Snapdragon's 2.3 Ghz quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 5 inch IPS Retina display with 1920 X 1080 resolution, 13 MP Primary shooter, 2 MP Secondary shooter, 3050 mAh battery....... If these were specs of a Samsung's or htc's flagship phone, I would't be writing and you wouldn't be reading this. But these are the specifications of a sub 15000 phone (Actually 13999/-) which made no compromises stating its economical price as a reason. This phone came from a company called Xiaomi (pronounced Shiao-Me) and the name of the mobile is Mi3.
As soon as I took out Mi3 from the box, I felt my adrenaline pumping. Watching all the reviews and coverage surrounding it, I expected it to have a cheap plasticky feel to it. Apparently, I was wrong. Edges are clean, buttons are tactile, no light leaking from the panel whatsoever, display was stunning and the speaker grills were chiselled to perfection.
Display is stunning in this phone with superb viewing angles and excellent colour representation. Resolution is 1920 X 1080 and you get a density of whopping 441 pixels per inch. As you can tell these pixels can't be discerned by a human eye. Colour representation is apt and brightness levels are good. I didn't have any sort of difficulty in handling this phone under sunlight and at the same time it did't strain my eyes under the blanket at night with automatic brightness turned on.
Performance is this beast's forte and it does exceedingly well in this aspect. Throw at it the best titles of action and racing games that are high in graphics and detailing, Mi3 chews them apart. It recorded geek bench and sun spider scores on par with many flagships. Coming to camera, both primary and secondary shooters did fine. Image quality is pretty good but detailing could have been better. Pictures taken in day light are unaffected but at nights, noise does its part to affect the quality of the picture.
Battery life is the primary reason that we use our mobiles little less than what they are capable of these days. But take my word beyond a doubt that Mi3 will not disappoint you in this aspect. You can have your data turned on, put the brightness to your comfortable zone, use it as much as you want, you'll still have 30% juice left at the time of your dinner. Here I'd like to mention a software feature that I liked. Mi3 will be able to switch to "Marathon" mode automatically whenever it gets below the percentage of battery we decide. If we want that point to be 20%, after Mi3 gets to that point, it automatically turns off the data, reduces the brightness and makes necessary adjustments so that you could still get more than 10 hours of standby time. Whenever you connect your phone to power source, it switches off the "Marathon" mode and returns to normal mode. There are apps that provide such functionality but doing this natively is quite nice.
You'll also get Xiaomi's free 5GB cloud storage to host all your contacts, settings, phone logs, messages, photos, etc.. There are built in security features like "Find my phone." Mi3 interface takes a lot of design cues from iOS. There's no separate launcher for apps like many android interfaces does and this needs getting used to if you've already used some android mobiles.
Mi3 has got plethora of sensors like GPS, GLONASS, AGPS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Gyroscope, Barometer, Proximity Sensor, Dual LED Flash and all the sensors that you'd expect in a premium phone. All in all this is a compelling purchase no surprise that the second phase sales of 10,500 devices got over in just under 5 seconds in flipkart. The only place I felt Xiaomi could have done better is in manufacturing of charger. If there's a part in the whole package that feels a little cheap, it is the charger. It is solid but a little bulky considering the design of the chargers of its counterparts. But the functionality of the charger is fine. Mi3 charges up pretty fast.
Now finally to the justification of my title - I can just say that 10500 units being sold out just under 5 seconds is a testimony to the fact that Mi3 is indeed revolutionary but I'll not end here. Let us look at the market scenario. Emerging markets like India and china are full of people who are budget buyers. They instantly fell in love with Mi3, no wonder sellers chose India as the target market after China. Many companies should acknowledge the fact that Mi3 is a storm or else they are going to loose market share pretty fast and will be irrelevant soon. What is the first company that comes to your mind when I say that the sales of that company may hamper? If you are thinking of Samsung, you've probably guessed right. Samsung was comfortable a year ago having their flagships offering the features the premium buyers wanted and at the same time catering to the needs of budget buyers through their less powerful cost efficient phones. That scenario has just changed now. Mobiles like Mi3 are offering the same specs as Samsung's 25000 priced phone is offering at much lower price. Xiaomi is posing a greater threat to Samsung by fixing Mi3's price point below 15000. You might think, even Apple gets affected from phones like this. If you presume so, you don't know Apple and its loyal customer base. As I've already said, buyers of iPhone are aware of the thin line between owning a smartphone and owning an iPhone. They would have anyway bought those cheap phones from Samsung if they are like normal buyers.While Apple had reported 12% growth over previous quarter, Samsung's shipments fell in no of units sold. With mobiles like Mi3 giving Samsung a run for its money in economical markets, Apple is already there waiting in premium markets. Mi3 may not affect the sales in countries like US because it is quite unlikely that Xiaomi would take the risk to launch Mi3 in US for its stringent IP protection laws unlike markets like India and China.
With advent of Mi3's interesting things are going to happen in mobile space. Smartphones are going to get cheaper and cheaper (Moto G had got straight Rs. 2000/- price cut in flipkart). End of the day buyers of Economy market are going to get beautiful and tasty benefits with the debut of Mi3.
Doubt not Mi3 is not just another cost efficient mobile, it is going to create a silent storm. Period.
