While at Google I/O, we got the chance to meet with Xiaomi and see what’s new. Which includes the Xiaomi Mi 4i. Which is their “mid-range flagship” according to the company’s CEO. Which I think is pretty accurate. The biggest thing about the Mi 4i is that it’s a compact smartphone, with a huge battery inside. It feels a lot like the Nexus 5, actually with it’s polycarbonate back. It has a 5-inch 1080p display, which is pretty surprising for the price of the Mi 4i. Speaking of which, it’s priced at about $200. Not a bad price at all. And would definitely disrupt the market here in North America if Xiaomi could make their way over here.
Speaking of specs, the 5-inch 1920×1080 resolution display is from Sharp and JDI, which has a PPI of 441. There’s also a second generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor which is 64-bit and clocked at 1.7GHz. On the graphics side, there’s an Adreno 405 GPU. Paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and a 3120mAh battery inside. We have a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP camera on the front. Additionally it features 2 micro SIM card slots. On the software side, it’s MIUI 6, which is running on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.
I’ve only had the Xiaomi Mi 4i for a few hours, so no full review just yet – hang on for that! But I can give you some impressions. It’s a pretty impressive smartphone. For a smartphone that’s $200, it’s pretty amazing. Honestly. The screen is very good, it’s not a QHD display, but for a 1080p display, its darn good. Especially considering it’s not a flagship. Well not a high-end flagship device. It feels really great in the hand as well, and as most of you know, that’s always an important feature as well.
We’ll be putting the Xiaomi Mi 4i through it’s paces through the next few weeks and getting a full review put together, so make sure you stay tuned for that. So far we have nothing but great things to say about this device. As always, if you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer them!
