Xiaomi Mi 4i: Impresses, with a little tut-tutting

Right size, top-notch features; camera, processor could've been better though

The new Xiaomi Mi 4i, Vice-President Hugo Barra was insistent at the launch and at a demonstration of the phone's innards the next day to a select group of journalists, is designed "4 India". The dual-SIM (both 4G) 4i does pack quite a lot in its iPhone-ish hard-plastic unibody design.

Take the display size. Until recently, it seemed Indians couldn't be satisfied even as smartphones kept getting bigger. Now, Barra said, Xiaomi's market research showed we prefer five-inch displays. So while designing the 4i Barra and his team took that size as a constraint, not forgetting they couldn't cut corners on a high-end experience only because they were eyeing primarily the lower class of the mid-range users. The Xiaomi display is "true" full high-definition - "there are 1080p displays and there are 1080p displays", as Barra noted. Crisp, sharp, vivid colours and perfect viewing angles. The white or black matte-finish non-removable back panel and the rounded edges enhance the premium finish. The 4i is light and small enough for use with one hand.

XIAOMI MI 4I

• PRICE: Rs 12,999
• DISPLAY: 5” 1,080x1,920p
• OS: MIUI 6.0 (Android 5.0.2)
• PROCESSOR: Snapdragon 615 quad-core 1.7GHz & quad-core 1.1GHz
• MEMORY: 16GB
• RAM: 2GB
• CAMERA (rear/front): 13MP/5MP
• BATTERY: 3,120mAh Li-ion

The interface is the MIUI 6 skin - awesome as always - built over the latest Android Lollipop version.

Apart from the Rs 12,999 price tag, the clinchers for the 4i are its compactness, the Sunlight Display and the battery. The Sunlight Display isn't a new technology but Xiaomi has decided to make it a selling point - and wisely so. If you're using the camera outdoors, the darker regions of the picture on your display - and only on the display, not on the actual image - are lit up so you have a better idea of what you're clicking despite the blinding sunlight. Hence the name Sunlight Display. By the way, it works for the keypad, too.

However, if I were to buy the phone I'd buy it solely for the battery. Barra kept repeating at the post-launch meeting that unlike the Chinese, Indians had still not graduated to a level where they measured and judged the experience, not the specsheet. Though a lot of phones - even the high-end ones - keep overwhelming customers with 3,000mAh-plus figures, several of those batteries don't deliver even a day's worth of juice for moderate use. The 4i is not one of these. Despite its small size, Barra said, the 4i had packed into it a 3,120mAh battery. For this, he said, they had to give up on the microSD slot. Tsk tsk: So only 16GB in total you have onboard.

The camera, however, disappointed. Though snaps clicked outdoors on an afternoon came out good, in bright indoor conditions the images lacked detailing. Having said that, what you will still be impressed by is the torch feature on the MIUI camera app that keeps the flash on (you can also put it on auto mode) in badly lit places.

Another let-down, which I noted in the first impression, too, was the processor. It's a little surprising as the Mi 3, which cost the same, was launched with a faster Snapdragon chipset. Now, I mentioned earlier Barra's frustration at Indians getting bogged down in specsheets. But is he arguing for dismissing benchmark scores? On the AnTuTu benchmark, the 4i scored a lowly 21,508, much below the Mi 2, the Mi 3, the Mi 4 and, gosh, even the Redmi Note.

Should you buy it? How much choice do you have? There aren't enough of this and others of its ilk going around. No wonder, 40,000 4is got sold in seconds at the first flash sale.