Xiaomi Mi 4i Review – premium smartphone with an affordable price tag

The Xiaomi Mi 4i is powered by 64 bit qualcomm snapdragon 615 octa core processor and it’s running MIUI 6 based on Android Lollipop 5.0. There are dual SIM slots and both the SIM’s support 4G LTE. The Mi 4i is priced at Rs. 12,999. This is a retail unit, I bought it from flipkart (first flash sale). Check out this review to know more.

Xiaomi Mi 4i Unboxing
Inside the box you will find the Mi 4i, user guide / warranty card, travel charger, SIM ejector pin and data cable. Earphone is not included in the box. SAR values are 1.290 W/kg (Max) for 1g and 0.598 W/kg max for 10g.

Design and Display
Mi 4i looks awesome. The more you look at it the more you will admire it. Body is made of good quality plastic that covers up almost 98% of the handset, almost touching the display. Handset is compact, light weight and very comfortable to hold and operate. The display is dark black and gives a very premium look even when the screen is off.

Handset is available in different colour options but only the white colour with matte finish is available on Flipkart as of now. Weight with battery is 128 grams and dimensions are 69.64 x 138.14 x 7.66 (mm).

Power button and volume rocker are placed on the right. Micro USB port is at the bottom and audio jack on the top. The SIM tray is located on the left side. This is a dual SIM handset, you need two micro SIM’s. The Mi 4i front and bottom side are flat and the 4 edges are curvy.

This smartphone sports a 5 inch JDI screen (fully laminated OGS Corning Concore protection – (scratch resistant to some extent as good as gorilla glass) using sunlight display technology that automatically adjust the brightness and contrast making the content viewable under direct sunlight. Screen supports 1920 x 1080 pixels (441 ppi). Touch is very smooth. Colour reproduction and viewing angles are really great.

There is LED notification light and you can also customize it. The Mi 4i comes loaded with light, accelerometer, proximity, gyro and magnetic sensors.

Memory and Storage
Mi 4i comes with 2GB onboard RAM and 16GB storage. The handset is packed and there is no micro SD card slot. Of the 16GB storage you will get about 10.33GB free for apps / personal usage and of the 2GB RAM you will get about 1GB free on the first boot.

You can play movies / MP3s from your pendrive – either via OTG supported pendrive or USB pendrive connected via OTG cable.

Performance
When I switched on the handset I got an update notification about 803 MB, make sure to update the apps (if there are any updates available) and then download the MIUI OS update, install it, in case the battery % is low you can connect the handset to the charger and let it update.

The handset is powerful it is loaded with 2^nd generation 64 bit qualcomm snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) octa core processor (Cortex A53) clocked at 1.65GHz coupled with Adreno 405 GPU. Performance is smooth. Mi 4i doesn’t heat up much, heat build-up is similar to as seen on many other handsets. The max temperature I encountered indoor was 42 degree and outdoor under direct sunlight while shooting still images / videos the temperature rose to 49 degrees (it’s hot in Mumbai).

Benchmark

Gaming
I tried Asphalt 8 in high visual quality mode. Game was playable but there was a mild lag (ignorable). I then played the game in medium visual quality mode and it played much better. The hardware is capable of playing many high end game, but do keep track of the free storage space.

Camera
Xiaomi Mi 4i comes loaded with 13MP AF camera on the rear and 5MP on the front. Camera interface is really cool and there is manual mode option for manual control. Check the video review to get an idea about the camera interface.

You can tap to focus and then rotate the dial to increase or decrease the exposure levels. There is live HDR mode and I used that for most of the sample images that I shot, (since it was pretty fast as fast as in normal mode, so why not use HDR). Do check the sample images and video at the end of this review.

Camera / Full HD video quality is above average. You can shoot videos in HDR mode.

Others
Sound is loud and clear, in call sound is also very good. There is 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi (Dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz), GPS and Bluetooth 4.1 (low energy). GPS lock was almost instant. No other issues found.

Battery
This handset is loaded with 3120mAh battery – on the box it is mentioned 3030 mAh / 3120 mAh. Battery backup looks pretty good it will give about 4 to 6 hours of continuous usage (moderate to heavy) on a full charge.

I am getting a comfortable over 1 day of heavy mixed usage.

Verdict
There are very few handsets that not only give you a premium look but also gives you a premium experience, Mi 4i is one of them. The moment you open up the box pack you will fall in love with it. Performance is very good, smooth and handset does not heat up much.

For a price of Rs. 12,999 this is definitely worth considering.

Xiaomi Mi 4i on Flipkart for Rs. 12,999.

Image Gallery

Xiaomi Mi 4i Video review