MI4 (White, 16 GB)

I have used Mi3 for almost one year, then I purchased Mi4i and used for 2 months and then when I found price drop in Mi4 I decided to buy MI4 🙂 and gave my Mi4i to my sister.

Bunch of thanks to Flipkart for Big App Shopping Days. I purchased this phone in 12,599/- only.
I will compare all three phones [Mi4i, Mi3 & Mi4] as I have used them enough to know its performance and all.

Display:-
In terms of display I would say Mi4i display is bit better then Mi3 & Mi4. Still Mi4 have far better display then other phones available in market till 25k price range.

Looks:-
Mi4i looks good and slimmer however the back plastic makes it mid range phone. I love the metal frame of Mi4 which makes it premium phone. Built quality is top notch.

Performance:-
Well, No comparison. This phone is killer and running buttery smooth. Touch is Great and smooth. Have played high end games and it runs flowless. Thumsup for its purformance.

Camera:- Among all Mi4i, Mi3, Mi4’s cam is better. Front cam is awesome too.

Sound output:- Again Mi4’s sound is amazing then other two.

I will say about Heating as many of users are complaining about this. I don’t know why people is giving nagative feedback for this. I updated latest version of MIUI6.5.3 and charged my phone many times from 20-100% and there is no heating issue.

Only cons I found is, 16GB of non expandable storage which dosen’t matter to me at all. I believe this phone is worth @20,000/- too.

Just click on Add to Cart button and have it one for your self 😉 !!!

1) Battery Life:
It’s important to note that it’s a Lithium Ion battery, so the 1st time you turn on your phone, you should immediately charge it until it is fully charged and then for 6 additional hours. This will not only increase your battery life, but make sure that the natural decline in battery life over the months is mitigated. Although I agree with many people that theoretically this problem should be absent with Li. Batteries, but from a practical standpoint it does matter.

My battery lasts almost 2 full days, with moderate use (wifi/data is always on).
My charging is also phenomenal. If I’m not mistaken, the phone has Quick charge (ver2.0) upto 80%. No complaints here.

2) Low lighting pictures:
I agree that if you just focus and snap the picture, it comes out grainy in a low-light setting. However, after tapping to focus, you will notice there is a little dotted/lined circle which you can rotate. By rotating this clock-wise or anti-clockwise, you can change the light exposure. Set it higher than 1.0, but no more than 1.5 – 1.7.
There is also a dedicated mode for night-time shots, but I have not checked it out yet.
I’ve taken a few great photos in pitch-darkness.

3) Heating issue:
First of all, keep in mind that given these specs crammed into the phone and due to the metal body, it has a natural propensity to generate heat and conduct it effectively to the surface. However, I do agree that this phone runs hot after extended-moderate to heavy use. After talking to a few reviewers on youtube, it seems that the mi4 on miui v5, did not have this issue, to this extent. So this appears to be a software optimization problem. Hopefully, Xiaomi releases an update to help alleviate this. Just make sure that you are not downloading the developer roms; stick to stable releases.

4) Back panel is slippery: I agree, it is. But no one in this day and age keeps a premium phone without a case. Just get the Nillkin black case, Has great traction.

Now, I just want to add a few small notes.
The 8MP front-facing camera: For all you selfie-lovers, it’s one of the best I’ve seen in the market in this price-bracket.
Also, there are a lot of hidden features, that some of you might like, so just check it out on youtube. Look for MiUi tips and tricks, or hidden features, or some variation of that.

All in all, great specs, great build quality, great support by the company. And now that the 64Gb version is out in India, all that’s missing for me is the black version of this phone. 😛

Here is my experience with this device .I bought this phone on its first sale.Then after facing some issues i send the replacement request to flipkart. Again i checked all its functionality also i checked the phone of my friend but following issues are common in all.
1) its camera gives greenish and yellowish effect when we use its flash light specially in room light condition or in no light condition .it will make your face fully yellowish when you will use its flash light but In daylight condition (without flash light) it capture good photos.
This camera issue is also in mi4 3g 64 gb version.
2) some who are thinking that this is 4g device are wrong . this is 3g device (old version) (not 4g fdd lte)
on net all good reviews are about mi4 4g fdd-lte version.There is no problem in camera of 4g fdd lte version.
3) it heats like hell when we play games.
For eg: when i played asphat 8 for 2 minutes then i checked its temperature it was more than 50 c
Edited : Date 3.5.2015
IMPORTANT TECHNICAL INFORMATION :
– Problem number 3 is not the issue.I studied about 2.5 GHz + Qualcomm MSM8274AC Snapdragon 801 Krait 400, Quad Core
and I found the information that its operating temperature is between 0 to 70°C
means for its CPU max up to 70°C temp is safe.But if others hardware are also heating then your device needs replacement.
for eg- normally(without – playing games AND without using 3g internet ) it should not heats more than 45c. Battery temp also matters.
Battery should be charge under temp 1 to 45c.
OTHER INFORMATION :
oneplus one does not heats more than 50c and it is running on same processor.Normal temperature of onle plus one is 36-37 and where as normal temperature of this mi4 3g version is 43-44.So this thing is true that it heats more than others phones.

I am not going to write about each component individually cause every part of the phone is awesome (Screen, looks etc) and truly a flagship phone class. I am only going to write about few components where something is wrong or could be improved.
Again mind you I have given it 4 star rating so its a AWESOME PHONE, just writing the negatives as they are few compared to positives which are too many. Also i am upgrading from Mi 3.

Getting Hot: Its heats up almost to a point of unbearable, specially when charging and using simultaneously. But even when doing cpu intensive jobs while not charging it does heat up real fast (this could be a possible deal breaker for a lot many users)

Battery: Not getting enough out of it, although it is 3080 mAh. I was using mi3 and i can safely say after 8 days of use, Mi3 had a better battery. It doesn’t last me the entire day. After checking battery stats screen is the biggest battery consumer. So no apparent bad app which is causing this. (Brightness is at 40% and on auto brightness)

Speaker: Good enough, but not best.

MIUI skin: I personally preferred MIUI 5 to MIUI 6. its was much more snappier and fast. (In a bid to look good MIUI did compromise on speed and usability)

No 4G: Not really a deal breaker, as using 4G on phone was gonna kill battery real fast, and 4G currently doesn’t really matter, cause i am happy 6 – 8 MBPS speed 3g is giving. What would i do with 15-25 MBPS speed on phone? Specially when data is so expensive.

No Expandable memory: Real shame Xiaomi, no real excuse for them not to give it.

Price: With no 4G and 16gb memory, I think 17k was a sweet spot specially considering 14k was for Mi3. Still 20k is not a bad deal at all.

In the end just buy this phone!!!! Its truly great and I am willing to compromise my using habits to overcome the negatives mentioned above.