Introduction:
Past few years back, users had limited choice for the selection of the smartphones. Once there was huge crazy wave of Nokia in smartphone world but later on it was washed away by Samsung and still it is carried successfully by Samsung. Picture of the competition is changing slowly as market is participated by new Chinese and Indian Companies. Micromax was one of the beginners Company to successfully occupy some of the market share ruled by Samsung and others. Chinese companies Oppo, Meizu and Huawei too came up with powerful smartphones but Xiaomi was one of these companies who made huge impact in smartphone world with its flagship called Mi 3 and without wasting time Xiaomi has planned new flagship Mi 4 and new tablet too.
Xiaomi Mi 4 has all set to capture the market of its own predecessor as company is claiming to present stronger and much efficient smartphone. Xiaomi don’t want to lose rhythm and so they are regularly updating its device at regular interval. Improved design with different patterns, textures and more compact than its predecessor. Camera specs and UI of the OS has been improved compare to its predecessor. Still we are going to go through each and every aspect of this smartphone in detail and throw our final words about the phone.
Xiaomi Mi 4 Highlights:
- Android 4.4 KitKat OS with MIUI V5
- 5 inch Full HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla glass protection
- 1920 x 1080 pixels with 441 PPI
- 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor
- 3GB of RAM
- 16 and 64 GB internal memory storage, no expandable memory
- 13 Megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, Sony IMX214 BSI sensor, 6-element lens and f/1.8 aperture with 4K video recording
- 8 Megapixel front-facing camera with Sony Exmor R sensor, 5-element lens , f/1.8 aperture
- Infrared LED
- 4G LTE (Optional), 3G, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz), WiFi Direct, Bluetooth and GPS
- 3080 mAh battery, quick charging at 9V/1.2A or 5V/2A
Design and Packaging:
Mi 4 is concentrated in design section a lot, previous version of Mi was amazing and well-designed but new flagship is improved lot more. Body of the smartphone is plastic but comes with different colors and also gives option to customize your smartphone with wooden textured panel as well as other designer panel. Chinese manufacturer knows the importance of the design section and so it has adopted design concept from Moto X. Xiaomi Mi 4 has stuffed phone with good weight of 149grams which is quite reasonable like Xiaomi’s predecessor. Xiaomi measures 139.2 x 68.5 x 8.9mm in dimension. Grip on this phone feels good and you will feel solid metal frame with flat sides design.
It is simple subtly and elegant design compare to Lumia like design of its previous flagship. As Mi 4 is given with customizable back panels so it has removable back panel. Stainless steel frame of the phone is the key factor of design section which adds premium look to it. Back panel is made of glossy plastic which acts as fingerprint magnet. Controls on this phone are almost similar to its predecessor with same 5-inch display with thin bezels. Above the display phone has earpiece, 8MP selfie camera, sensors and on the left top small Mi branding can be seen. Below the screen have three capacitive touch buttons for home, back and option key buttons.
Right side of the phone has volume key and power buttons whereas left side of the phone has microSIM card slot as back of the smartphone is replaceable but cannot remove battery out of the phone. Back of the phone has plastic panel with primary camera and flash on the center. Lower bottom of the smartphone is given with Mi branding back of the smartphone looks clean and attractive. Top shelf of the Mi 4 is given with 3.5mm audio jack and IR blaster to control various appliances like TV, media player, air conditioners etc. Below the phone has speakers and microUSB slot to charge your device as well as connect it to your computer or laptop via USB cable. Design section of Mi 4 is good and more compact compare to its previous flagship.
Display / Screen:
Display of every smartphone by Xiaomi is just amazing, we already saw Mi 3 was featured with full HD display with packed pixel density; same here is carried by Xiaomi. Mi 4 has 5-inch display with full HD resolution and pixel density of 441ppi. Denser pixel means more accurate colors and viewing angles of the display. Now most of the smartphones are launched with 441ppi pixel density with full HD resolution but Xiaomi has also made use of IPS technology to enhance the display and keep pace in the market.
Display has fine viewing angle allowing you to view movies from different angles comfortably without experiencing loss of color. Sun-legibility of the display is good it allows you to view or read content easily under bright light. Brightness is the chief improvement compare to Xiaomi Mi 3. Xiaomi is providing options for color temperature and saturation, so you can tweak the display to your liking. We were hoping that Mi 4 will possess some display protective feature like having display with Gorilla Glass protection but this is absent in Mi 4’s display.
Software and UI:
Mi 4 is running on Android 4.4.3 KitKat OS fairly customized with proprietary MIUI v5. Customized UI of the Xiaomi run very deep and replace everything including all Google services, but if you wish to use Google services you can get them from the Mi Market app. Xiaomi has lots of customization depending upon the region, if you are in China then Mi 4 will not posses any Google Services but if you are in different region your Mi 4 will be provided with Google Services pre-installed. Default gallery app is included with MIUI v5 which defaults to your camera roll with two shortcuts at the bottom that will take you to album view of your local images and album view of your cloud pictures.
