Xiaomi's Mi 4i speaks to India with an attractive price (pictures) (original) (raw)
The first smartphone from Xiaomi that's meant for customers beyond China, the 4i is cheap for its midrange hardware. It'll sell like hot cakes.
Aloysius Low is a Senior Editor at CNET covering mobile and Asia. Based in Singapore, he loves playing Dota 2 when he can spare the time and is also the owner-minion of two adorable cats.
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Meet Xiaomi's newest smartphone, the plastic Mi 4i.
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The Mi 4i packs midrange specs, and will go on sale in India on April 30 for 12,999 Rupees (roughly 205,£140orAU205, £140 or AU205,£140orAU265). It will hit Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in May.
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One of its cool features is Sunlight Display, which dynamically adapts the screen based on local tone mapping, allowing you to view the screen even in the bright outdoors.
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The phone is 7.8mm thick and weighs 130 grams (4.6 ounces).
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While the back is polycarbonate plastic, the buttons here are made of stainless steel.
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The rear 13-megapixel camera comes packing a f/2.0 aperture, five element lens and a two-tone flash.
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The speakers on the back sport a machine-drilled grill, which looks really cool.
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The micro-USB port is located at the bottom.
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The phone runs a custom MIUI 6 skin on top of Android Lollipop. It's the first Xiaomi phone to run the latest version of Google's mobile OS.
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Xiaomi made several comparisons to the iPhone 6 in its announcement, so here they are together. The Apple smartphone is smaller on the sides, but is the same height as the Mi 4i.
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The 5-megapixel front shooter has an aperture of f/1.8 and an 80-degree wide-angle lens for taking group pictures.
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Xiaomi says the screen is hardly distinguishable from the bezel when turned off, and I agree.
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Here's what it looks like when the screen is turned on.