Xiaomi Mi 4i Honest Review: Specifications, Pros & Cons

Xiaomi, right after introducing Mi4 into the market, has introduced the mini version of it, the Mi 4i that resembles the iPhone’s 5C version. The new Mi device tags with a price of Rs.12,999 and the registration for flash sales have already started on Flipkart.

The 5-inch Chinese smartphone looks more appealing than its previous versions. Let’s take a look at the specifications and benchmarks of the handset and see if this can rule the budget phone market in the country.

Design

Mi 4i looks compact and comes in a unibody premium design. the material is covered with soft touch matte material. The volume rocker and power button are made up of stainless steel and placed on the right side of the device. It has a pop-out micro SIM card slot that supports dual 4G SIM of LTE+LTE bands on the left, a headphone jack on the top, charging port on the bottom and the loudspeakers on the backside at the bottom.

The back cover comes in interesting colors and it reminds me of the iPhone 5C phones. Expect the white and black colored versions, all the other colors come with glossy back panels. The black and white versions come with matte material on the back.

Impression: The design is impressive and the build quality is pretty good for this price range.

Display

The screen on Mi 4i is a 5 inch JDI(Japan Display Inc.), IPS 1080p HD display that is responsive to the sunlight. It adjusts the tone of the images in brighter sunlight giving more detail to them.

The display is so clear and it renders 441 PPI on it with 178⁰ viewing angle which is great.

Xiaomi claims Mi 4i as a flagship device and so displays the line “only flagship phones have 1080p display” on their website. You can also find it being compared with the iPhone 6’s retina HD display which can only render 326 PPI.

We could see 400+ PPI screen clarity on Huawei Honor devices and be aware of it all through this review.

Another technological advancement on Mi 4i’s display is the Corning OGS glass that thins down the air gaps between screen layers and also protects the screen from scratches.

The display is 7% larger than the iPhone 6’s 4.7 inch screen. Though it is, the phone will not look larger than the iPhone but a bit wider.

Impression: The not so large 5 inch screen that looks as large as iPhone 6 with 441 PPI capability is pretty impressive. This screen and picture quality is a true value for money.

Performance

Xiaomi Mi 4i comes equipped with 2nd generation Snapdragon 615 64-bit Octa-Core processor that runs at 1.7GHz clock speed supported by Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB LPDDR3 RAM.

Snapdragon 615 processor had heating issues in the past with Redmi phones and word 2nd generation looks promising about its solvation.

Mi 4i comes with 16 GB internal memory of which only 10.6 GB is available for the user.

Impression: Snapdragon 615 2nd generation is a mid-range processor supported with 2 GB RAM. The past impression on this processor about heating issues is a quite pull back.

There is no external SD card slot on the device and the availability of only 16 GB variant is a bit disappointing.

Battery

Battery is always a concern. No matter how better the hardware and software configuration is, a weak battery will make it look down.

Mi 4i has powerful 3120mAh that runs all the day even on hard use. The battery power is a great addition to powerful processor and RAM.

Impression: There is not doubt about the performance of the battery. 3120mAh is truly a power house.

Connectivity

Mi 4i is a dual SIM 4G variant. Both slots support 4G LTE bands along with 3G TD-SCDMA & WCDMA bands and 2G GSM.

It has other connectivity features like Bluetooth 4.1, Bluetooth HID, Dual-band Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz, Wi-Fi Display and Wi-Fi direct.

Impression: Mi brand with 4G dual SIM support is cherry on the cake. It is one of the pros of Mi 4i.

Camera

Mi 4i comes with 13MP rear camera with 5-element lens and f/2.0 aperture. It has two-tone flash, supports manual mode, has real-time HDR and records 1080p videos.

It has 5MP front camera with 5-element lens, 80⁰ wide angle lens and f/1.8 aperture which takes high quality selfies.

Impression: 13MP rear and 5MP front camera is not a new factor. SO, camera gives a neutral impression.

Pros

• Not so large 5 inch HD display
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 2nd generation processor
• 2GB RAM
• Powerful battery
• Dual standby SIMs with LTE support
• Good camera

Cons

• Past heating issues with Snapdragon 615 processor
• No SD card support
• No other memory variant other than 16GB [Update: 32 GB variant made available]
• Have to wait and register to get hands-on the device. Available in open sale now.
• Fear of discontinuing the device(like as Mi3)
• Less of number of service centers in India
• Still that IAF warning in mind