Review - Why We Love The Xiaomi Mi Note

The Metropolitant Team played with the Xiaomi Mi Note for over a month, and we’ve subjected it to a lot of abuse. Dropped it twice, threw it in the bag without a protective cover, and left lots of apps running in the background. This phone has survived with flying colors. The phone is still nice and shiny (very shiny) with no scratches and we are pretty pleased with this phone.

For only $569 (64g), this is a great phone for those who needs a secondary phone overseas, and those looking for decent phone that performs and it won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

Look and Feel

Mi Note is thinner at 6.95mm. Unlike Apple’s iPhone, the Mi Note does not have that awful protruding carriage for the camera on the back. The Mi Note comes with rounded edges and the rear curved glass reminds us of Samsung’s Edge but flipped backwards. The feel is polished and definitely feels more premium than any of the other Xiaomi phones. Most importantly, this is one phone everyone is surprised when I tell them it’s a Xiaomi. Large beautiful screen, smooth and polished glass finish, this gadget feels awesome in your hand.

Technical Specifications

The Mi Note comes with a 5.7-inch full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The screen itself is bright and sharp, and it has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core 2.5GHz processor. However, we are still a little disappointed that only the Mi Note Pro will use the next-gen Snapdragon 810, which has not arrived in Singapore. Do note that the phone does not have microSD storage capability, but either a 16g or 64g of storage.

We particularly like one-handed mode that you activate by swiping from the home button to the left or right to reduce the onscreen display. You can also choose the size: 3.5, 4 or 4.5 inches.

User Interface

As a long time Apple fan, I’ve avoided Android for a long time. The transition from an iOS interface to another seems unlikely. 2 weeks with the Xiaomi Mi Note, other than a little difficulty with the buttons, adapting to the MIUI was a breeze.

Camera

The camera is not too shabby, but compared to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge or the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the pictures are just not as sharp and vibrant. The video quality, pictures and slow mo functions are decent. Not out of the world to impress, but it is not too bad. And when you consider the price for this phone, the camera is pretty acceptable.