The Xiaomi Mi Note is a beautifully designed smartphone that is well finished. Although the specifications of the Mi discs are fine, the smartphone is not as fast.
>Pros
- Reasonably affordable
- Beautiful design
- Good screen
- Good camera
Cons
- Crackly software
- Not really fast
- Not easily available
In this review we discuss the Mi Note, the top model of perhaps the most notable manufacturer of this moment, the Chinese Xiaomi.
“With the move Xiaomi Mi discs in design a step towards the top. For Europe, it is a cheap high-ender “
Since its inception in 2010, wins Xiaomi rapidly the market. In China, the manufacturer is now the largest market share and in India it well with Xiaomi. The manufacturer sells only online and can therefore count competitive prices for its smartphones. Because Xiaomi in his unit price does not cost a lot of staff, marketing and physical stores need to be processed, the Xiaomi are often very affordable. This may result in China already prevent you for 150 euros a Xiaomi buys which is perhaps just as well as a Samsung 100 more.
Xiaomi is initially only in some Asian countries. Although the manufacturer now in an investment round good deal of money has been collected, allows an extension to the West still pending. However, you can now buy Xiaomi via multiple online stores. So was Honorbuy.com so kind to make these Mi Note.
Note Xiaomi Mi put on the face of an extra step to the top in terms of design, but you also pay for. For Xiaomi Mi Note the relatively expensive: 400 euros, in the Western market is still a good price for a high-ender. The smartphone is made of metal and glass and looks so high out. In addition, the Mi Note has very good specifications, which are similar to a smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S5. So is in the smartphone Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB RAM. In our previous review about a Xiaomi we had to quite a few marks on the software manufacturer. Xiaomi use Android, but fits though violently with user interface MIUI. We wonder whether the Mi discs have better software. Or is it mainly appearances, with the beautiful appearance of the Mi Note? In this review we try to find out.
We thank Honor Buy for the provision of this Xiaomi Mi Note
Prices and specifications
Below you can see the full specifications and current prices of the phone. This review is based on software MIUI 5.3.27 | Beta and a price of 400 euros
Unboxing
The Xiaomi Mi Note is packed in a cardboard box.. Here Mi discs located on a plateau. Below you can find quick start leaflets and a sense key to stop the SIM card in the smartphone. In addition to a micro USB cable, there is also an adapter in the box to load into the phone. A headset is missing, unfortunately. That is, given the unit price, a bit sad, but otherwise everything is fine
Design
“Aluminium, glass and tasty thin:. We find the right ingredients for a nice smartphone “
Aluminium, glass and tasty thin:. we find the right ingredients for a nice smartphone. Xiaomi arrested for that matter with the Mi Note big. The edges consist entirely of aluminum, entirely of the front and rear glass. In addition, the smartphone is very thin: 7 millimeters. That looks so good.
You Look beyond those ingredients, you can see again that the Xiaomi Mi Note proves that can make it nice phones. The company exists then still not too long, in design Xiaomi improves rapidly. So runs the back of the phone to the sides diagonally. This ensures that the Xiaomi Mi discs despite its large size very comfortable in the hand.
In addition, the Xiaomi Mi Note beautifully finished and feels very sturdy, without it weighs too much . You can buy the Xiaomi Mi Note in white and black, but there is also a pink version in circulation and a version with a back of bamboo.
The design of the Xiaomi Mi Note that everything is ‘just’ find a logical place. Below the screen you will find the Android phones such typical navigation buttons. Left is the button for the mulitasken, in the middle of the home button and the return button on the right. Above the screen you’ll find on the left side of the logootje Xiaomi and right of center the selfiecamera. Turn the discs to Mi, you’ll see that the top left of the camera with two little flash. At the bottom you will see again the small, unassuming logo Xiaomi.
Then the edges. In which the left is at the top an entry for your headset. On the bottom left is the entrance to the micro USB cable. You can also find in the middle of the speakers for the phone. These are fairly large in size and similar in size only to be trumped by HTC’s Tree Sound-boxes. The back can not pick up the telephone, and thus it is not possible to remove the battery.
All in all shows Xiaomi with Mi Note that pretty smart phones can make that are finished fine. The sloping rear also ensures that the phablet good in the hand. This ensures that the Mi Note is one of the nicer smartphones that we have been reviewed this year.
“Overall shows Xiaomi with Mi discs that can make it pretty smartphones fine finished. “
” The Xiaomi Mi has discs ‘just’ a good screen for a smartphone “
Screen
The screen of the Xiaomi Mi Note has a size of 5.7 inches, which we labeled ‘phablet’ can stick on the smartphone. This display has a full HD resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and a pixel density of 386 ppi. There is also a variant of the Mi Note in circulation that has a quad HD display. This is the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. Nice of course, but a screen with a full HD resolution is also fine. Moreover, the resolution is not decisive for a beautiful screen, though of course it helps that bad.
Although we generally best to speak on the screen of the Mi Note, do have a few things to be desired. For example, the white balance is a little ‘cold’ and colors do not appear very lively. This we incidentally only noticed when we screen the Mi discs compared to that of the iPhone 6 Plus, what is one of the best smartphone screens this time.
It is only a small criticism. The viewing angle of the smartphone is in fact fine and also the clarity we have nothing to criticize. At the end of the day it remains our view that the Xiaomi Mi Note “just” has a good screen for a smartphone. Exceptionally, the display is not only, but of course we do not see as a flaw.
Performance
The Xiaomi Mi Note has specifications that suit a flagship last years. The smartphone is because a Snapdragon 801 processor. Xiaomi using the AC version of this chipset, with 400 four Krait cores clocked at 2.5GHz. In addition, the Mi discs with 3GB has a large amount of memory.
On paper, this is really good specifications, but in reality the Mi Note is in use actually a bit disappointing. The smartphone is sometimes quite rapidly, but there is often quite a bit of delay on the line. So it may sometimes happen that a website Xiaomi Mi Note ten seconds to load, while the same site at the same time through another smartphone on the same Wi-Fi network is loaded within a second. This is quite disturbing. Even while playing demanding games Mi Note has difficult. Games go then falter, and that is not conducive to the fun.
“Between the excellent hardware and the actual performance of the Mi Note seems the move often something go wrong”
Between the excellent hardware and the actual performance of the Mi Note appears regularly so the move to go wrong. Where nothing to be desired, the connectivity of the Mi Note. The Xiaomi supports 4G Internet and the reception is fine to mention. Also with the call quality is absolutely nothing wrong.
The battery has a capacity of 3000 mAh. On paper more than sufficient, but also here it is not translate into reality. Especially when you are playing a game, or the screen brightness you are full (or a combination of both), the battery is half an hour later, tens of percents in content deteriorated. The Xiaomi need after a day at night to the charger if it is not already there
Software
The Xiaomi Mi Note runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, over which his own MIUI interface. MIUI is perhaps best compared with EMUI Huawei. So you have no screen with a list of all your apps, but get all your apps similar land on the homescreen. We think this is never so fine.
In addition, Android is also quite adapted. Xiaomi here goes pretty far in. So you see at the top no notifications. Only when you go over the notification center from top to bottom of your screen you will see the notifications for example, you WhatsApp or email. This can change, however, if you want to, but it is automatically enabled so. The icons on your home screen also features a number, if for example you have ingested an email.
In our view, it is therefore not just more convenient. Visually MIUI looks pretty nice. Perhaps it looks here and there some childish, but it certainly is not ugly. Xiaomi is ambitious, and then you obviously do not turn a phone that runs on a bare version of Android, they must have thought at the company. In our view, the company had that maybe can do better.
MIUI is in fact not nearly as far as the user interfaces of Huawei, Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG, to name the most important. There are still many errors. Natural: here and there a small mistake can, but in the MIUI crack on the Mi Note the bugs. Many translations are getting bad and every day you have a message in Chinese. These are the disadvantages of a smartphone that is not for the Western market has been developed. The bugs are just a bit annoying. As Xiaomi points every day in the notification center on your data usage and can thus set a data limit. Convenient, absolutely, were it not that, if you press this, nothing happens next. After a long search in the settings menu may still. This kind of errors are distracting.
Xiaomi has some own apps included with the Mi Note. In practice, this does not make much use. So we did not use during our review Xiaomi of the browser, but Chrome from Google. Furthermore Xiaomi its own apps for example, the clock and calendar. All that is fine. All it is very important not.
You can personalize the phone through themes. For this you have to create a MIUI account. Fine, we thought. Then it took a half hour before the verification code to our phone was texted. Also updates MIUI take long to download, while our internet is fast and the update had a size of 400MB. It took at least three hours before the update was downloaded. Irritating.
Multimedia
The Mi Note has an app for music and video, but does not have an FM radio, which we find a little pity. We are not talking about the music app. We recommend you to download another app for this, such as doubleTwist or ‘just’ Google Play Music. Why? The app is awkward and poorly used. Songs on shuffle can not convert, but shuffle jumps or automatically if you any numbers on your phone for the first ten manually late. This is cumbersome and annoying. In addition, the settings menu of the app is hard to find and, by the lack of a shuffle feature, also incomplete. We are quickly bored with an app. Moreover, you get every day through the app notifications in Chinese in Chinese artists, which is a drawback of the Chinese market is referred smartphone. On the video app we have less criticism, but because the music app so did bad we decided to download the same but VLC Xiaomi’s own video app but not having to use.
” About the cameras we speak. They are pretty fast, but the software is not completely top “
Xiaomi rest Mi discs with a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 4-megapixel camera on the front. We are talking about two cameras. They work pretty fast, but the software is not completely in order and easy to use. Thus, switching between the two cameras takes relatively long and the settings will have been expanded, but then again limited in use. So we wanted to take a test picture, but failed because we were not good at the same time and with the self-timer could take a picture and the ISO speed set by us.
Here we have to put a caveat by saying that during the rest of the testing of the cameras are not irritated by the camera. The results are simply good. Pictures are taken in a short time and in addition they are rich in detail and eye colors realistic. Xiaomi has just done well in this area.
The selfiecamera thus makes 4-megapixel photos. This camera has a nice extra feature. Indeed, when he detects a face, he predicts the age of that face. Although I (Bouke) 26 am, thought the Mi Note the one time I was a man of 33 and the other time a woman of 22. The result never actually true, but if you show it to other people it does lead for entertainment.
Videos movie you with the Xiaomi Mi Note in 4K, which equals the resolution of other Android-toppers. You can record slow motion videos but also timelapses, which makes for a complete camera experience with the Mi Note.
Conclusion
Xiaomi supplies with Mi Note beautiful smartphone off, which feels very comfortable thanks to the aluminum and glass. Moreover, the smartphone looks high and the finish is more than good. Xiaomi proves with the Mi Note that not only can make discounted smartphones mainly thanks to their good hardware properly come into their own, but that it can deliver high-quality smartphones in the field of design.
In terms of design so we have nothing on the Mi Note to criticize. Are we going to look at how the phone works, then we’ll be left with a number of dots that do not like us. We understand the manufacturers themselves like to distinguish with its own user interface of each other, but do this only if you are sure you user interface is an improvement over the bare Android.
” Besides the fact that the Mi Note is bordevol bugs, also notice that the phone is not so fast. “
Xiaomi is one of the manufacturers in our opinion wrong here stores. MIUI is packed with small problems and limitations that make the Mi Note not a very pleasant phone to use. Indeed, it is at any given time just annoying and makes you quickly only annoys the phone, while there are good points to the smartphone
In addition to the fact that the Mi Note. bordevol bugs and translation mistakes is also noticeable that the phone is not so fast. Although he has good hardware, Xiaomi is not exactly a quick phone. Sometimes it takes launching an app or site inexplicably long. In addition, the battery is remarkably quickly. This improves the user experience all not for good.
We are conducting a mixed feeling about to reviewing the Xiaomi Mi Note. Yes, its design seems the manufacturer to be ready to make the step up to the West. But let there now please just wait a while: first need MIUI really are in order, because as it is now, you might be selling to the hobbyist, but not to someone who is not much looking back to his phone, but ‘m still want to use intensive
The Xiaomi Mi Note is a beautifully designed smartphone that is well finished. Although the specifications of the Mi discs are fine, the smartphone is not as fast.
>Pros
- Reasonably affordable
- Beautiful design
- Good screen
- Good camera
Cons
- Crackly software
- Not really fast
- Not easily available
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