I am a big fan of Steve Jobs as the man is smart. He is a genius who made every one crave for APPLE products. Truly it is the revolutionary apple after Adam's and Newton's apples but the price of I - phone is exorbitant. Not all can afford it. It has many limitations too and it is hectic to always listen to the phone. The phone rarely listens to you. No good usage of bluetooth-files can't b transferred , no customized ring tones, bad photography, no radio and the complicated i-Tunes usage, iOS upgrades are not that user friendly and so on so forth. There are so many shortcomings in this revolutionary invention that it made me unhappy many times. If your I - phone has a damage, to get it repaired , Steve Jobs' soul should come back to earth. That has been my experience with i-store folks from the past few months. The voice quality is bad in my I-phone and i-Store guys did not give any easy solution to this and when my husband's i-phone's battery was damaged as the phone fell in a bucket of water, he was given an option to pay half the amount and get a new phone. My dislike towards apple increased that day. After all when you spend almost a month's salary or some times more than it you deserve to sulk when the solutions don't seem satisfactory. When I got I phone 4s, it was around 38k and the customer service was poor as the phone was bought in Kuwait. I phone 5 which I thankfully won in a contest was 51k. Anyway this is not a review of I phone. It is just to say that I am unhappy due to increasing problems of my I phone with each passing day. Then came the surprise. On July 22nd my husband gifted me Xiaomi Mi3. He prebooked it on flipkart . He is as smart as the Mi3 coz the phone was out of stock, the same day it got delivered :) As soon as it fell in my hands I felt powerful and happy as I can get rid of my I-phone with out much ado.
Mi3 phone is for the creative bunch. It felt magical when I first held the phone and browsed through themes. Themes are unique , funny and creative. Three cheers and a round of applause to those who created it. Battery is the best part of the phone. There is no need to constantly plug it . Battery stays alive for 3-4 days . Touch is so smooth and phone is so sleek and light in weight. 13 mega pixel camera is amazing. All in all it is the best deal at just 14k INR when compared to all other smart phones. This is a super smart step by Xiaomi folks who cleverly launched it at an affordable price, made us all damn happy and gave a tight competition to Google nexus, moto g which also use android OS by performing better .
Pluses of the Mi3 phone launched in India
1.) Simplicity of the launch. There was no ruckus during the launch. Steps taken for promoting the product were simple, like a news shared on web or in a TV channel and the announcement of sale on flipkart. The promotional activity saved lot of money, yet proved to be beneficial
2.) The affordable price of 14k . Now almost all who dream of having a smart phone with all the features they ever wished for, can buy this one
3.) The way the product is packed is also simple. It comes in Muji-esque cardboard box just with a charger and USB cord
4.) Light in weight. Material quality is on par when compared to other phones which are priced high.Front face is protected by reinforced Corning Gorilla Glass 3
5.) The phone is shiny and gorgeous with volume and power buttons to its right side. Unlocking can be done by swiping the button down like in the screen below which is different from other smart phones.
6.) Clearing the RAM memory/ Cache is very easy. This can be done by long pressing the button to the left of the home screen. It takes you to custom app switcher which shows you the RAM usage. You can close all apps by tapping it once or close any app which you no longer use by swiping it to top.
7.)Software : Mi 3 runs on Android 4.4.2 but Xiaomi's custom MIUI skin proves to be more efficient and creative.
8.) You can place custom icons on your home screen but it will make it pretty cluttered.
9.) There is lot of control over the phone. There are many settings on how you want the phone to look. Fonts, themes, LED behaviour, capacitive button functions, even the behaviour of buttons on a headset and many other phone functions can be controlled. Security of the phone is intact. You can use a password or draw a pattern to lock/ unlock the phone
10.) Themes : Themes need a special mention. There are innumerable themes which will make the creative person inside you extremely glad. There is a cute 'India' theme too. Guest mode of the phone helps you to protect sensitive information from other users.
11.) Camera: 13 mega pixel camera gives you pictures of great quality and you can control many settings. Advanced mode increases the number of controls. You can go through the site- http://www.miui.com/ to know more. Videos are pretty clear too. Shared below are the pics I clicked with my phone. I watched even a movie on it while traveling :)
12.) Xiaomi Mi3's performance is high. It uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 8274AB 2.3GHz processor due to which browsing and gaming are extremely easy and fast. Expectations were met and it for sure got proved just in a 2 weeks time that it is a powerful device. Mi3 has cleared all the exhaustive QC- tests and it is the phone which every one is wishing to have as of now :-)
13.) Unlike an I phone you can customize ringtones, copy songs directly from the laptop and also sync data from other phones easily.
14.) There are interesting contests going on on http://en.miui.com/ . Do check out to win the accessories and other goodies.
Few minuses
From my 2 week usage and from what I read I realized there are few minuses too in the phone.
1.) The notifications toggle is not great. You get the sound of notification but it is not visible. It is hard to search the hidden notification on the 5 inch screen which other wise is velvety smooth and crystal clear.
2.) There are complaints of phone getting heated up if you play games for more than an hour, but as I don't play for an hour continuously any day, I did not face the problem.
3.) 2G and 3G functionality are not that great on the phone. With Wy fi the phone is easy to use though.
4.) It gets tough due to the Chinese language sometimes. Few users complained about the difficulty faced during translating it to English. I didn't face any such problem so far. Few themes are totally in Chinese.
5.) Out of the 16GB memory you can use only 13 GB. There are no mi3 phones with more memory as of now. There is no provision to have a separate memory card in the phone. This is a minus for people who wish to store too much stuff in the phone.
6.) The only dissatisfaction I felt is about the accessories. They are not yet launched properly in India. I wish good screen-guards and covers will be released soon. Earphones are not provided with the phone and we need to purchase the ear phones separately which also disappointed me a bit.
I can ignore the minuses as I got the phone for less than 15k. The launch is triumphant in India. I am satisfied by the phone and super glad to be one of the first buyers . Getting promoted from i phone to MiPhone is one of the best things which happened to me in the recent past. Thanks to my hubby who gifted this magical phone to me. With easy browsing and creativity oozing from every corner of the phone, I can't help falling in love with it again and again. I am a creative person and I respect the efforts of Xiaomi folks.
It is love at first sight with my Mi 3 and I hope not to break up with it - *TOUCHWOOD* .
"I phone to MiPhone transformation eased my life.
Finally ended the difficulties and the strife.
I am in love with the sleek, chiseled body and the smooth velvety skin.
When I take the phone out and flaunt I can see every one getting jealous be it a pal or a kin!
I absolutely adore my Xiaomi Mi3.
I feel like dancing in joy. I feel so free!"
Shared below is the pic of one of my most favorite themes -pooh 10000 years ago. You can unlock the phone by pulling the leaf down.
Mi3 phone is for the creative bunch. It felt magical when I first held the phone and browsed through themes. Themes are unique , funny and creative. Three cheers and a round of applause to those who created it. Battery is the best part of the phone. There is no need to constantly plug it . Battery stays alive for 3-4 days . Touch is so smooth and phone is so sleek and light in weight. 13 mega pixel camera is amazing. All in all it is the best deal at just 14k INR when compared to all other smart phones. This is a super smart step by Xiaomi folks who cleverly launched it at an affordable price, made us all damn happy and gave a tight competition to Google nexus, moto g which also use android OS by performing better .
Pluses of the Mi3 phone launched in India
1.) Simplicity of the launch. There was no ruckus during the launch. Steps taken for promoting the product were simple, like a news shared on web or in a TV channel and the announcement of sale on flipkart. The promotional activity saved lot of money, yet proved to be beneficial
2.) The affordable price of 14k . Now almost all who dream of having a smart phone with all the features they ever wished for, can buy this one
3.) The way the product is packed is also simple. It comes in Muji-esque cardboard box just with a charger and USB cord
 |
| My Mi3 |
5.) The phone is shiny and gorgeous with volume and power buttons to its right side. Unlocking can be done by swiping the button down like in the screen below which is different from other smart phones.
 |
| To unlock it you must swipe the blue button down. |
7.)Software : Mi 3 runs on Android 4.4.2 but Xiaomi's custom MIUI skin proves to be more efficient and creative.
8.) You can place custom icons on your home screen but it will make it pretty cluttered.
9.) There is lot of control over the phone. There are many settings on how you want the phone to look. Fonts, themes, LED behaviour, capacitive button functions, even the behaviour of buttons on a headset and many other phone functions can be controlled. Security of the phone is intact. You can use a password or draw a pattern to lock/ unlock the phone
10.) Themes : Themes need a special mention. There are innumerable themes which will make the creative person inside you extremely glad. There is a cute 'India' theme too. Guest mode of the phone helps you to protect sensitive information from other users.
11.) Camera: 13 mega pixel camera gives you pictures of great quality and you can control many settings. Advanced mode increases the number of controls. You can go through the site- http://www.miui.com/ to know more. Videos are pretty clear too. Shared below are the pics I clicked with my phone. I watched even a movie on it while traveling :)
 |
| Modified using the advanced options of the camera |
12.) Xiaomi Mi3's performance is high. It uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 8274AB 2.3GHz processor due to which browsing and gaming are extremely easy and fast. Expectations were met and it for sure got proved just in a 2 weeks time that it is a powerful device. Mi3 has cleared all the exhaustive QC- tests and it is the phone which every one is wishing to have as of now :-)
13.) Unlike an I phone you can customize ringtones, copy songs directly from the laptop and also sync data from other phones easily.
14.) There are interesting contests going on on http://en.miui.com/ . Do check out to win the accessories and other goodies.
Few minuses
From my 2 week usage and from what I read I realized there are few minuses too in the phone.
1.) The notifications toggle is not great. You get the sound of notification but it is not visible. It is hard to search the hidden notification on the 5 inch screen which other wise is velvety smooth and crystal clear.
2.) There are complaints of phone getting heated up if you play games for more than an hour, but as I don't play for an hour continuously any day, I did not face the problem.
3.) 2G and 3G functionality are not that great on the phone. With Wy fi the phone is easy to use though.
4.) It gets tough due to the Chinese language sometimes. Few users complained about the difficulty faced during translating it to English. I didn't face any such problem so far. Few themes are totally in Chinese.
5.) Out of the 16GB memory you can use only 13 GB. There are no mi3 phones with more memory as of now. There is no provision to have a separate memory card in the phone. This is a minus for people who wish to store too much stuff in the phone.
6.) The only dissatisfaction I felt is about the accessories. They are not yet launched properly in India. I wish good screen-guards and covers will be released soon. Earphones are not provided with the phone and we need to purchase the ear phones separately which also disappointed me a bit.
I can ignore the minuses as I got the phone for less than 15k. The launch is triumphant in India. I am satisfied by the phone and super glad to be one of the first buyers . Getting promoted from i phone to MiPhone is one of the best things which happened to me in the recent past. Thanks to my hubby who gifted this magical phone to me. With easy browsing and creativity oozing from every corner of the phone, I can't help falling in love with it again and again. I am a creative person and I respect the efforts of Xiaomi folks.
It is love at first sight with my Mi 3 and I hope not to break up with it - *TOUCHWOOD* .
"I phone to MiPhone transformation eased my life.
Finally ended the difficulties and the strife.
I am in love with the sleek, chiseled body and the smooth velvety skin.
When I take the phone out and flaunt I can see every one getting jealous be it a pal or a kin!
I absolutely adore my Xiaomi Mi3.
I feel like dancing in joy. I feel so free!"
Shared below is the pic of one of my most favorite themes -pooh 10000 years ago. You can unlock the phone by pulling the leaf down.
 |
| One of the many creative themes. Pooh 10000years ago :) |
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My favorite thing is still that you pull that fig leaf down to open your phone and the reaction when you do!
ReplyDeleteI've NEVER thought iphone had a very good camera. My android took much better pictures.
It won't be available in the western hemisphere, from what I read about it.
hahaha . Thanks. I keep playing a lot with themes. There r plenttttty of them :) ya I phone cam was always bad
Deletesad to know it is not available
they may launch soon
Thanks for reading
Thanks for the nice review of Mi3. Many people buy iPhone just to be seen using that.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Deleteya that is true that i phone symbolises status :P
Thankfully some one gifted me that
How come I did not even know about such a phone. This was a great review!
ReplyDeleteNow u know so u can think of getting it ;)
Deletethanks for reading as always
You know I never knew about this phone till I read yoru review. Sounds like a good buy to me !
ReplyDeleteYou have really piqued my interest. Looks like a col phone to own. I have a Nexus 5. As of now I am very satisfied with it. But of course it drained my pocket way more than this phone! :(
ReplyDeletecool*
Delete