Who Is It For?

The most important affair to call back when discussing the Xiaomi Mi 6 is its cost. This is a flagship phone, but information technology won't set you back $600+ like well-nigh other flagship contenders.

Thus the key selling point to the Mi 6 is its hardware. At just over $400, you're netting yourself a Snapdragon 835, non some lesser-tier mid-range bit. The 835 is the fastest SoC on the market (that'southward available to Android OEMs), and provides around 30 pct better operation than the Snapdragon 821. It's more than efficient than earlier, and highly capable for today'south smartphone applications.

The terminate result, when paired with a whopping 6GB of RAM and reasonable NAND performance, is a smartphone that's extremely snappy to use. Xiaomi has also used merely a 1080p brandish here, so graphics performance is superior to many other flagship phones that opt for 1440p instead. If you're after speed, the Mi 6 is a great option.

The display surprised me a fair bit, considering on newspaper information technology seems similar just a basic v.xv-inch 1080p LCD. What we're actually seeing is splendid peak brightness to a higher place 600 nits, plus fantastic dissimilarity and great color performance out of the box.

Another very solid attribute of the Mi 6 is bombardment life. Nigh smaller phones tend to suffer in the battery department, but this isn't the instance hither. The 3,350 mAh battery, efficient SoC and 1080p display combined evangelize great battery life out of the box.

The Mi 6 includes a dual camera solution, with one photographic camera providing broad angle shots and the other providing a 2x zoom. I like this sort of photographic camera implementation, and the 2x zoom is useful during everyday photographing, particularly every bit it produces higher-quality photos in what is a fleck of a surprise.

Nonetheless, in general the Mi half dozen camera doesn't compete strongly with the best smartphone cameras. Image processing isn't every bit proficient, which leads to simply 'okay' results in a number of situations. For the cost you're nevertheless getting a solid camera solution though.

While Xiaomi's software has improved drastically over the last ii years, it all the same needs a lot of work to bring information technology upwards to the same standard as what Google provides on the Pixel.

It does run the latest version of Android (7.1.1) and in that location are some neat features, but there'south a lot of unnecessary applications included and several features that are no longer all that unique.

Telephone design is perhaps the most subjective area to a smartphone'southward overall quality, so I'thou sure there are some out in that location that volition appreciate what Xiaomi has done with the Mi 6'south design. I didn't fall in love with the glass body for several reasons though. The glossy finish to both the glass and metal edges is incredibly glace and doesn't execute well to give the phone a premium feel.

Those large bezels higher up and beneath the display as well look dated in comparison to the Galaxy S8 and LG G6.

The Mi 6 is yet another phone that doesn't include a headphone jack, which like I've said before is a user hostile determination, and at that place's no microSD carte du jour slot either. I practise appreciate features like stereo speakers and the quick fingerprint sensor.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is a flagship phone with some outstanding areas and some weak spots. Considering the low cost bespeak, the telephone however competes well with the best out there. Naturally, if you accept $700+ to spend on something like the Milky way S8 you'll exist getting a better overall package, but the Mi 6 brings great hardware down to a sub-$450 cost signal, and for some people that'south all y'all need.

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Pros: Top-end operation and hardware at an affordable toll point. Fantastic brandish, even though information technology's just 1080p. Great battery life in a compact form factor. Zoom camera adds to the package.

Cons: Slippery, bezel-heavy pattern didn't win me over. No headphone jack! Camera output could still utilize some work.