Mi A2 is the successor to Mi A1 from Xiaomi, the Android One program mobile that had everyone talking about it, last year. Mobile enthusiasts, especially the tech community is nuts about having a stock Android experience on their mobiles. At the beginning of this year, most of the YouTubers and tech bloggers would have voted the Mi A1 (2018) or the Mi A2 as their most expected mobile of 2018. This mobile was viewed as the true Messiah of mobiles, that would cure all your smartphone woes. Its mid of 2018 and as expected the Mi A2 has finally been launched and in this post, let us see if this mobile is the “complete package”, or the Lock, stock, and barrel, we have all been expecting.
Xiaomi’s Mi A2 is based on the same platform as its Mi 6x in China. Mi 6x runs on MIUI, while the Mi A2 is on Android One. This is similar to Mi 5x and Mi A1 last year. Mi A2 has specifications very similar to Nokia 7 Plus. It also shares a few strains of DNA with the Redmi Note 5 Pro. My personal mobiles are the Nokia 7 Plus and Redmi Note 5 Pro and penning this post, I will have these two in my mind for every single aspect of the Mi A2.
In the box
- Xiaomi Mi A2 Mobile
- 5v 2A charger
- USB- C Cable
- 3.5mm to USB-C adapter
- Soft gel back case
- SIM tray ejector tool
- User Manuals
Design
The moment I held the Mi A2 in my hands, I was surprised by its thin form factor and lightweight profile. On a closer look, the camera protrusion at the back was a bit more obvious. It has the same design identity as the Redmi Y2, but the Mi A2 has a metal body. It feels sturdy in the hand and has a premium feel to it. But its high time Xiaomi changes the design identity of its mid-range mobiles. Every other mobile is now looking the same to me.
The mobile has USB-C port, flanked by speaker grills and mic at the bottom. The top has a noise canceling mic and IR port. The mobile has sacrificed the 3.5mm audio jack for the sake of its thin profile. Also, it has a dual SIM card tray with no option to expand memory. The fingerprint sensor is at the back and the dual camera setup gets a dual LED flash. The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. The front camera also has a single LED flash and it also has a notification LED on top.
Shortcomings? not really!
Mi A2 looks svelte, but it has sacrificed a few key features like the 3.5mm jack and the memory card slot. Nevertheless, the mobile feels good in the hand and these shortcomings have turned advantageous for the mobile. Audio over the USB-C port is of fine quality. I tried with a USB-C headphone and a 3.5mm jack using the adapter, in both cases, the quality of the audio is superior. Also, the mobile has 64 GB of internal storage which is good enough for 80% of the population. This stops people from using inferior quality SD card and hence the mobile has good speed and performance. It does not have an efficient face unlock but relies on Google’s native trusted faces features, which is buggy and not accurate. But here is an article by me, in which I say that the fingerprint sensor is much more important than the face unlock.
Display
The mobile has a meager 3000 mAh battery and that is again to get its slim form factor. So get the most out of the battery, there has been some compromise on the display brightness. The display is not as bright as the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Outdoor visibility is affected. It 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 FFull-ScreenDisplay and thankfully no notch. The contrast levels are good and it has good viewing angles, but I wish the brightness was better.
Android One
The key highlight and the sole purpose of Mi A2’s existence is Android One. This program is directly managed by Google. The moment I powered up the mobile, there was August security patch ready to download. Rest assured, that this mobile will get quick updates and better support directly from Google. It does not have any of the features of MIUI, except for a few application like the MIUI camera, file manager and Mi Drop apps. Though, this keeps the mobile clean and mean, some key features from the MIUI would have been a good addition to the otherwise boring user experience.
Snapdragon 660 | 4 GB RAM | 64 GB Storage
Snapdragon 660 is the top of the line processor among the mid-range mobile processors, as of today. Nokia 7 Plus was the first mobile to come out with it. This processor is known for its power efficiency and performance. The new improved Adreno 512 on this mobile gives the Mi A2 high-quality graphic renders on gaming and multimedia apps. 4 GB DDR4 RAM is fast and gives the Mi A2 superior multi-tasking ability. 64 GB internal storage is sadly not-expandable. It has all the required sensors. Mi A2 does not have FM Radio but support BT 5.0. The mobile does not heat up on intensive usage and even after 45 minutes of gaming, temperature rises by just 6-7 degree Celsius. The performance of Mi A2, is as good as Nokia 7 Plus with the same specifications.
Call quality on the Mi A2 is good. I tried it with Airtel and Jio SIM card. It supports dual VoLTE and the network latching was spot on. There were no call drops and the voice was clear at both the ends.
Camera
Mi A2 has Sony sensors all over it. All 3 cameras on this mobile have Sony sensors. The front camera is 20 MP Sony IMX376 sensor with f/2.2. The primary rear camera is a Sony IMX486 sensor with f/1.75 aperture lens and the secondary camera is a Sony IMX376 sensor with f/1.75 aperture lens. Mi A2 uses SD660’s AI engine to provide the front and rear camera machine learning capability for AI enhanced portraits and beauty mode shots. The rear camera can shoot up to 4k videos at 30fps and it can also shoot slo-mo videos at 720p 120fps. It has EIS for video recording.
In the real world, I find the camera on the Mi A2 to be an exquisite performer. Under daylight conditions, the rear camera can shoot sharp and detailed images. The brightness, contrast, and saturation are rightly balanced. Color reproduction is accurate under most lighting conditions. Dynamic range is impressive as well. Under low light conditions, the noise levels are low, thanks to the large aperture value of the lens. The images are bright and colors are nearly accurate. Bokeh on the portrait shots cannot be manually adjusted and the system employs AI-powered semantic segmentation to learn and identify the subject and then differentiate it from the background. Note 5 Pro had a very good portrait mode capability and Mi A2 excels it. Nokia 7 plus is left far behind in terms of camera capability and also portrait mode capability.
The front camera also gets the portrait mode. The images from it suffer from noise under low light conditions, due to the high megapixel count. But under most other lighting conditions, the images are pleasant with skin tones spot on. I found the video shooting capability of Redmi Note 5 Pro better than Mi A2, especially when it comes to EIS. But colors on video is better on the MI A2.
The camera app is from MIUI and it is fast and user-friendly. It has a highly capable manual mode. Focus peaking is very useful when using manual focus. I don’t remember seeing this feature on any other mobile camera in the past.
Battery
This mobile has a rated capacity of 3010 mAh battery and a usable capacity of 3000 mAh. Redmi Note 5 Pro has 4000 mAh and Nokia 7 Plus has 3800 mAh. Among these three mobiles, Nokia 7 Plus has the best battery life. I was expecting 70 – 75% of the battery life on Mi A2 compared to Note 5 Pro. But surprisingly it matches 80-85% of battery life compared to Note 5 Pro, thanks to the SD 660 and the low powered display. On moderate usage, the mobile lasts for about a day and on intense usage, you will need to top it up once in the middle of the day.
It supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0, but in the box, it has a basic fast charger. With this stock charger, it charged from 0-100% in 2:17 hours. I did not have a QC4.0 charger to test, but with a QC3.0 charger, it takes about 1:45 hours to charger from 0-100%.
Verdict
I would recommend Mi A2 for anyone looking to buy a mobile with stock android and superior camera performance. It matches the hardware performance of Nokia 7 Plus, but Nokia 7 Plus has a sturdier build quality, 3.5 mm audio jack and a brighter display. It is also priced much higher than the Mi A2. The real competition here is between the Note 5 Pro and the Mi A2. Comparing Note 5 Pro, Mi A2 has a superior camera and a svelte design. Note 5 Pro, on the other hand, has better battery life and the rich MIUI user experience. The choice is difficult, but it all depends on your personal preferences.
Mi A2 is priced at Rs 16999 and for this price, you get a slim mobile, with a superior camera and blazingly fast performance. Mi A2 is a worthy successor for Mi A1. If you have a 2017 or older mobile, Mi A2 would be a good upgrade. If you are looking to pick up a mobile in 2018 and intend to use if, for the next couple of years, Mi A2 would be a good choice. Mi A2 wins across all departments of a mobile, lock, stock and barrel.
