegra 4 inside the Mi3.
Even if performance wise, it would be less smooth, and then again, you can't feel it, experience wise, it is much better. That, you can feel.
Tabs are better managed and you can display more than 4 per screen. On the other hand, on top of synchronizing your bookmarks (which the native browser does too), your tabs are also synchronized through all your opened Chrome sessions (PC, tablets and smartphones). I can't tell how much time this feature saves me.
Page rendering is also better, every pages can fit the screen, so you don't need to scroll left or right. If you don't like mobile website rendering, you can choose to display the desktop version very easily.
Part 06 : Camera and Photos
The Photo App comes with several options : HDR, Panorama, Aperture control, exposure, ISO, White balance, etc...
You can also switch to an advanced mode (which is displayed here) if like me, you want to control everything.
Note that HDR photos are taken faster with the Mi3. It is because of the better processing power.
All the photos have been taken with the Auto Mode. Here is some side to side Mi3 and Mi2S photos.
Outdoors Photos : the Mi3 captures better natural colors and works better with outside light. There are also more details. Mi2S over saturates colors.
Mi3 photos : second one with HDR.
Mi2S photos : second one with HDR
Mi3 photos : second one with HDR. We can see with this scene a better colors balance than the Mi2S photos.
Mi2S photos : second one with HDR.
This is a special feature from Picasaweb. It is kind of a gif made out from photos taken at the same scene.
Mi3.
Mi2S.
Indoors photos : Here, there isn't even a match. Mi3 Camera captures way better low light images than the Mi2S.
Mi3 : No Flash, HDR, Flash.
Mi2S : No Flash, HDR, Flash
Pitch Black conditions : the Mi3 flash is more powerful and burn less the colors than the Mi2S one.
Mi3 first, Mi2S second.
Last photos are made with Panorama mode but I failed to capture a good one with the Mi3 (the scene displayed is bigger). I will update this in the coming days. Mi3 Panorama photo is the first one.
Full Xiaomi Mi3 shootout : Mi3 Album
Full Xiaomi Mi2S shootout : Mi2S Album
Part 07 : Benchmarks
Before talking about benchmarks, you should all read our latest articles about benchmarks' scores if you haven't read it already.
Lately, Anandtech discovered that all the manufacturers were cheating optimizing performances when a benchmark is detected. Of course, Anandtech didn't test any Chinese device, so we were eager to discover ourselves if Xiaomi is practicing such non sense stuff with the Mi3... and just watch the result in those images.
Well, what did happen ? We tested the Mi3 with Antutu and Antutu X. Antutu X is a version in which devices are not detecting a benchmark running and act as if it was a intense game running.
There is a clear drop of almost 6000 points. Basically, Xiaomi artificially boosted the based result by 20% with its (bad) tweaking.
Sadly, Xiaomi joins the cheaters pack alongside Samsung, LG or HTC.
Anyway, here are the rest of the results with Antutu and you can compare where the tweaking happened with the details result sheets from Antutu X.
It is almost impossible to conclude anything because benchmarks are made for ranking devices. When everyone is cheating, the results are way too blurry. You don't know which manufacturer is cheating and you don't know to what extent. It is a shame because Antutu is one the most complete benchmark there is but it is now flooded by cheaters.
3DMark also offers an extensive CPU/GPU test but unfortunately, there are already some tweaking towards 3DMark, so we can't know if those results (quite high) can be taken into account. The score is higher than the average high ends devices.
Moving on, let's now try a clean benchmark, GFXBench which is the best one when it comes to GPU performance. Somehow, the guys from Kishonti managed to maintain a clean use of its bench. As we could suspect, the Tegra 4 is very powerful especially with its 72 "cores" (it is not real cores, it is more like base unit) but it was presented and available since almost all year long. Since then, Qualcomm had plenty of time to catch up and even go beyond the Tegra 4 graphics units.
The new Google Nexus 5 got an average score of 23 fps on T-Rex HD and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 scores as high as 26 fps (it is the top score). In comparison, the Tegra 4 based Mi3 scores 21 fps. Just a bit behind but we bet that the S800 Mi3 will beat the competition since it will have an upgraded S800 with a higher clocked GPU than others S800 chips.
Let's stick a bit with GPU performance, and here is Epic Citadel Result in Ultra High Quality because the first 2 modes are maxed out (~ 60 fps) by any high end devices failing to rank them. It averages 36 fps which we will compare with the Mi2S in our next comparison review.
The last one is a very old one : Quadrant. The score is quite high but it needs to be compared to the others high ends smartphones because the database is so old. The two years old HTC One X is the latest registered device.
Part 08 : GPS
The GPS fix is done quite quickly. After rebooting my Mi3, it took around 15 seconds to get a definitive fix on several GPS. I also used my Mi3 to travel across France ans Switzerland, the turn by turn indications are sometimes not that clear with Google Maps but I managed to find my way.
Part 09 : Keyboard
The 5 inch FHD display offers a great comfort but you are going to need your two hands. Typing with one hand is quite uncomfortable. I wouldn't recommend typing in landscape either because of the size of the smartphone.
Part 10 : Call Quality and Battery Life
Noise cancellation Mics work great and I hear nicely people talking to me. Our voice felt natural on the other line. So far, so good.
Battery life has been surprisingly good. Despite the large display and the 8.1 mm (0.32 inch) thin body, Xiaomi managed to put a 3050 mAh which easily last me almost 2 days of use.
Heavy users shouldn't have a hard time to go through the day without recharging it mid day.
But this impression has to be tempered since I was only able to use 2G Network.
Part 11 : Conclusion
The Mi3 is really smooth thanks to the Tegra 4 and MIUI V5 Rom. It is a pleasure to use because of the premium quality build, the metal unibody and the beautiful design fill the last hole in Xiaomi's devices which were lacking a unique line of looks. Now it does and it is wonderful to watch.
This is Android at its best, great hardware, best software with a simple casual use and offering advanced options at the same time for those who like to customize their smartphone. MIUI V5 manages to offer a complete and satisfying experience to almost everyone. If MIUI is the most downloaded ROM, there is obviously a reason to it.
No doubt the Mi3 is powerful but we are eager to see how it fares against others high end devices. While we don't like cheating in benchmarks, we do believe through some tests (like GFXBench) that the Mi3 is definitively among the top dogs. That is why we will soon do an In Depth Comparison Review between the Mi2S and the Mi3.
Overall, Xiaomi with the Mi3 delivered a great upgraded device from the Mi2S. It got a better battery life, better display, better Camera and better looks. Xiaomi Mi3, what else ?
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