Xiaomi Mi 3 Review Roundup. Pricing Info
Xiaomi (pronounced 'show-mee') is one of China's biggest phone manufacturers, though they have have yet to make a huge impact outside of the Asian marketplace. If the build quality of their latest flagship device is any indicator, that may all be about to change--and soon.
The Xiaomi Mi 3 launched in China late last year and then saw individual launches in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and India in the months that followed. The device has been overwhelmingly well-received by users and critics alike, and why not?
The Mi 3 has a beautiful aluminum body to go along with its generous 5-inch display, which is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and it retails for just $270 off-contract. The only downside appears to be lack of 4G LTE support, but if 3G speeds are all you need, the Mi 3 might be for you.
Let's see what the top tech reviewers are saying about the Xiaomi Mi 3:
CNET:
"The Good - Xiaomi's flagship phone has a beautiful aluminum-magnesium chassis, solid build quality, powerful performance, and a great UI for a relatively low price.
The Bad - The smartphone lacks LTE connectivity, and a microSD card slot means you'll only ever have 16GB of onboard storage.
The Bottom Line - Xiaomi's Mi 3 is a showcase of how Chinese phonemakers can create quality hardware without breaking the bank. If you don't need 4G LTE, and you can get hold of it, this is one of the best smartphones you can buy in its price range."
"Screen transitions were a little jerkier than I would have expected with the powerful Tegra 4 processor, for one thing. The speaker made the whole bottom of the phone vibrate in a surprising way. And several of Xiaomi's custom apps quit upon launch. While the Mi3 looks great before you turn it on, after about five minutes it didn't feel like it had the finish of the latest top-of-the-line phones from Samsung, HTC, and Apple.
But maybe, at $330, it doesn't have to. That's less than half the price of an iPhone 5C, which costs $728 in China with a much smaller screen and older processor. Xiaomi's ongoing success will be a test of the "good enough" theory - if it is indeed buggy, it'll show whether Chinese consumers are willing to put up with some bugs to get something that's kind of like an aspirational smartphone, but at a more affordable price."
"The Mi-3 1080p screen, which is sourced from LG, is extremely responsive and the resolution very clear. As the Mi-3 runs on either Nvidia Tegra 4 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors, its performance is super high-speed. I played a car-racing game on the Mi-3 and was very impressed. The car in my game responded extremely well to how I tilted the phone, and the graphics were very real.
For this price point though (the 16GB version of the Mi-3 is going for CNY1,999 or about $327), you really cannot find another phone with the same specs, even though there is still much room for design improvements. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S4 costs more than double the amount at CNY5,199 ($850)."
So, there you have it. The Xiaomi Mi 3 is a great value at around $300, but you don't get 4G LTE support. Check back with us soon for more review roundups on the latest mobile devices.