Hubby and I were lucky enough to be able to buy Xiaomi Mi3 cellphones at Lazada during the flash sale a couple of weeks ago. We wasted no time and got accessories right after too. A lot of people have been asking me for a Xiaomi Mi3 review and finally, I can post one!
I’ve been using the Xiaomi Mi3 for more than a week and I’m really really happy with it. I love everything from its sleek look to its super cute interactive themes (the Mi Bunny actually reacts when you touch it!) and lightning quick response time.
I daresay it’s the best phone I’ve used so far, and I’ve used a lot. This is the 6th Android phone I’ve owned after all, plus I get to try out a few review units in between. Since I pretty much bring this phone everywhere I go, a lot of friends have seen it and fiddled around with it… and several of them actually bought Mi3’s by the time the second flash sale was posted.
The first thing I noticed about the Mi3 was how amazing all the available themes are. Even the icons are in theme! I chose the Mi Bunny theme because I find the Mi Bunny very very cute. Too cute. I want a hat just like that, lol.
Check out how even my phone keypad and my text screen are customized. Wow! Too cool. All the themes I tried out are this intricately detailed.
There are many available themes for download, there’s even a Philippines Mi3 theme!
The Mi3 uses an OS called the MIUI and it comes with its own set of “Tools”. You can back-up stuff like photos on the Mi Cloud, all you have to do is create a Mi account. It has the usual built-in utilities like the Clock (alarm, stopwatch, etc), Calculator, Torch (flashlight)… then there’s also FM Radio, Compass, etc. If your phone freezes, crashes, or does something it’s not supposed to you can just click on “Report Bug”. The Xiaomi people are really really determined to make this the ultimate phone so they’ll address bugs ASAP.
A popular question is how I find the Mi3’s camera. It’s excellent. In fact, it’s so much better than all the cameras of my previous phones. Here is a sample selfie taken indoors. The front cam is only 2MP but I think it’s able to take decent selfies.
The front cam has this unique ability to tell you your age and gender when you focus. It said I’m 24. I’m like… turning 40 already! One of my friends did get age 39 and he’s 40.
Let’s talk about the 13MP rear cam now. Here are food photos taken in a low light setting, without flash and with flash.
Here are some food photos in a brighter setting.
I actually did a food post using only the Mi3’s camera, you can check it out HERE.
Here’s a sample of the Mi3’s audio and video quality, I watched a YouTube video and wow. It’s like having your own mini HDTV. The image and sound quality are excellent. I tried listening to some MP3s and was amazed how at the clarity and detail of what I was hearing.
If you’re used to Android phones, you’ll find the Mi3 exceptionally easy to use. Extra steps are eliminated — like for example you want to create a new folder for your apps. You don’t have to go somewhere and select “new folder”. Just drag one app towards another and voila, you instantly have a folder with those two apps in it. Most things can be done by a long press.
What I like about the Xiaomi Mi3:
- The phone is very quick and responsive. The combination of its processing power and memory is remarkable. There’s no lag so far when it comes to doing tasks.
- The battery life is impressive. I’m quite a heavy user and I start using my phone at 6am. It still has battery by 12 midnight!
- In the event of hanging or crashing, the Mi3 recovers fast. Really fast. I’ve always had to soft or hard reset my previous phones so they’ll bounce back, not this one. It goes back to normal on its own.
- Compared to all my previous phones, this one takes the best photos.
- It’s incredibly lightweight. Even our kids can’t believe how light it is.
- For its impressive specs (Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.3 GHz Quad Core Processor, 2GB RAM, Full HD 1080p display and resolution, 13MP cam, etc), it’s very affordable at P10,599.
Downside? None really. Well, it doesn’t have a wireless file transfer app (Samsung has Kies Air), so you will have to use an ftp client to transfer files wirelessly, but this isn’t really a problem. Yes, I have experienced a few minor crash incidents but then all my previous phones have crashed and hanged too. The good thing is the Mi3 gets over any crashing or hanging quickly and you don’t have to reboot or reset.
You can check the Xiaomi Mi3’s full specifications at http://www.mi.com/ph/mi3/. You can also find service information there. The Xiaomi Mi3 is available for P10,599 at Lazada. Yes — you can now order any time, no need to wait for a flash sale! 🙂
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