NEW DELHI: Xiaomi launched its Mi 4i premium budget smartphone at a special global launch event in New Delhi. The phone, to be introduced first in the Indian market, boasts hardware specifications seen in premium mid-range phones such as Samsung Galaxy A7 and HTC Desire 826, at a more than 50% lower price. We spent some time with the phone and here's a first look...
In a sea of large screen phones, the Mi 4i stands out with its compact form factor. The phone's nearly 5-inch display is placed comfortably in a 138x69.6x7.8mm compact, unibody frame, almost similar to the Apple iPhone 6. The compact form factor ensures easy one-hand use. The power and volume rocker keys are also placed at the right edge for easy reach. These metallic keys feel premium and offer good tactile feedback.
The main frame is made of a steel alloy while the back panel is polycarbonate. Initially, Xiaomi will sell the phone in white colour variant followed by a black one, both with a matte finish. This will be followed by matte-finish variants of some colours including blue and yellow. The company is also working on glossy back panels and as you can see in our pictures, the metallic red glossy panel is eye catching!
The phone feels premium despite the plastic body and is what the Apple iPhone 5C is to the iPhone 5/5S.
The 3.5mm headset jack is placed at the top while the micro-USB port sits at the bottom. Xiaomi claims it used a separate board just to ensure that the micro-USB port is placed at the bottom edge.
The Mi 4i sports a 5-inch full-HD (1920x1080p) IPS display made by Sharp or JDI. Xiaomi uses a special technology called Sunlight Display to ensure the display renders graphics well even under direct sunlight. It lights up the darker pixels through a smart algorithm and hardware-based processing so that the pictures, videos and UI elements look as good as they would in normal light. Xiaomi has used Corning's One Glass Solution to ensure protection against scratches. Touch sensitivity was pretty good.
Xiaomi Mi 4i features a 13MP rear camera with two tone flash similar to iPhone 6 and a 5MP front facing camera. The rear camera boasts of advanced HDR features including gamma and contrast tuning and low-light de-noising.
Xiaomi Mi 4i runs Android 5.0 Lollipop-based MiUI 6, the latest operating system from the company. Xiaomi has added support for 6 Indian languages and Visual IVR for India. Visual IVR allows users to navigate through Interactive Voice Response Systems in a menu-driven fashion. Currently, Visual IVR is in beta and supports three services (IRCTC, Cleartrip and Indigo).
Xiaomi Mi 4i is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core processor, Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The phone comes with 16GB storage and has a 3,120mAh battery. 12.9GB storage space is available to the user. Xiaomi has no plans to offer a 64GB version of the phone, at the moment. The company chose to exclude a microSD card slot to keep the form factor compact.
In terms of connectivity, the dual-sim (micro) phone supports 3G, 4G (both Indian bands), Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi (including 802.11ac and MU-MIMO) and GPS. Both sim slots support 4G, 3G and 2G.
In a sea of large screen phones, the Mi 4i stands out with its compact form factor. The phone's nearly 5-inch display is placed comfortably in a 138x69.6x7.8mm compact, unibody frame, almost similar to the Apple iPhone 6. The compact form factor ensures easy one-hand use. The power and volume rocker keys are also placed at the right edge for easy reach. These metallic keys feel premium and offer good tactile feedback.
The main frame is made of a steel alloy while the back panel is polycarbonate. Initially, Xiaomi will sell the phone in white colour variant followed by a black one, both with a matte finish. This will be followed by matte-finish variants of some colours including blue and yellow. The company is also working on glossy back panels and as you can see in our pictures, the metallic red glossy panel is eye catching!
The phone feels premium despite the plastic body and is what the Apple iPhone 5C is to the iPhone 5/5S.
The 3.5mm headset jack is placed at the top while the micro-USB port sits at the bottom. Xiaomi claims it used a separate board just to ensure that the micro-USB port is placed at the bottom edge.
The Mi 4i sports a 5-inch full-HD (1920x1080p) IPS display made by Sharp or JDI. Xiaomi uses a special technology called Sunlight Display to ensure the display renders graphics well even under direct sunlight. It lights up the darker pixels through a smart algorithm and hardware-based processing so that the pictures, videos and UI elements look as good as they would in normal light. Xiaomi has used Corning's One Glass Solution to ensure protection against scratches. Touch sensitivity was pretty good.
Xiaomi Mi 4i features a 13MP rear camera with two tone flash similar to iPhone 6 and a 5MP front facing camera. The rear camera boasts of advanced HDR features including gamma and contrast tuning and low-light de-noising.
Xiaomi Mi 4i runs Android 5.0 Lollipop-based MiUI 6, the latest operating system from the company. Xiaomi has added support for 6 Indian languages and Visual IVR for India. Visual IVR allows users to navigate through Interactive Voice Response Systems in a menu-driven fashion. Currently, Visual IVR is in beta and supports three services (IRCTC, Cleartrip and Indigo).
Xiaomi Mi 4i is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core processor, Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The phone comes with 16GB storage and has a 3,120mAh battery. 12.9GB storage space is available to the user. Xiaomi has no plans to offer a 64GB version of the phone, at the moment. The company chose to exclude a microSD card slot to keep the form factor compact.
In terms of connectivity, the dual-sim (micro) phone supports 3G, 4G (both Indian bands), Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi (including 802.11ac and MU-MIMO) and GPS. Both sim slots support 4G, 3G and 2G.
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