Customers craving speed without compromise in their phones had to spend around 800$ for Samsung S8 or iPhone 7 Plus, however, Xiaomi Mi6 brings the best of both worlds at half the price! Welcome to our XIaomi Mi6 Review – The Affordable Beast!
Xiaomi Mi6 Review – Specs
Most noteworthy to mention here is the fastest Snapdragon 835(only available in Samsung S8)
and Dual Cameras for 2xOptical Zoom(same as iPhone 7 Plus)
Xiaomi Mi 6 Review – Design and Handling
Make no mistake, Xiaomi Mi 6 is a gorgeous looking phone.
Measuring at just 5.15 inches with a very stylish and elegant black piano finish.
Don’t let the two speakers fool you, Mi 6 uses just a single speaker for sound and it’s loud and clear, nothing more, nothing less.
On top, you have the IR blaster for controlling your TV, Aircons and other appliances.
Xiaomi’s latest flagship is one of the best phones to balance looks, style and handling so perfectly.
The display is bright and colourful with excellent sunlight visibility, almost as good as a SuperAMOLED.
One hand usage has never been so easy and joyful than with Xiaomi Mi 6.
Audiophiles will have to make do without a 3.5mm jack as Mi 6 is going full iPhone and removed it.
Time to go cordless for good.
Xiaomi Mi 6 houses perhaps the fastest and most accurate capacitive fingerprint scanner to date.
Unlocks super-fast and accurately.
Read our Redmi 4X Review – The Budget Flagship Phone!
Xiaomi Mi 6 Review – Performance
Packing the fastest chip available for Android – Snapdragon 835 – Mi 6 is an unleashed MONSTER.
General usage is Formula 1 fast! Loading apps and multi-tasking never, ever slow this BEAST down.
Benchmarks prove the stated above, Snapdragon 835 is only bested by iPhone 7 Plus in some synthetic benchmarks, but by a hair!
Here are some more hot chips like Snapdragon 821, Helio X20 and Kirin 960 to compare!
Compared to Snapdragon 821, Helio X20 and Kirin 960 the new SD835 is a clear winner with room to spare with only Kirin 960 toe-to-toe in CPU performance.
Naturally, any game ran with 60+fps on the crisp 1080p display using Xiaomi Mi 6, a great gaming phone.
See How Mi 6 Handles Heavy 3D Games in My Full Video Review:
Mi6 Review – Battery Life
Having the fastest chip on the market may have many advantages, however, battery life is not amongst them. Don’t get me wrong, battery life on Mi 6 is more than fine, although, with a 10nm chip, maybe I was expecting too much. Users will get 6-7 Hrs of Screen on Time if they’re doing more browsing, videos and social media. Heavy gaming and 4G+GPS enabled users will have to make do with 4-5Hrs on a single charge. The battery charges in around an hour and a half, so with 50 minutes you will get a full day out of it.
I was kinda expecting a bit more with a smaller 5.15 display and 1080p resolution, but speed, style and camera more than compensate for the battery life.
Mi6 Review – Software
MIUI 8.2 is running of Android 7.1.1 Nougat with plenty to please the customization fanatics.
Hundreds of wallpapers and themes are available for free or paid in the Theme Store.
Sadly, although running Android 7.1.1 Nougat MiUI 8 doesn’t have Screen Recording and Split-Screen Multi-Tasking. Xiaomi fans will have to wait for MiUI 9 for those to be available.
Most noteworthy, Mi 6 comes without playstore installed and you can’t install it from the App Store like before.
Google Play is enabled via app backup, thanks to my collegues from TechTablets
Here’s a link on how to enable Google Services on your Mi 6(it’s quick and easy)
Mi6 Review – Cameras
Dual-Cams are a thing thanks to Huawei’s P9 that took the world by storm. P9 and P10 use two sensors, one for colour and one is monochrome(black and white). Xiaomi Mi 5 S Plus was the first Dual-Cam flagship phone using the same tech, but the results were not up to par with the P9 or Honor 8 back then.
Xiaomi has chosen to replicate iPhone 7 Plus’s dual-camera setup using two colour sensors to gain 2x lossless Optical Zoom for Mi 6.
Without 2x Optical Zoom
With 2x Optical Zoom
You can easily activate it at any time in the settings and it works great.
Let’s check out some auto-snapped photos.
As for the camera performance on a good sunny day, the photos look marvellous and the shutter/focus is blazing fast.
Moving to the front/selfie cam.
Same goes for the front cam, which is equally great, but without optical zoom.
How do dual cameras handle low-light?
Sadly, as the light goes down I expected a bit more from the f/1.8 aperture and 1.25-micron pixel sensors. As soon as light becomes scares noise starts to appear and it’s a bit aggressive.
To sum it all up, both cameras are great, but not up to par with Samsung S7/S8 or Huawei P10 when it comes to low-light shots.
Xiaomi Mi 6 Video Recording
4K video recording is available on Mi6, however, OIS is not great. Overall quality and especially sound are well behind what iPhone 7 Plus and S7/S8 or G6 can shoot.
See Video Quality in My Full Video Review Below:
Still, at this price, the cameras provide great value but are not up there with the best-in-class.
Xiaomi Mi 6 Pros and Cons
Xiaomi Mi6 PROS:
+ Best Performance To Date
+ Looks and Handles Great
+ Excellent Built Quality with Splash-Resistance
+ Superb Display
+ Great Cameras for Photos
+ Android 7.1.1
Xiaomi Mi6 CONS:
– You have to install Google PlayStore via app backup
– Only English and Chinese Languages available now
– Video and Audio Recording quality is not the best
– MIUI still missing screen-recording and split-screen multi-tasking
CONCLUSION
In case you are wondering should you get Mi 6, the answer is YES! Xiaomi has produced one of the finest phones to date and is worthy of your money! It may not be the best in every area, but as a whole package, it’s a dream come true for bargain hunters.
