Thought of giving a review for the brand new trending mi4i.I am using mi4i for almost 5 days as of today.
Am a pre-mi3 user(used mi3 for almost an year) and hence most of the points below I have compared d ones with mi3.still I would really recommend this beautiful beast to any one. Wondering y? Please scroll below for the proofs.
Build is the one aspect where mi4i undoubtedly scores heavily compared to mi3.even I exchanged my mi3 for this beauty on this aspect. It had a beautiful design, very slim and feather weight, ya trust me, it is feather weight. I am still wondering how xiaomi fitted the massive 3000mah battery inside it!
Display also really worked very well, the sun light aspect technology in d display works pretty good, have good view even under bright sunlight.viewing angles are as expected perfect and it also has a massive pixel density of 480ppi.
Camera. No comments other than similar to mi3.if u have used mi3, u will definitely know its quality. For non xiaomi users, just one comment, if u want a budget smart gadget with a world class camera, go for a xiaomi gadget!
Sound quality is perfect, but observed max volume is a little less as compared to mi3.will calibrate the speakers and give back a review on this aspect.
Update: People facing: Low sound & 3G connectivity issues, follow workarounds given in the below link.
Link: https://en.miui.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=118697.
Hope this helps.
People say Processor is the one aspect which differentiates mi3 from mi4i.but I would say xiaomi had done a brilliant job in handling the heating chip sd615 soc. Dont miss to take the perfect software update, where the thermal algorithm is re written to control the hardware heating? issue.
Battery easily lasts for a day long with pretty average daily usage which includes 3g usage, wifi usage, gaming for about an hour.
Below are the tests performed by myself.
- Heating issue of the processor
I have used the device for about a day without updating the software to v6.5.5.0. Observed pretty heavy heating while multitasking.
After updating the software, trust me, the heat emitted by the gadget is very less. While multi tasking with multiple apps opened such as facebook, whatsapp, message etc the heat temperature measured is only 43° which is pretty acceptable, tested the same with a friend in his mi3, even he got the measured temp of above 50° in same conditions. So xiaomi have very well controlled the heat emitted by the hardware sd615, which is well known for emitting large volume of heat. But do remember, take the latest software update!
Antutu benchmark scored about 39k in performance mode and about 28k in balanced mode. I believe these are pretty good scores in terms of performance.
Is heavy gaming possible with mi4i? will it emit more heat while heavy gaming?
My answer would be mi4i can handle pretty heavy gaming. Atleast see d antutu scores. I have played asphalt8, one of the most 3d complex game available in the market, for continuously about 20mins, measured temperature of the device after that never exceeded 55°.these are pretty acceptable standards for any gadgets, I believe.
- Is lollipop miui6 have any difference than its kitkat version?
Absolutly no. Miui6 skin over kitkat or lollipop looks pretty identical, I cannot spot a single difference between those. Moreover miui6 over kitkat or lollipiop, it already have 90% features of the lollipop, including on screen notifications.
For techies around here, as compared to mi3, mi4i only have a single system on which rom is installed, so forget about dual boot here. Also mi4i initially had user available storage space of about 11gb, which is 1gb less than that of mi3. I could understand this is because of the heavy lollipop
Encountered a bit lagginess while pretty heavy usage as compared to mi3, but offcourse it wont be a deal breaker.
My verdict
U could already understand from my above comments that I would surely recommend this beautiful beast to any one, especially in the price tag of 13k. If an existing mi3 user wanna switch to this, u have to take a decision that if u want a beautiful eye catching feather weight gadget after using a gadget which is suitable for very hardcore usage.but I would definitely assure that u wont be heavily dissatisfied, if u r not a huge gamer.
One point to note before crying about the heating issue:
DO TAKE SOFTWARE UPDATE V6.5.5.0 OR ABOVE FOR ELIMINATING HEATING ISSUES.
Thanks for your patience for reading the entire review, and if you liked it, would request you to kindly mark it as helpful, so that this post stay on top and could help potential buyers to have some idea about the gadget.