Xiaomi launched the company's biggest smartphone to date, the Mi Max, in India on June 30.
The device arrived to our office a couple of days ago, and we have been using it as a secondary phone since then. Here's our initial impression on the mammoth Xiaomi phablet.
The enormity of the metal-clad Mi Max's size is such that there is not a single brand in the market to stand up against it in the mid-range phablet class. If we were to compare Xiaomi's mammoth phone to any mythological character, it perfectly epitomises Wun Wun, the popular giant in the 'Game of Thrones' TV series. Its massive 6.44-inch screen makes the standard 5-inch smartphones look puny.
Mi Max looks very large to the eyes, but it does have a sleek body. It measures 7.5 mm in thickness, just10mm more than Apple's iPhone 6S Plus. Anybody can wrap their hand around the phone's edges, and it can easily slip into the pocket. But it's not meant to be kept in the back pocket, since it gets really uncomfortable and can also get bent, despite featuring a metal-shell.
Performance:
The review unit we received comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor having Adreno 510 GPU, 3GB RAM and 32GB inbuilt memory. It runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-based MIUI v7.5.2.
The device consistently delivered a fine performance in terms of loading of apps, multi-tasking, playing graphic-heavy video games and other tasks as well.
We will file the benchmarking test results in the full review, which we will be posted in the coming days.
Battery:
The company has incorporated a massive 4850mAh battery in the Mi Max. When we started using the device, it had 85 percent battery life. We put it to moderate use, and surfed the internet, read articles and played some videos on YouTube. On the third day, Mi Max still had got 29 percent battery life left.
Camera:
Xiaomi Mi Max houses the same camera hardware, as is seen in the company's bestselling phablet Redmi Note 3. It features a 16MP primary camera and 5MP snapper on the front.
Also read: LG G5 Review: First impression
As expected, the Mi Max primary camera performs well in the open space in bright light conditions. But in a closed environment, there is no improvement despite the company claiming that the imaging hardware of Mi Max has been developed by a different engineering team.
The front camera manages to snap good quality selfies.
Initial impression:
During our testing, we found Xiaomi Mi Max impressive in three key areas — build quality, display and battery.The 6.44-inch Mi Max, which comes with full HD (1920x1080p) resolution, offers rich media viewing experience. It is certain to attract youngsters who use smartphones as the primary device for entertainment.
We will post more camera samples in the final review article.
Also read: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 review: An undisputed champion in sub-Rs. 15,000 range
We will be coming up with a full review next week.
Also read: Xiaomi Mi Max price and availability details
We also urge our readers to send us any queries or requests for any specific feature to be tested on Xiaomi Mi Max in our comments section below. We will answer select questions in our final article.
