On paper, the Mi 4 is an insane deal. A solidly-built 5-incher (1080p) with a powerful Snapdragon 801, 3GB of RAM, a pair of 8MP/13MP Sony cameras at the front and back, and a long-lasting, 3080 mAh battery. And the price tag? That's the best part – the Mi 4 costs about 3.800.000 IDR, at least in Indonesia.
All of this actually sounds tot good to be true, and some of us tend to be somewhat skeptical towards such things. Should we give voice to our skepticism in this case, though? Time to find out!
In the box:
Wall charger
USB cable
SIM ejector tool
Design
While a number of Chinese manufacturers are always trying to clone Apple's products, we have a different approach with the Xiaomi Mi4 – the company might borrow a detail here and there, but it then goes off in its own direction.
While we do think that the Mi 4's predecessor, the Mi3, is a more unique-looking device, there's no arguing against the fact that Xiaomi has crafted a very, very compelling device nevertheless. The Mi 4 is defined by its stout stainless steel frame that adds just enough heft to the device to make it worth obsessing over its safety, even though it appears to be well-equipped to handle accidental bumps and even small drops. That seeming contradiction is kind of funny, especially seeing as everything else about the Mi 4 screams “reliable” – absolutely nothing creaks or moves with this phone. It really has no give. This same high level of execution also holds true for the power and volume key, both of which are located on the right side of the steel frame and provide good tactile feedback. On the top side, Xiaomi has fitted a 3.5 mm audio jack and an infrared blaster for control over home electronics.
The rest of the Mi 4's design isn't as impressive, but still pretty attractive. The (removable) back plate is made out of glossy plastic, but it's the good kind of plastic – sturdy, with an attractive finish and a diamond-like texture that adds a subtle brush of polish. The front is a bit generic-looking, though – only the large opening for the monstrous front-facing camera stands out, along with the capacitive navigation keys (yay for those!). The traditional “Mi” logo is seen on the top left, next to the fairly large slit for the proximity sensor.
All in all, while we wouldn't call the Mi 4's design original per se, the way this thing is built is quite remarkable and the device is still plenty attractive.
Display
Most manufacturers aren't very open about the companies they source components such as the display from, but Xiaomi doesn't belong to that group. We know for a fact that, depending on the batch, Xiaomi makes use of 5-inch, 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution (441 ppi) IPS panels made by either Sharp or JDI (a joint venture between Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi). It's an attractive, bright, and sharp display, but it's not perfect.
Indeed, even with the optimal “Warm” color profile on, the display's measured color temperature of 7392 K falls north from the reference value of 6500 K and the image has a slight purplish tint. In fact, the higher the brightness of the screen, the more over-represented blue is – generally at the expense of green. Moving on, the screen's color fidelity is also a bit out of whack, with measured average Delta E rgbcmy color inaccuracy of 4.82, which is about average. In non-tech lingo, this means that the various shades of primary (red, green, blue) and secondary (cyan, magenta, yellow) colors are generally off target. That's true regardless of which of the available color profiles you choose. Thankfully, so long as you stick to “Warm”, you can expect a perfect gamma – we measured 2.2, which is spot-on.
As for brightness, the Mi 4's display peaks at 490 nits, which is pretty good. Thankfully, the laminated cover glass is not nearly as reflective as the one on the Xiaomi Mi3, so outdoor visibility is also good.
Interface and functionality
The first ever Xiaomi product wasn't a hardware one – it was software. We're, of course, referring to the company's wildly-popular custom Android skin, MIUI (pronounced “Me You I”), which is available for a staggering amount of non-Xiaomi devices, too, including major competitors such as Samsung, HTC, LG, and so on.
Our own Mi 4 makes use of the latest major iteration of MIUI – V6, based on Android 4.4.4 KitKat – and is likely one of the best executed manufacturer Android skins out there. MIUI 6 is light, but feature-filled, and though it is heavily-inspired by Apple's iOS design-wise, it is still stunningly-beautiful. Everything, from the Calculator, through the Compass and Clock apps, down to the various animations that follow you when navigating the UI – all have been designed within a framework that puts emphasis on both aesthetics and function.
Perhaps the first thing newcomers are bound to notice with MIUI is the lack of an app drawer – all your icons are stored on your homscreens, of which you can have as many or as little as you want. The notification panel, which you can call up by simply swiping down anywhere on the homscreen, is also smarter than on stock Android – for example, whenever you have no “priority” notifications, you'll be redirected straight to the toggles pane, and vice-versa. By priority we mean stuff other than app updates – like a missed call or a new Viber or Facebook message.
Another useful feature of MIUI is the included Themes app, which is hooked up to Xiaomi's servers. You can browse through thousands of different free and paid themes that change the look and feel of your Mi 4 from the ground-up, but do prepare yourself for an onslaught of Chinese characters – there's as of yet no translation for the store. We can't possibly go through all the remaining features, but we'll mention one more – unlike the Mi 3, the Mi 4 has no dedicated “gloves mode”. Instead, the screen will always register your touches even if you're gloved – you no longer need to fiddle with the settings.
Processor and memory
In its short history, Xiaomi has never once dropped the ball with performance – its devices have consistently conducted themselves greatly. This is, in part, thanks to the software, but also due to the high-end hardware Xiaomi typically makes use of.
The Mi 4 is no exception. Powered by a potent quad-core Snapdragon 801 with four Krait 400 cores ticking at 2.5GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU, along with 3 gigs of RAM, this phone is no slouch – and it shows. Whether we're talking about general navigation throughout the interface or playing Asphalt 8-level graphics-intensive games, it's fair to say that the Mi 4 delivers. But there's a caveat that's worth talking about.
The Mi 4 has two distinct performance “modes” available through the Battery menu – “Balanced” (default) and “Performance”. It shouldn't be too hard to guess what the idea behind either is – the former is more conservative and puts a cap on the maximum achievable clock speeds of the processor's cores in order to conserve battery, while the latter allows it to go all out. We ran our usual suite of performance benchmarks with both modes on (the ones you're seeing below are for the default “Balanced” mode), and the differences in performance are there – when left to go full out, the Mi 4 lands among the best we've tested. Otherwise, it is quite ordinary with its scores.
Finally, in terms of storage, the Mi 4 comes in two flavors – a 16GB and 64GB one. If you're hoping that you can build on top of that, however, you'll be disappointed to hear that no microSD slot is to be found on board Xiaomi's latest.
Internet and connectivity
Built into the MIUI software is a default Browser that is a decent performer. Heavier pages aren't handled as well as with Chrome, but those are becoming more and more rare on mobile, so most of the time you're getting a smooth experience. We still prefer Chrome as it's an all-around better performer and can sync with its desktop counterpart, but some of you might want to stick with the default solution due its extended functionality set.
So, what have we got here? Well, for starters, we've got a dedicated reader mode that does away with images so that you can focus on the message with no distractions. There's also a night mode which switches the theme to a dark one – handy when browsing in bed. Also available is an ad/pop-ups blocker, along with a feature that allows you to save some of your monthly data allowance by compressing data.
On the hardware side of the connectivity equation, we've got Bluetooth 4.0, 5GHz Wi-Fi, support for MHL, and an infrared blaster that can be used as a remote for pretty much all your home electronics that work with one. There's no NFC chip found on board, by the way – according to Xiaomi, just 1% of the user base actually ever used it, so it failed to make the shortlist this time around. Unfortunately, LTE is also missing on our version of the Mi 4 – that perk is currently reserved for a different version of the Mi 4 that won't work with most carriers around the globe.
Call quality
The Xiaomi Mi 4 is equipped with a noise-canceling duo of microphones – one nestled within the loudspeaker on the bottom, and another at the back, above the camera lens. The combo does a decent job isolating your voice from the background when on a call, but overall quality is only slightly above average. Indeed, while tonal information is preserved fairly well and the other side will hear you well enough at maximum volume, there will still be some distortion to your voice.
As for the speaker, we found ourselves wishing that it delivered just a slightly higher volume – other metrics proved to be above average.
Battery life
If you happen to have a suction cup lying around, you'll be able to lift off the seemingly non-removable back cover of the Mi 4, under which you'll find the device's battery. The 3080 mAh unit is quite generous, and our tests show that it is quite the performer, too. We already talked about Balanced and Performance modes earlier, so bear in mind that the test was carried out in the default (Balanced) mode the device comes in.
Anyway, the Xiaomi Mi 4 clocked the excellent 8 hours 32 minutes on our custom battery life benchmark, which puts it alongside some of the all-time highest-scoring devices we've tested. It's still behind heavyweights such as the Sony Xperia Z3 and the Motorola DROID Turbo, but ahead of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5, the HTC One M8, the Apple iPhone 6, and the LG G3.
The juicer is also fairly quick when it comes to regaining its charge – it needed 126 minutes to go from zero to 100% when using the wall charger provided in the box.
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