Android Review: MI Mi4i

all4music

Disciple
for the first time in 6 years i have have got a phone that is not Motorola made. even now my favorite phone is a Motorola [Droid Turbo] - but somehow don't feel like spending so much on a phone :(

my previous phone- Motorola Razr M was a perfect phone for me. if not for the dying battery and laggy performance i would have continued to use it. it is built like tank. it has taken many falls from as high as 5 feet.

my major requirements were good battery life [full day], small screen size [less than 5 inch] and of course it has to be in Black color. most of the phones nowadays are sporting bigger screen sizes. been looking for replacement for razr m from couple of months. so many options around 10K INR range. but major drawback on most of these phones are poor battery life and big [5.5 inch] screen. i was ready to stretch till 25K INR.

-i would have picked up Moto E [2nd Gen] in a heartbeat if not for missing flash. it is a deal-breaker for me.
-been eyeing Droid Turbo for long but looks like the price is not gonna come down any soon
sad.gif

-i was also thinking of getting HTC M7. good specs even by today's standards and was available at around 16k INR but again most of them were silver in color.
-another perfect contender was Samsung S4. superb deal at 16K INR but i don't like Samsung phones.

finally relaxed one of the requirements and was looking for phones which have 5inch screens [Turbo is an exception as it was a Motorola and that huge battery!!]. i would have picked up Mi4 if it were to be available in Black. i was excited when Mi4i was launched as ads were sporting multi colored handsets. again was disappointed when only White was launched. been waiting for the Black version and picked it up the moment it went on sale on Flopkart.

now about the phone:
one strange thing i noticed was that i was not excited on receiving the mobile. in comparison i was more excited to receive the recent DACs.

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this is all that is in that box. i can claim a screen-guard for free on Mi.com which i promptly did!

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this has a matte screen guard on.

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as advertised, the phone is grey in color. looks ok [not as good as the promotion material make it look online].
build feel is anything but premium. Razr M feels like a tank in comparison. the back panel is made of polycarbonate material and it doesn't give any premium feel. even the Moto G [1st/2nd gen] have better build/feel [even MS Lumia have better build/feel]. the fact that Mi4i is flat at the back and the it's tacky panel makes me little nervous - as if my grip is not adequate to hold the phone while using and it might slip. also it is my first phone with 5 inch screen.

many people like iphonish MiUi built on Android. i don't. thus came the Nova launcher. but somehow Nova Launcher doesn't seem to like MiUi so much. it keeps failing [wallpaper re-sizes on its own, icons go blank etc]. Nova has been working like a charm on Cyanogenmod though [on Razr M].

-so far i have not experienced the notorious heating issues. also no other issues [hardware/software] noticed.
-camera seems to be good and fast.
-can't comment on battery performance as the screen time is really high as the phone undergoing customization. battery seems to hold the charge for long on idle [which is not the case in present condition Razr M].
-voice clarity and volumes are superb compared to Razr M.
-speaker sounds loud but feels not as clear as Razr M [at lower freqs]
-supplied charger outputs 2A current!! [at 5V DC]. i might continue to use current Motorola charger [850mA] for regular charging duties.

there is already a new OTA available for this phone. but for now i am not going to upgrade as i have read a lot of negative remarks about this OTA update. i will update thread after further usage/tweaks .

MI says rooting doesn't void the warranty
smile.gif
. ultimately i would like to port it to Cyanogenmod once and if a stable build is made available.

not sure if this is the C type micro usb connector - doesn't sport the tapered edges.

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phone th


PS:Excuse the grainy pics [taken by Razr M - one of the reasons for upgrade -strangely it used to click much better pics earlier!]
 
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Same was the case with me. I used Moto Atrix HD and was really satisfied with it. Great built quality, good battery life and perfect telephony. Had to upgrade because I needed better camera and higher specs.

Strangely (for me too), my moto used to take better pics earlier.
 
Will be completing 4 years with Motorola Photon this august.
Still don't feel like giving it up.
1st phone-i-bought-it-with-my-own-money sentiments:D

Nice tempting review by the way!!
 
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small update:
mi4i supports OTG and also USB Audio out of the box. no tweaks needed.

got to check my newly acquired HifimeDIY USB DAC. as expected it sounds veiled [i have it tried with Razr M with same results - there is a small write up on that, i'll try copy paste it here] compared to HP out of the phone. HP out of the phone in itself doesn't sound bad but can't match the clarity of Cowon S9.

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EDIT: [here are the impressions about DAC!]

it's been sometime that i got this hifimediy android dac. reason i got this was to replace or have an alternate portable music source. i am planning to buy a new phone and i am thinking of using my Moto RAZR M as DAP. at present Cowon S9 does the duty. i could not do a extensive listening test but these are my impressions so far:

it works straight out of the box on my RAZR M [it is running cyagenmod 11 OS]. no tweaking required.i can control the volume through volume rocker and i am using Rocket Music player.

song listened to -'maula mere maula mere.. ' from movie Anwar in .Wav format [probably i have heard this song some hundred times in the last couple of weeks - i am just loving it - especially the tabla and also i feel this is one of the cleanest recordings!]

initial impressions:
on my phone [using UE TF10 earphones]:
music sounds slightly veiled compared to Cowon S9 music player. S9 sounds neat and sweet.
when compared to HP out of my phone it sounds almost same [ i must say HP out of my phone doesn't sound bad].

on my PC [using Swans 1080 monitors - with USB-microUSB adapter]:
music doesn't sound as veiled or muffled as on phone. but i find that Muse DAC sounds crystal clear in comparison.
i felt even the onboard sound on my HP out laptop sounds better than this. also i seem to appreciate now that Muse sounds slightly better than the HP out of my HP Elitebook laptop!

one positive thing about the hifime DAC is volume level - it sounds almost as loud as HP out of laptop where as Muse DAC sounds almost half of that volume level.

as always, i'll give this DAC some time/run-in and do a proper comparison.
 
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i had been staving off the os OTA update. finally bit the bullet.

luckily so far not much issues. though phone does warm up more than earlier for sure.
but the OTA has cured the blank icons issue on Nova launcher. i used think it's an issue with the launcher but now it works like charm.
battery performance has degraded slightly [especially on idle].

need to check if there is an option to roll back to earlier version [iirc Lenovo phones have this option].
 
I was just trying to find out if you thought the Mi 4i was worth buying.
well, in the short span of usage phone did not trouble me. there were no heating issues as reported by others.
very reason i went for Mi4i was bigger battery. but battery backup was not that exceptional. build quality is okish. feels not much different from other cheaper Chinese phones. if battery is not of big concern i would have gone for Lenovo 6000+ [also a 5inch screen phone].
 
Got my gf mi4i. Seems to be a great phone tbh. I liked it. As u said, the advertised black color is not the same irl, it's grey, so that sucks. But I kinda see multitasking struggling a little bit. hope it goes away soon. using it with latest nova launcher, and I am loving the experience.
 
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