Xiaomi Mi 4i is another addition to the Mi lineup, a mid-range edition of the company’s flagship Mi 4 target market for India being the affordable flagship to compete with other phone in the same price segment.
Design and display
The Mi 4i is lighter and thinner compared to its flagship Mi4 with a thickness of just 7.8 mm, and weighing 130 grams. The phone has a nice grip with the compact size giving it a comfortable handling experience, and convenient for one-hand operation.
The Xiaomi Mi 4i features a similar 5" Full HD IPS display to Mi 4. It has 441ppi for pleasantly sharp sunlight display.Unfortunately, the lack of Gorilla glass display protection is a big concern though Xiaomi promises some scratch resistance for its Corning OGS panels.
Hardware and Performance
It comes with a variant of 16GB and 32GB of storage on-board and lacking the microSD slot for expansion. Nonetheless, there are two micro SIM card slots and 4G connectivity.
The Xiaomi Mi 4i is powered by a second generation 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, clocked at 1.7 GHz, and graphically powered by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB of RAM.
Considering it is packed with a mid-range processor, performance is smooth and flawless. Gaming and multi-tasking experience is quite impressive without all the lags and glitches. Battery performance is still a mind boggling issue, depending on the version of MIUI software installed.
While, heating problem still plaque the 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, and since there wasn’t any ways around it to rectify it still. This is obviously evident, when performing processor intensive task, like gaming and even surfing the web and it is quite an uncomfortable experience.
Camera
Xiaomi Mi 4i comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with a dual LED flash, and 5MP selfie front camera, and the device takes some great photos and comparable with other using Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 and a 13MP shooter, eg. Sony Xperia Aqua M.
Specifications
Thoughts
Firstly, I do hope that a more refined MIUI ROM to address the really issue of heat plaquing the Snapdragon 615 and the battery performance. As you could see above the standby time is as good as 2 days plus, just because my Mi 4i is my secondary phone. The issue here is that, my phone is in deep sleep, meaning to say, when I get notifications from eg. Whatsapp, FB or Line,on my iPhone 6, while I realized that on my Mi 4i it is not getting the notifications, until I revive the phone.
Next, I would think the MIUI interface riding on the Lollipop 5.02 is using a space of at least more then 5GB, hence a variant of 16GB or 32GB will only be left with less than 11GB or 27GB respectively.
The 5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture with Two-tone flash,takes some great photos and comparable with other using Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 and a 13MP shooter, eg. Sony Xperia Aqua M which is a water and dust proof.
With the lack of Gorilla glass display protection is a big concern as the screen can easily get scratch even in the pocket, so a screen protector is eminent.
Last but not least, it is a good phone with an unbeatable price tag and features, but not quite the “affordable flagship” as the manufacturer claim which other Mi lineup eg. Redmi Note 2/Prime/3 can square with or even surpass.
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