Review : Xiaomi Mi3

Xiaomi Mi3 Reviews

Xiaomi Mi3 - Unlike a few years ago, the Chinese mobile phone vendors now can not be underestimated. Some vendors are starting to show that they are able to make a smartphone with world-class performance and has been expanded to various countries other than the Bamboo Curtain country. One is Xiaomi, who dubbed his Apple China. We got a chance to do a review of the unit Xiaomi MI3

Specification

• 5-inch IPS screen resolution Full HD 1080p
• 2.3 GHz Snapdragon processor 800 MSM8974AB
• 2GB RAM, 16 or 64GB of storage
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
• 3G HSDPA
• 13MP camera with 1080p video recording, 2MP front camera
• battery 3050mAh

Does the performance and features Xiaomi MI3  able to compete with large vendors hero today?

Design

Electronic products from the Bamboo Curtain country has a negative stereotype of the quality of materials and product design that is. But for Xiaomi MI3 this relatively not apply. MI3 showed his class as a top-class smartphone. Cover the back side at the same time that wraps MI3 is a polycarbonate material with a matte finishing touch. Looks cool, as well as jamming enough grip for a bit rough, but if there is sweat or oil sticking to the material as it is relatively difficult to clean. The shape of the phone body itself is somewhat similar to the Nokia Lumia series, the difference is a little more rigid MI3. Xiaomi MI3 is a solid phone when gripped, simply follow the side of the hand grip, but for a flat rear cover. For the 5-inch size, MI3 is rather big and heavy compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2 for example, but still lighter than the Sony Xperia Z1.

Not many buttons are perched on Xiaomi MI3. There is only the volume and power buttons on the right. For a micro SIM slot, there is at the top of the phone, next to the 3.5mm audio jack. SIM card itself can be added to the system tray. Meanwhile, the micro USB port adjacent to the loudspeaker at the bottom. Under the 5-inch full HD screen, there are three capacitive buttons: menu, home and lock. Xiaomi logo at the top left of the screen, while at the back of the logo appears at the bottom, with a touch arise.

On the official website, Xiaomi claims that belong MI3 IPS screen is Sharp or LG. So do not be surprised if the screen FullHD 1920x1080 pixels (441 ppi) of this device has an indisputable quality. The level of brightness, contrast, black level and saturation are at the right point. Viewing angle itself does not affect the quality of the color on the screen. The screen is vivid, but at the same time still natural. Characteristics screen itself is similar to the most upscale smartphone LG, such as LG G Pro or LG G2, slightly warm. One drawback MI3 screen is less good performance when under the scorching sun, but the brightness level has been set maximum.

More interestingly, there are various settings for the display. If you like a more warm screen, you can change it through the Color Temperature settings in the Settings menu, with three options: Warm, Standard and Cool. Another one is the color saturation setting, with two options: Brilliant and Standard. In addition to the customization settings, there is also the option Glove Mode, which makes the screen to be super sensitive, allowing you to operate MI3 by hand using gloves. Also the option to lock the screen automatically when the phone is placed in the bag, to avoid inadvertently operating the phone.

Interface

Views on MI3 highly customizable, no wonder because MI3 using MIUI interface with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. So, you can download a lot of custom items such as Themes to choose from, both free and paid. For the default themes, there are additional themes '' Hello, Singapore! '' Complete with wallpaper and icons from Lion country. Maybe later for Indonesian version will be the themes with a view of the regions and cultures of Indonesia. Unfortunately MI3 that we reviewed, although using Snapdragon 800, not the international version, so no Google Apps, but you can look it up in MiStore with Google to install Play Store to later install Google applications.

Lockscreen in MI3 offers 4 shortcuts, ie, camera, SMS, Phone and unlock the screen. Such as Apple iOS, MIUI interface on MI3 only one layer, which means that only the homescreen and app drawer no. You can still install the widget on the area that is sized 4x5 apps icons. To further simplify the display, the area could be a 4x4 homescreen apps icons only. Icons apps can be incorporated into a specific folder. You can set the transition effects, Wallpaper position, and lock the position of the application. To open the Recent Apps you can hold the Home button, here too there are shortcuts to clean up the RAM memory. For notification curtain, there are two parts namely Notifications and Toggles. Indeed, so a bit inconvenient, but most do not display the notification area so clean and not confusing.

Overall view MI3 interface looks attractive and easy to use. Only part of the notification bar with the two sides are rather inconvenient. Moreover, if you do not like the look icon, you can download a free or paid Themes with many options. Regarding the overall performance is very smooth, no lag. No wonder because the use of quad-core 2.3 GHz Snapdragon chipset MSM8974AB, and 2GB of RAM is a quality assurance steady performance for Android phones today. Antutu benchmark results for this phone also hit a record of the Android phones we've ever during this test. MI3 you feel less tight performance? There is a setting in the Settings Power Settings, with three choices: Battery Saving, Balance and High Performance.

Camera

The camera system in MI3 has two modes: Simple and Advance. As the name implies, the appearance of the Simple mode is easy to understand (no text in each setting) but not much, while for Advance only with icons only, although its very much. For simple mode, you can just simply choose and use the Panorama feature, Audio Capture, Skin Tones (Off, Low, Mid and High) and HDR. As for the Advance mode setting that is very varied, even professionals can be fairly compared to camera phones in general. Here comes arrangements pro at MI3:

• White Balance (Auto, Incandescence, Daylight, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Manual and Measure)
• Manual Exposure (ISO100 to ISO3200 election, and Exposure Time of 1/5000 seconds to 2 seconds)
• Focus Modes: Autofocus, Macro and Manual
• HDR, Auto Adjust, Filters and Panorama

It should be noted is the option Manual Exposure, especially the Exposure Time. Rarely there is a phone that has this feature, one of which is a series of Nokia Lumia use Nokia Camera. With shutter speeds that can be set, you can shoot very fast motion using speed 1/5000 sec, or create moving light effects at low speed 2 sec. Would need light for high-speed area, as well as stable grip (if the need for a tripod) for low speed. While features white balance manually setting even not in any mobile phone, to our knowledge. These features are features in DSLR cameras and some pocket camera, so they appear in the phone is remarkable and should be appreciated.

Results clear and nice camera, the condition of the room noise does not interfere, but this is more due to noise smoothing processing. If you do not like the characteristic color if you feel less natural, you do not set the white balance manually. Because it has a manual exposure options, you can be free to be creative in a photograph, for example by using a low speed for a good photo in the condition of the room was a bit dark, but of course you have to hold the phone steady. Or high speed photo shoot, for example photos 'levitate / float' below (first photo) photographed with a speed 1/5000 sec. For HDR format images (second and third photo), it is quite helpful in backlight conditions, but the results so unnatural color, although this feature is very helpful for the third photo, if compared to the fourth picture in which HDR is turned off.

In Simple mode, the settings are there only Fast Motion (timelapse interval can be set) and filter, while in Advanced mode you can record video using the filter, change the White Balance (no manual mode), resolution and video recording Time-lapse. When recording video, you can specify the focus using the touch, or Continuous Autofocus. Results nice and clear video recording, but unfortunately the automatic adaptation of the lighting is too aggressive, so that the video be seen blinking. The resulting video file has 15000 kbps bitrate, while the resulting file is sized 110MB mp4 format for recording duration of 1 minute.

Other

Although simple, look at the photo gallery is pretty good. Photos can be viewed in the Local Images (pictures on the phone storage) or Cloud Images. Through Local Images, you can see the photos by album or folder in storage. In this gallery application even you can find photos per folder on storage, by using the File Manager display. Photos that there could be shared using other apps, edited with a simple editor and used as wallpaper or photo for a contact.

Having a dedicated video player application, you can play or buy videos online, or just play it on the phone storage. All popular formats, such as mp4, mkv, wmv and avi rotated with smooth up to 1080p resolution. Only wmv format that is not distorted. But the drawbacks are that .srt subtitle does not appear, so to overcome them you need to download applications from third-party video player. Talk about third-party applications, video playback, setting the brightness and volume like MX Player, stay swipe at the respective left and right. The interface itself is quite nice, simple and functional.

In line with the view galleries and video player, music player also has a look that is simple and functional. The output sound from the loudspeaker is not special, with enough treble deafening. As for the earphone is enough balance, but No option settings and equalizer options if you are not satisfied with the sound output from MI3.

Using the default browser, the features in it quite complete, as incognito tab, cleaning cache and cookies, night mode, by setting JavaScript, search engines, plug-in. Also there is a feature block pop-ups and pop-up float. You can use the buttons and gestures. For buttons, you can use the volume button as a button for the page to prior and subsequent, or tabs before and the next.

Connectivity

• HSDPA, EDGE
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac
• micro USB
• NFC

Benchmark Results

• AnTuTu: 35 911 points
• Quadrant Standard: 21 962 points
• NenaMark 2: 60fps
• Multitouch Tester: up to 10 touch
• HTML5test.com: 323 out of 555 points

Battery Life

Within 173 minutes of the extensive use of screenshots and image capture camera for samples in this review, the batteries MI3 reduced 42 percent. The highest number of indicators decline is the camera.

Excess

• Design and materials are relatively good
• Strong overall performance
• Full manual camera settings, which rarely exist in the smartphone competitors
• Good screen quality
• MIUI

Shortage

• Loudspeaker shrill
• There is no micro SD slot

Conclusion

Xiaomi MI3 is a special Android smartphone. Although the brand they are relatively not very well known, but if attractively packaged and given a reasonable price positioning, I believe Xiaomi will successfully gain a foothold in the Android smartphone market. Materials and build quality is relatively good, very fast performance, including one of the other reasons.