Xiaomi Mi4
Xiaomi has finally released their latest flagship smartphone and it comes as no surprise that it will be called the Mi4. The Xiaomi Mi4 is a culmination of the company’s tireless design work and their years of experience in making and some may even say knocking-off smartphones. There’s no doubt that the Xiaomi Mi3 felt like a bizarre mix of a Nokia phone and some other Android phones in terms of design. So, clearly Xiaomi wanted to have a more unique design themselves and to build a quality device. Because of this, they’ve opted to build the Xiaomi Mi4’s body completely out of metal, to give it that rigid and premium feel that they lacked with plastic. Judging by the design and quality of materials, Xiaomi is clearly coming after the iPhone 5S and other similar competitors. This body is a combination of magnesium alloys and stainless steel in order to accomplish the most rigid and sturdy body while also still being fairly lightweight.
Xiaomi Mi4 Front and Back
In terms of specs, the Xiaomi Mi4 delivers on what many would have expected from the company, but it understandably doesn’t have the best of everything when compared to their pricier competitors. The phone itself sports a 5″ 1080P Sharp LCD display, which is on par with much of what we’re seeing from Samsung and HTC in their current generation of devices, but lagging behind LG and their 5.5″ 1440P display. Xiaomi has also opted for dual Sony cameras on the Mi4 with a f/1.8 13 megapixel Sony IMX 214 CMOS main camera and a whopping 8 megapixel front-facing camera. This combination together makes the Mi4 one of the highest combined resolution phones on the market. It is also capable of shooting 4K video, even though the display itself isn’t a 4K display or anywhere near it.
The phone also has an expected Snapdragon 801 accompanied by impressive 3GB of RAM onboard, which should make running multiple intensive applications a breeze. Very few phones right now have 3GB of RAM in them with the exception of the Galaxy Note 3. They’re also offering different models with storage capacities ranging from 16GB to 64GB, as well as a battery capacity of 3000 mAh. Xiaomi has also introduced some amazing quick charging with the Mi4, including 2A battery charging for a quick charge and 1.5A charging for regular charging. It will also have awesome wireless functionality that Xiaomi’s phones have lacked in the past thanks to the Snapdragon 801, gaining LTE connectivity and also having 802.11ac Wi-Fi, making this by far Xiaomi’s best phone to date. On top of all that, the phone will be incredibly affordable with the 16GB version selling for roughly $320 and the 64GB version for around $399.
Xiaomi Mi4 Back Covers
It will also come in multiple colors with various backs, in order to help people in urban areas to differentiate themselves from the rest of the black brick masses, even though this phone is being offered in black and white.
There’s no word yet on the phone’s international availability, but thanks to some Asian companies (like Rakuten) it is no longer that difficult to buy Xiaomi phones stateside, and they don’t necessarily gouge you on price either. The Xiaomi is without a doubt a very premium phone for a very reasonable price and it will be interesting to see how well it does against the VERY similarly specced Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8.
