Detailed review of Xiaomi Mi4i. Xiaomi Mi4, Mi4i, Mi4c smartphones - how are they different? Brief information and performance tests

Compact mid-range model with a five-inch screen

The Xiaomi Mi 4i smartphone, which went on sale this spring, is essentially not only an updated, but also a simplified modification of the main flagship model Mi 4, which headed the line of smartphones of the famous Chinese company last fall.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi smartphones have not officially begun to be delivered to the Russian market, although the company has already taken the first steps in this direction with the release of the MiPad tablet. So the Xiaomi Mi 4i smartphone, which became the hero of today's review, came to us from "unofficial" sources, but this does not detract from its merits in the least. There are enough fans of this brand in our country, the interest in Xiaomi products is great, and in the current financial conditions, the choice in favor of such high-quality, but not yet too expensive Chinese products looks more and more justified in the eyes of thrifty compatriots.

Main characteristics of Xiaomi Mi 4i

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939), 8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.65 GHz
• GPU Adreno 405 @ 550 MHz
• Operating system Android 5.0.2, MIUI 6
• IPS touch display, 5 ″, 1920 × 1080, 441 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 16 GB
• No microSD support
• Micro-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• 2G communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• 3G connection: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
• FDD LTE data transmission (Cat4, up to 150 Mbps) 1800/2600 MHz
• Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n / ac (2 bands), WiDi
• Bluetooth 4.1
• USB 2.0, OTG
• GPS (A-GPS), Glonass, Beidou
• Camera 13 MP, f / 2.0, autofocus, LED flash
• Camera 5 MP (front), f / 1.8, fixed. focus
• Proximity sensor, lighting, accelerometer, electronic compass
• Non-removable battery 3120 mAh
• Dimensions 138 x 70 x 7.8mm
• Weight 127 g

Equipment

The packaging of Xiaomi Mi 4i is made of unpainted cardboard with a minimum number of inscriptions and is made in a traditionally minimalist style. The huge dimensions of the box are not determined by anything: the contents, together with the smartphone itself, do not take up half the volume.

The equipment itself is also ascetic. The kit included only a Micro-USB connection cable and a large charger (output current 2 A), nothing more. In such a box, there would be enough space for a lot of additional accessories - now it mainly stores air.

Appearance and usability

By design, Xiaomi Mi 4i is strikingly different from the seemingly related flagship of the company - Mi4. It immediately becomes clear that we are faced with a simplified model, which they tried to give the appearance corresponding to the place occupied: there is no metal at all in the outer part of the case, the shiny rim has disappeared, the gloss has also disappeared, the case is entirely made of matte nondescript-looking plastic without any additional complications design details. The entire body is a single plastic trough.

And at the same time, as soon as you take your smartphone in hand, you understand why Xiaomi has found so many zealous fans around the world, even in those countries where this trademark is not represented at all, like we have in Russia. Xiaomi does not know how to cheat, and that says it all. Even this inexpensive device with a plastic body, after a brief acquaintance, I don't want to let go of it anymore - this smartphone is so organic in its laconic simplicity.

The metal rim has disappeared, the catchy look and gloss that looks good on the shelf in the store - too, but in their place has been replaced by a more practical matte, slightly rough polycarbonate, which does not slip out of hands, and practically does not collect fingerprints. It is evident from everything that the material is solid and durable. Most likely, such material will retain its presentable appearance for a long time - there is simply nothing to spoil here, and small scratches on the surface of the case are not noticeable at all.

And the most important thing to note: Mi 4i is significantly smaller and lighter than its older brother, and indeed it is one of the smallest and thinnest five-inch solutions on the market. Due to the polycarbonate body, the smartphone is very light, its weight does not even exceed 130 grams. So with such a thin and light body, the smartphone can rightfully be called an elegant mobile device that is comfortable for hands of any size.

Of course, there are no replaceable covers, like the flagship Mi4, here, the body of the Xiaomi Mi 4i is completely monolithic, which implies the corresponding method of installing cards. Both SIM cards are inserted into a single side slot on a slide, the connector supports two Micro-SIM cards, but there was no place for a memory card in Xiaomi Mi 4i.

The back side of the case habitually accommodates the grille covering the speaker, the main camera and the flash. The camera module does not protrude beyond the body, and on the contrary, it is barely noticeably recessed into the metal protective ring framing it. The LED flash has two colored sections and can be used as a flashlight.

In the worst traditions of the past, the speaker is placed not in the bottom end, but on the back surface of the case, so that the sound of both the smartphone lying on the table and the smartphone in the hands is always directed in the opposite direction from the user, which makes no sense, but this makes it more convenient for developers to place elements inside the case ... A small protrusion next to the grill raises it slightly off a hard surface so that it does not block the sound.

The front panel is completely covered with a flat, rimless Corning Concore Glass protective glass, in which a small slot is cut to accommodate the earpiece grill. Next to the grill are sensors, a front camera, and an LED event indicator, the operation and even color of which the user can set independently in the corresponding section of the menu.

It's nice that, unlike Lenovo, Xiaomi does not allow itself to stoop to such pettiness as saving on user comfort, therefore, even in such an inexpensive solution, it has a full-fledged button illumination and the already mentioned LED event indicator. The control buttons located under the screen are also equipped with dual functionality: the sensors react differently to short and long touches, and all these features can be completely reconfigured by the user.

Mechanical keys are habitually placed next to each other on the same edge. The buttons are large, metallized, protrude beyond the body to a sufficient height, are easily groped blindly, have an elastic and distinct movement. In general, there are no complaints about the controls.

At the bottom of the device there is a Micro-USB connector that supports the mode of connecting external devices (USB OTG). Accordingly, the top end houses only a headphone jack (3.5 mm for a minijack). There are no plugs or covers on the case, since the device is not equipped with protection against water and dust. Not found on the case and strap mounts. The device also does not support wireless charging.

As for the colors, then the buyer has a place to roam: for its Mi 4i model, Xiaomi has prepared as many as five bright color options: from traditional white and black to more frivolous blue, pink and even yellow.

Screen

The Xiaomi Mi 4i smartphone is equipped with a Sharp / JDI IPS sensor matrix with OGS technology, combined with Corning Concore Glass. The screen dimensions are 62 × 110 mm, the diagonal is 5 inches, and the resolution is 1920 × 1080 pixels. Accordingly, the pixel density is high and amounts to 441 ppi, which looks more than worthy for a smartphone of this level.

The frame around the screen is not that thin, its width (from the screen to the edge of the case) is about 3.5 mm on the sides, and the top and bottom edges are 14 mm each.

The brightness of the display can be adjusted manually, or you can use automatic adjustment based on the operation of the light sensor. Multi-touch technology allows you to handle 10 simultaneous touches. The smartphone also has a proximity sensor that locks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear.

Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, carried out a detailed examination using measuring instruments. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the turned off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Xiaomi Mi 4i, then they can be distinguished by their size):

The screen of the Xiaomi Mi 4i is even slightly darker (brightness in the photos is 124 versus 130 for the Nexus 7). The doubling of reflected objects in the Xiaomi Mi 4i screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (such as glass / air) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong ambient light, but their repair in case of cracked outer glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, noticeably better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are much easier to remove, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with the display of the white field in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 390 cd / m², the minimum - 6 cd / m². The maximum brightness is not very high, but given the excellent anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors will be at a high level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable value. In the presence of automatic brightness control by the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front loudspeaker slot). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. This function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider. If it is 100%, then in complete darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 100 cd / m2 (excessively bright), in an office illuminated with artificial light (about 400 lux), the brightness rises to 290 cd / m2 (too much), in very in bright surroundings (corresponds to bright daylight outdoors, but no direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or slightly more) is set to 390 cd / m² (which is what you need). The brightness slider is 50% - the values \u200b\u200bare as follows: 7.5, 170 and 390 cd / m² (acceptable values), at 0% - 6, 30 and 390 cd / m² (the logic is traced). That is, the automatic brightness control function works absolutely adequately. At any brightness level, there is practically no backlight modulation, so there is no screen flickering either.

This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The micrographs show the typical IPS sub-pixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of photomicrographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift, even with large gaze deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting tints. For comparison, we present photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Xiaomi Mi 4i and Nexus 7, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m² (along the white field in full screen), and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K . White field perpendicular to screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And the test picture:

The colors on the Xiaomi Mi 4i screen are oversaturated, the color balance is slightly different. Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens, but on the Xiaomi Mi 4i the contrast decreased to a greater extent due to the strong highlighting of black. And a white box:

The brightness at an angle at the screens has decreased (at least 3 times, based on the difference in exposure). However, the screen of the Xiaomi Mi 4i is noticeably lighter at this angle. When deviated diagonally, the black field is lightened strongly, and acquires a red-violet or yellowish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is about the same!):

And from a different angle:

When viewed from a perpendicular view, the black field uniformity is excellent:

The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is not very high - about 680: 1. The response time for the transition black-white-black is 16 ms (9 ms on + 7 ms off). The transition between gray tones of 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes 24 ms in total. The gamma curve, plotted at 32 points at equal intervals by the numerical value of the shade of gray, revealed a slight blockage in the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.15, which is slightly below the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve noticeably deviates from the power dependence:

In this device, you can change the color balance by choosing two saturation profiles and one of three color temperature profiles:

Variation of the saturation profile does not lead to noticeable changes in the image, the color gamut is still noticeably wider than sRGB:

We look at the spectra:

They are atypical, but we have already seen them in the case of the Sony Xperia Z2 and several other devices, such as the Xiaomi Mi Note. Sony indicates that these screens use LEDs with a blue emitter and a green and red phosphor (usually a blue emitter and a yellow phosphor), which, in combination with special matrix light filters, allows a wide color gamut. Most likely, this statement is also true for the Xiaomi Mi 4i. The characteristics of this smartphone simply write that the coverage is very wide and is 95% of the NTSC coverage and that the colors are 32% brighter (32% more vivid) than the iPhone 6, presenting this fact as an indisputable advantage. This is a figment of the sick imagination of Xiaomi marketers who need to lure the layman. Of course, everyone who can see and without disturbances in color perception, looking at a photograph of something familiar on this screen, better at a photograph of a face, will understand what is really happening, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - are oriented towards sRGB space (and there are the vast majority of them), have an unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. An example is shown in the comparison photo above.

The balance of shades in the case of the default profile (and it is called Natural) on a gray scale is acceptable, since the color temperature is not much higher than the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the spectrum of a black body (ΔE) is below 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the color temperature and ΔE vary little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of the color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance is not very important there, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Profile selection Warm slightly improves color balance as color temperature gets closer to the standard 6500 K and ΔE gets lower on average.

Let's summarize. The screen has a sufficiently high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-reflective properties, so the device can be used outdoors without problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. It is also acceptable to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include a very effective oleophobic coating, no flicker and no air gap in the layers of the screen, excellent uniformity of the black field, as well as an acceptable color balance. Significant disadvantages are low stability of black to deviation of gaze from the perpendicular to the plane of the screen and an excessively wide color gamut, which cannot be corrected to sRGB using standard means. Nevertheless, given the importance of characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high.

Sound

The Xiaomi Mi 4i sounds good for its level. The main speaker produces a moderately loud sound, clean at all volume levels, but without noticeable presence of low frequencies. In headphones, the situation is much better: the sound is both loud and juicy, and there is enough bass. No branded headphones were included with the smartphone, but at the same time in the settings you can select specialized profiles with preset values, specially designed for specific models of headphones. Also in the proprietary music player, the user has available manual settings for controlling the sound quality in the form of preset equalizer values. In conversational dynamics, the interlocutor's speech, timbre and intonation remain recognizable.

There is an FM radio with the ability to record programs in the smartphone, it works only with connected headphones. The device is able to record telephone conversations by standard means, it is enough to press the corresponding button during a conversation right in the interface of the telephone application.

Camera

Xiaomi Mi 4i is equipped with two digital camera modules with a resolution of 16 and 5 megapixels. The front camera uses a 5-megapixel module with an f / 1.8 lens without autofocus and its own flash. Among the settings, there is the possibility of activating the portrait enhancement mode, in which the usual procedures for Asian smartphones take place to lighten the skin, whiten teeth, darken the eyes, reduce cheekbones. Such programs even learned to determine the gender and age of a person, automatically adding a profile more suitable for his type of face with a pre-prepared set of improvements. Nevertheless, the quality of shooting with the front camera of Xiaomi Mi 4i leaves much to be desired.

The main camera uses a 13-megapixel module with a five-element lens with an f / 2.0 aperture, fast tracking autofocus and dual multi-color LED flash. The authorship of the module is only hinted at by the developers' streamlined wording: "Sony / Samsung camera".

The menu for controlling the camera uses its own, which is not surprising, because the smartphone runs under the MIUI user interface. There are many settings, the menu is detailed, but you need to get used to it. For example, you cannot directly set the resolution of a picture, you can only choose between veiled definitions like "high or low quality" or "normal or wide aspect ratio". In manual mode, it is possible to influence the white balance, shutter speed, ISO level, there are also several additional modes, such as panoramic, night, decoration, and even a mode for changing the focus on an already obtained photo - this is all familiar and familiar.

The camera can shoot video up to 1080p, as well as fast and slow motion. An example video is shown below.

• Movie # 1 (35 MB, 1920 × 1080, 30 fps)

	The text has been worked out well.
	The foliage merges almost immediately.
	The camera copes with macro shooting in low light.
	Good sharpness across the field and across plans.
	The sharpness in the distant shots is almost excellent.
	The numbers of the nearest cars are distinguishable.
	Good field and shot sharpness, but falls off slightly in the corners.
	The camera works well for macro photography.

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench using our method.

The camera really worked out. Despite the fact that there are failures, in general, she works out very well. In addition, the majority of successful shots in the series - that is, the sharpness, and the development of details, and the work with noise on them are done very well. For the already quite standard 13-megapixel module, the result is really good. A laboratory test confirms the observations made. As you can see from the graph, it is mainly the corners that suffer with the deterioration of illumination, while in the center the result always remains at a fairly high level.

The camera copes well with documentary and artistic photography.

Telephone part and communications

The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and there is also support for fourth-generation LTE Cat4 networks (FDD-LTE: 1800/2600 MHz), that is, the frequencies used in Russia are also supported. In practice, with a SIM card of domestic operators MTS and Beeline, a smartphone is registered and works in LTE networks. The rest of the smartphone's network capabilities are also quite satisfactory: there is support for Bluetooth 4.1, both Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, Wireless Display (WiDi) are supported, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi channels or Bluetooth. The Micro-USB 2.0 connector supports the connection of external devices (USB Host, USB OTG), so you can connect flash drives and mice with keyboards to the Micro-USB port. But the Chinese here, as usual, have not implemented support for NFC technology.

The navigation module works with GPS / A-GPS, the domestic Glonass system and the Chinese Beidou are supported. The operation of the navigation module does not cause any particular complaints, the speed of satellites detection during a cold start is less than a minute. Among the sensors of the smartphone, a magnetic field sensor is implemented, on the basis of which the electronic compass of navigation cartographic programs usually functions.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, when dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by contacts, the settings provide for a continuous method of entering the Swype type. During a telephone conversation in the menu, you can press the record button to save the conversation, voices from both sides are recorded. For ease of operation with one hand, it is possible to change the size of the entire working area of \u200b\u200bthe screen. In the settings, you can independently choose the size of the reduced screen.

The smartphone supports work with two SIM cards. All work with them in the menu is conveniently organized on one page, all settings are conveniently arranged, the menu is presented clearly and intuitively. Any of the SIM cards can be assigned as the primary one for voice calls or data transmission. A SIM card in any slot can work with 3G / 4G networks, however, only one of the cards can function in this mode at a time. To change the assignment of card slots, you do not need to swap places - this can be done directly from the phone menu. Working with two SIM cards is organized according to the usual Dual SIM Dual Standby standard, when both cards can be in active standby mode, but cannot work at the same time - there is only one radio module.

OS and software

As a system, the device uses the Google Android software platform of the fifth version (5.0.2 Lollipop), but it is practically unrecognizable here, because a shell called MIUI 6 is installed on top of the regular Google interface. This alternative interface is well known not only to the multi-million army of fans of the brand Xiaomi, but also to users of smartphones from other companies, since this shell has gained such high popularity that it is widely used by other Chinese manufacturers, and even by private users to customize mobile devices of various brands.

The shell looks neat, laconic, all settings are conveniently distributed in their sections, everything is combed and ordered. Of course, there is no separate menu of installed programs, icons of installed applications are immediately laid out on desktops, there is a possibility of creating folders and widgets. It is possible to reduce the working area of \u200b\u200bthe screen for easy one-handed operation. At the same time, there is not such a wide variety of support for working with gestures, as in the same Flyme OS, the shell will appeal to lovers of practical minimalism. There are not so many preinstalled programs, but they are not very interesting for users outside of China, but a set of utilitarian applications may be quite useful here. In order to use part of the programs, you will have to create your own account in Xiaomi Mi services.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi 4i hardware platform is built around the familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) eight-core SoC. This 64-bit platform is made using big.LITTLE technology, where four Cortex-A53 processor cores coexist with four Cortex-A53 cores of the same type, but these fours have different maximum operating frequencies. In the usual case, depending on the nature and degree of loading, either 4 "junior" (up to 1 GHz) or 4 "senior" (up to 1.5 GHz) cores are turned on, which saves energy. Only in the case of Xiaomi Mi 4i, the second generation SoC Snapdragon 615 is used with an increased maximum core clock rate up to 1.65 GHz, that is, the platform here is slightly more powerful than its "regular" counterparts used in other similar solutions. The same Adreno 405 video accelerator with a frequency of up to 550 MHz is responsible for graphics processing. SoC Snapdragon 615 is made on the 28 nm process technology, and belongs to the mid-range category.

The amount of RAM of the smartphone is 2 GB. The device has 16 GB of flash memory, of which about 11.4 GB is available for the needs of the user. The memory capacity cannot be increased by microSD cards, but the mode of connecting external devices to the Micro-USB (OTG) port is supported.

I must say that the Snapdragon 615 platform is now a true average in the mobile SoC market, since it gives out exactly the average performance result, not higher. For example: MediaTek MT6752, which is related to it in positioning and competing with it, gives more than 40K points in the complex AnTuTu benchmark, and in all other tests it also has higher results. But it is also worth noting that in the case of the second generation SoC Snapdragon 615 with an increased maximum core frequency, the performance of the system as a whole has increased, respectively. This is especially noticeable in the example of complex tests AnTuTu and Geekbench 3, as well as specialized browser tests. In AnTuTu, its result reached more than 35K, and in the 64-bit version of the test it even reached 38K, which in its usual modification Snapdragon 615 never showed.

At the same time, the same video subsystem Adreno 405 with the same frequency (550 MHz), used in all cases, did not show any gain in graphics tests, respectively. And in general, in general, even in such an overclocked modification of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC in all tests, both complex and specialized, it still turns out to be less productive than its direct competitor, MediaTek MT6752.

There is nothing special to add here, the platform is far from the most productive modern platforms that are installed in flagship solutions. The lot of devices with such a filling is a confident average level, nothing more. Nevertheless, the smartphone described today is powerful enough that its capabilities were enough for some more time to perform basic tasks.

Testing with the latest AnTuTu and GeekBench 3 Benchmarks:

All the results obtained by us when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks, we summarized for convenience in tables. Several other devices from different segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, therefore, many worthy and relevant models remain "behind the scenes" - due to the fact that they once passed the "obstacle course" on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in the 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark, and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can be truly correct only on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Thermal images

Below is a thermal image of the rear surface (top in the photo - right), obtained after 10 minutes of running the battery test in the GFXBenchmark program:

It can be seen that the heating is localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 40 degrees, which is relatively little.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the test results, the subject was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are necessary for full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network. That is, to play them successfully, you do not even have to resort to using a third-party player - for example, MX Player, although playback in it will also support the AC3 audio format, which is good news.

Testing of video output features was carried out Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We did not find the MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. For this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see "Testing methods for video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screenshots with an exposure of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the frame output of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and the frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames / from). In our tests, we used the MX Player video player in the "Hardware" mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Note: If both columns Uniformity and Skips green marks are set, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and skipping of frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.

According to the criterion for outputting frames, the quality of video playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less even interval alternation and in most cases without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p), the image of the video file itself is displayed one-to-one, right on the edge of the screen and in true Full HD resolution. The displayed brightness range is the standard range of 16-235. However, in the shadows of the order of 4-5 shades closest to black are indistinguishable from it in brightness, but at least in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery life

Xiaomi Mi 4i has a non-removable battery with a capacity of 3120 mAh worthy for modern smartphones. However, surprisingly, the smartphone demonstrated a fairly modest battery life in all typical operating modes (reading e-books, watching videos, playing games).

According to subjective feelings, without recharging in normal daily operation mode, the device confidently lives up to overnight charging, this is the main thing. The developers themselves claim that the smartphone is capable of operating 35 hours of talk time (3G) and 11 hours of watching HD-video, but the second statement was clearly embellished.

It is also worth noting that our testing was carried out without using energy-saving functions, in a productive mode of operation.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at the minimum comfortable brightness level (the brightness was set to 100 cd / m2) lasted until the battery was completely discharged a little more than 11 hours, and with continuous video viewing in high quality (720p), the device lasted no more than 8 hours with the same brightness level through the home Wi-Fi network. The device supports fast charging, the battery charges up to 40% per hour. The total charging time from a standard (incomplete) charger (output current 5 V 2 A) is also quite short and is about 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Outcome

As for the cost of the device, so far, as before, Xiaomi smartphones are not officially represented on the Russian market, so to purchase Mi 4i you will have to use one of the offers of electronic stores with delivery from abroad. Initially, the cost of the device was announced at only $ 205, but in reality it is difficult to find this model in online stores at a price lower than $ 230-240, and Russian stores offer this device at a price of 15 thousand rubles. It is curious that until now only one modification of a smartphone has existed in nature, with 16 GB of internal memory, but soon a model with a volume increased to 32 GB will go on sale, however, it will cost, accordingly, a little more. The device is quite good for its level: it has a high-quality bright screen with a flagship resolution, a discreet-looking but well-cut ergonomic thin and light body with decent sound of the speakers, a good main camera, a satisfactory set of network modules. The battery life is not amazing, but it is not a failure either. In general, we have before us a truly average solution in all respects - not very cheap, but at the same time very high quality for its level.

In April 2015, Xiaomi showed another new product - Xiaomi Mi 4i, which was initially considered a simplified version of the flagship smartphone. However, this model can safely be positioned as a separate smartphone, not associated with. This applies to both characteristics and design. There were quite a few differences and we will talk about them in detail.

Equipment

The smartphone is already on sale in a box that has undergone changes. Now it is not white, but made of faceless thick cardboard, on which there is nothing superfluous - only the MI logo on the front and an indication of the model on the back.

Inside there is a modest set of accessories - only a charger with a microUSB cable, documentation and a clip for removing the SIM tray were added to the smartphone.

Design

Xiaomi Mi4i is the company's classic smartphone, with a rectangular plastic body and slightly rounded corners. There is practically nothing to look at - there is not a single large design element.

The phone is compact - 138 x 69 x 7.8 mm, weighs 130 g. Due to the small size, Xiaomi Mi4i fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, does not slip out, the materials are pleasant to the touch.

The front part is completely hidden by tempered Gorilla Glass with an oleophobic coating. If you bought a model with a dark colored screen backing, you get the impression of a visually larger screen.

Along the entire perimeter of the bezel, there is a millimeter plastic edging that protects against scratches and scuffs if you often lay your phone down.

The back cover is completely plastic, goes to the sides. The plastic is pleasant to the touch, but it's not a soft-touch. There are 5 color options on sale - white, black, pink, blue and yellow. We advise you to buy a white model, because fingerprints and streaks will not be so noticeable on it.

The overall design is attractive, there are no problems with ergonomics, the build quality is high. Interestingly, it was officially announced that the frame of the case is made of magnesium alloy.

Above the 5-inch screen in the upper left corner, you can see the MI logo, to the right of it the front camera, the speaker mesh, the notification LED, light and proximity sensors.

Below the display is a row of touch-sensitive keys with barely noticeable backlighting. In the settings, you can change the set of functions of these buttons.

On the bottom edge of the case there is a conversational microphone and a microUSB port. At the top there is only a 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones.

On the left side we find a barely noticeable tray for two SIM cards.

On the right side of the case are metal power and volume buttons. They are additionally chrome-plated, with a distinct pressure, minimum travel.

In the upper left corner of the back cover, you can see the peephole of the main camera, next to it is a dual LED flash and an additional microphone hole.

At the bottom of the lid you can see the company's logo and perforated holes for the main speaker. So that it does not dim, there is a millimeter ledge next to the mesh.

Display

The Xiaomi Mi4i display has a diagonal of 5 inches. It has Full HD resolution, 411ppi pixel density, IPS OGS matrix from Sharp / JDI. There is an anti-reflective coating, but it doesn't work well.

The brightness of the screen is sufficient for working with a smartphone outdoors, the contrast is adequate, but the colors "fade" in bright light, the saturation of colors for the IPS matrix is \u200b\u200bgood, the viewing angles are wide.

The contrast can be adjusted in the menu - the modes "automatic", "contrast increase" and "hue" are available.

Performance

Xiaomi Mi4i received an updated 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor. It is an eight-core processor with two clusters: 4x Cortex-A53 with a frequency of up to 1.7 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 with a frequency of up to 1.1 GHz. It is produced in 28 nm process technology with the ARMv8 instruction set. It is paired with a graphics accelerator Adreno 405 with support for DirectX 11.2, Render Script, OpenCL 1.2 (Full), OpenGL ES 1.x, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1.

The performance margin of such a smartphone with a small screen is enough for its head, the interface and applications always “fly”, no freezes are noticed. In games, everything is also very good, even at maximum settings.

RAM in the smartphone 2GB. The internal memory of 16GB is available only 11GB, and the phone does not support microSD cards.

In the AnTuTu test, we got a result of 40250 points. In principle, you shouldn't ask more from Snapdragon 615. This processor is specially designed for mid-range smartphones. The second generation of the chip received higher operating frequencies, which had a positive effect on the operation of the device. In Geekbench 3, the phone was able to get 672/2651 points.

Specifications Xiaomi Mi 4i

operating system

Xiaomi Mi4i got MIUI 6.5.3.9 firmware on Android 5.0.2 at the start. This time, Russian localization and services from Google were already preinstalled.

The interface supports the installation of additional themes. All icons are square, style is simple. All settings and functions are in place. MIUI supports a wide variety of gestures.

Camera

The main camera of the smartphone is 13-megapixel, with 5-lens optics and f / 2.0 aperture. The front camera also received a 5-element lens, it is 5 megapixel, with a viewing angle of 80 degrees and an aperture of f / 1.8. The main camera is equipped with a dual LED dual-tone flash. Autofocus is surprisingly fast.

By default, the camera itself is capable of perfectly photographing in automatic mode, but if desired, in the simple interface of the camera application, you can quickly adjust: ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance and other parameters. There is a large selection of shooting modes, but interesting pictures are obtained in HDR mode, of which there are even two - "normal" and "live".

Video - Xiaomi Mi 4i camera test

You can shoot videos up to Full HD at 30 fps. The quality is not the highest, but the focus is fast. You can make videos in HDR mode, in slow-motion or in fast motion. The camera has received an electronic image stabilizer, but the video resolution is reduced to 720p.

The front camera is of high quality, video shoots up to Full HD.

Battery

Despite the fact that Xiaomi Mi4i received a plastic case, it is still non-removable, which means that it is difficult to replace the battery on your own. Battery capacity 3120 mAh. It would seem that this is enough for a phone with a 5-inch screen, but in reality the results are modest.

It is officially announced that Xiaomi Mi4i will work up to 35 hours of 3G talk time and up to 11 hours of HD video viewing. If we agree with the first, then the second statement is too optimistic.

Battery test results:

• reading mode - 11 hours;
• video viewing mode - 8 hours.

The phone supports fast charging. The battery is charged up to 100% from 2A charging in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Video - Xiaomi Mi4i Review

Outcome

pros

• inexpensive;
• there is Russian localization right away;
• quality materials and assembly;
• great cameras;
• support for two SIM-cards with LTE;
• slim body.

minuses

• weak autonomy;
• non-removable battery.

One can only praise Xiaomi for such a successful smartphone. Xiaomi Mi4i evokes only positive emotions. It is convenient, well-built, with a fast processor, nice interface and an excellent camera.