Well, where do we start? Ever since the Xiaomi Mi3 released last year, we have not seen a similar smartphone (rich is features, super reliable backed by lightning fast and brilliant user interface) that is loaded with features and priced under 15,000/- rupees. Today, we have a worthy successor to the super popular Mi3 and it is the Mi4i. Announced today at a grand event in New Delhi, Xiaomi won the hearts of everyone when they said that this phone will be available in the market for 12,999/- only! After a couple of so-so launched in last few months, we thought that Xiaomi had lost the touch and today, we are proved wrong. Xiaomi Mi4i will be sold via flash sale on Flipkart. The first flash sale will happen on 30th of this month and registrations start from 8pm on 23rd of April. Mi4i will be sold via Mi.com and other e-tailers at a later point of time. The bad thing is that only the white variant will be available as of now.

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Design

Mi4i comes in a compact polycarbonate uni-body design. Phone will be available in black, white, yellow, blue, pink color options and Yellow is definitely the best color followed by Black. The buttons are stainless steel and should feel solid. The back panel is smudge resistant and even something written using permanent marker cleared using a normal eraser. Take a look at the video below.

There is a magnesium alloy frame that protects the components from drops and accidents. The device is just 7.8mm thin and weighs 130 grams. the speaker grill is moved to the back (bottom of the rear panel), rear camera is at top left corner with the two tone LED flash. All in all, the device looks absolute gorgeous and we are sure that it feels great.

Display

Xiaomi worked with Sharp and JDI to create new type of display called “Sunlight Display”. The FullHD 1080p display’s main feature is minimal loss of quality when in sunlight. With 95% NTSC Color gamut, 441 pixels per inch, 178 degree viewing angle, this is definitely one of the best FullHD display panels available in the market now. The display has a hardware level optimization that adjusts the contrast of each pixel in real time so that glare does not effect the images ont he phone and improves content clarity. Here is a video that shows how this tech is. The display is also super thin as Xiaomi used advanced OGS full lamination and integrated layers of protective glass and touchsensors into a single film and this not only makes the text/images/vidoes floating on the glass, it eliminates light refactions caused by air gap. The contrast is better, the brightness is better and colors pop out.

To be clear on color gamut, a 100% color gamut means that full range of colors will be displayed and 95% means that nearly entire range of colors will be accurately displayed by the phone making this a must have for those who love color accuracy.

Camera

If you have noticed the images taken using rear camera of Xiaomi Mi Note, you will be stunned. The Mi4i comes with the same high quality rear camera. Rear camera is a 13mp camera with f/2.0 aperture with two tone LED flash and the lens is made of 5 elements. We all know that Xiaomi has one of the best algorithms for HDR photography and with Mi4i, they took it a big further. HDR takes two shots in quick succession, each with an accurate exposure for the foreground and background, and merges them together. Now, the new HDR algorithm applies automatic gamma and contrast tuning, color correction and low-light de-noising enhancements and the photos looks incredibly rich.

The front facing camera is a 5mp shooter and should make all those selfie addict super happy. The aperture size is f/1.8  and this lets more light into the sensor there by giving better looking photos in low light conditions. When we talk about a camera on Xiaomi phone, it is a must to talk about the beautify feature that enhances skin tone to make the subject look younger and more beautiful/pretty. The tool has 36 beauty profiles using which it will guess the age and smoothens skin, brightens eyes and adds few more enhancements.

The bummer here though is that the video recording maxes out at 1080p (FullHD). Would’ve been better if the camera supported 2K resolution video recording.

Under the Hood

Mi4i is powered by second generation Snapdragon 615 which is an eight core processor where cores are arranged in big.LITTLE format. 4 performance cores are clocked at 1.7GHz and 4 power-saving cores run at 1.1GHz. Adreno 405 GPU handles the graphics part and supports OpenGL 3.0. The CPU is 64-bit and is built on 28nm fabrication. In short, The Snapdragon 615 is powerful and easy on battery. This phone scored 40253 on Antutu, 25686 on Quadrant, 5606 on 3D mark ice storm experience and 57216 on CFBench.

There is 2GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage for users (similar to Mi3). The 802.11ac Wi-Fi is three times faster than 802.11n, Mi4i has 4.1 version of Bluetooth that consumes less power and has wider range. There is a 3120mAh battery which cannot be replaced by the user. The battery can be charged using 5V 2amp charger and will charge to 40% in under an hour (which is fairly standard though and is not exactly a fast charge).

The Mi4i has proper support for 4G LTE networks (support for up to 16 LTE bands) and has two SIM card slots and both support 4G LTE (unlike many phones where only one slot is 4G or 3G capable).

Software

When it comes to features and optimization, there is not other overlay UI (in Android devices) that can match the brilliance of MIUI6. The MIUI 6 on Mi4i is built on Android Lollipop. The best new features though is the addition of Visual IVR. This is what Xiaomi says about V-IVR. As you can see in the image below, you can do train/ticket enquiry without using IVR while in a call to IRCTC. select the options from Visual IVR menu, provide necessary input and the phone will do the rest for you and fetch the detail. MIUI 6 now supports 6 Indian languages Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.

Your one-click access to customer service. Making voice service calls has never been more convenient. It’s often troublesome to check service hotlines for credit card bills, or other functions. It takes at least a couple of minutes of lengthy voice prompts to get to where you want to go. With MIUI IVR system, this can be replaced with a visual menu. This feature now supports services by China Mobile, China Unicom, Alipay, SF Express, and nearly 50% of other commonly used service numbers.

To learn more about MIUI v6, head to this page.

Full Specification

• Handset Color : White
• SIM : Dual micro SIM card slotsLTE + LTE, (Dual Standby)
• In the Box : Handset, Charger, USB Cable, User Guide
• FM Radio : Yes
• CAMERA
  • Rear : 13mp, 1980×1080 video recording, Integrated Flash Support, Supports Beautify, Refocus, f/2.0, Sony/Samsung IMX214 Camera, 5-element Lens, Stacked CMOS Sensor, Full HD (Rear Camera)
  • Front : 5mp
• 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth v4.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, USB OTG
• Sensors : Gyroscope, Light Sensor, Accelerometer, eCompass, Proximity Sensor
• SAR : 1.290 W/Kg
• Weight : 130 g
• Size : 69.6×138.1×7.8 mm
• DISPLAY : 5” Full HD, 1920 x 1080 Pixels, JDI Display, All New Sunlight Display, 441 PPISize
• 1 year manufacturer warranty for Phone and 6 months warranty for in the box accessories
• 3120mAh battery
• Memory : 2 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM (12.77 GB for user)
• Operating Freq
  • GSM – 850, 900, 1800, 1900;
  • WCDMA – 2100; 4G:
  • LTE (FDD) – Band 3 (1800), LTE (TD) – Band 40 (2300)
• Snapdragon 615 2nd generation
  • Gaphics : Adreno 405
  • CPU : ARM Cortex 64-bit octa core (4x 1.7GHz + 4x 1.1GHz)
• OS : Android v5.0.2 (Lollipop)

Conclusion

Powerful hardware, stunning display, superb camera, beautiful and optimized software, unmatched Cloud sync features make this one of the best phones in the market and the best phone under 16,000 indian rupees. If you are looking for a new phone and dont mind using the white version, go ahead and buy one in first flash sale. The king of the masses is back with a bang.