Xiaomi Mi 3 review: The way of the dragon

15 August 2014
Xiaomi one of the largest smartphone vendors in its homeland - China - and it's one of the most popular Asian mobile brands. It has given the world the popular user-friendly MIUI for Android. But the crown jewel, of course, is their current flagship phone – the Xiaomi Mi 3.

Sort by:

  • 3
  • 3D Beast
  • t1$
  • 16 Aug 2014

Truly a value for money phone.

    • k
    • kenyaaa
    • fCx
    • 16 Aug 2014

    Var, 15 Aug 2014I feel the Price point Metric is not emphasized enough in t... moreI think this smartphone is much better than other android phone .....low price get more features

      • N
      • Namo12
      • HxY
      • 16 Aug 2014

      Gionee is much better than Xiaomi.

        • D
        • AnonD-80227
        • utb
        • 16 Aug 2014

        For a phone at this price, I own one and frankly speaking its good for most of the usage from internet surfing, to games to camera, more than enough for everyone. It beats the crap out of the flagships at few things which is great, not sure why gsmarena wasnt "satisfied" compared to oppo, lenovo picking up this much and way better.

          • s
          • sugandhhv1@gmail.com
          • vGs
          • 16 Aug 2014

          I think GSMARENA didn't do the review thoroughly, regarding the display and sound output..

          the gradiation in display is the UI Design of xiaomi phones which only comes in setting and option menus of the UI, if u check it with a plain white wallpaper, u l notice the difference. its perfectly fine there is no back light issue. and the display has great color accuracy and reproduction.

          and external loud speaker is way better then what u described, much better then Samsung galaxy s5 which is almost a $800 Flag ship phone and you can say its ear piece and loud speaker is mediocre, trust me i own both these phones.
          xiaomi mi3 speakers are clear and loud as any other 5 inch flagship phone, u cant compare with HTC one or lg G PRO2 or lg g3 phones, which are big phones n comes with big speakers.
          and lastly u haven't mentioned anything about the haptic feedback, which is in my opinion is the best among any other android phone,checkout the timer and clock option, u l come to know the level of precision.

            • D
            • AnonD-272269
            • Pxd
            • 16 Aug 2014

            Anonymous, 16 Aug 2014well, i read the page one of this review and saw "Non ... moreYes I did the same. And I was thinking with what this phone is compared?

              • D
              • AnonD-97012
              • tTc
              • 16 Aug 2014

              A very half hearted review by GSMArena...

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • tDM
                • 16 Aug 2014

                well, i read the page one of this review and saw "Non user-replaceable battery"
                so i went straight to comment section to write this.
                no need to read the rest of the review.
                :(

                  • D
                  • AnonD-4340
                  • vaN
                  • 16 Aug 2014

                  The camera is sub par, and as always with this site it is "great", simply because it captures lots of details, duhhhhh... Who cares about details when the photos look like that, are we supposed to zoom in max on all our photos and enjoy only details now? So in photos of my girlfriend i will not look at the photo but only a small piece of her nose, now how am i supposed to enjoy that?

                  I just say it again, no 13mpix camera has managed beat the Xperia Z in overall photo quality under various conditions, one of the best camphones ever and still it has been heavily criticized because of lack of details, its like 98% of readers here only care about details. Enjoy your zoomed in crap guys, hope one day you will take a PHOTO, highly recommended.

                    • v
                    • vasishatb
                    • uwU
                    • 16 Aug 2014

                    [deleted post]I read that article. Its biased and has been written without any research. Every company's phones can have manufacturing defects and software bugs and xiaomi is no exception. I dont understand why you people are just mad at xiaomi while these things also happen with samsung and apple phones..

                      • S
                      • Siva karri
                      • rKN
                      • 16 Aug 2014

                      Its a best phone below 20k it increases the smartphone experience its a best value for money

                        • r
                        • rajiev
                        • XNZ
                        • 16 Aug 2014

                        Anonymous, 16 Aug 2014I don't even know how to pronounce it. Zy-o-me? Ex-ow-m... moresh-ya-omi

                          • M
                          • MdN8
                          • 6tS
                          • 16 Aug 2014

                          Anonymous, 16 Aug 2014I don't even know how to pronounce it. Zy-o-me? Ex-ow-m... moreShao-mee.
                          You can also hear it in the video. ;-)

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 7v1
                            • 16 Aug 2014

                            Anonymous, 16 Aug 2014I don't even know how to pronounce it. Zy-o-me? Ex-ow-m... moreIt's prounced 'siao-mee'.

                              • v
                              • vijay
                              • Kcw
                              • 16 Aug 2014

                              Xiaomi Mi3 in India is ₹ 13999 i.e. equivalent of $ 230…at this price from rivals Samsung. LG. Sony. Etc only 2nd rate junk is available. What this review fails to emphasise is the value that Xiaomi brings to the consumers. No wonder Indians or for that matter other sensible folks all over world are enamored by Xiaomi Value for Money deal, and thousands of Mi3 are getting sold in seconds.

                                • A
                                • Angry Mobile Nerd
                                • bEx
                                • 16 Aug 2014

                                Var, 15 Aug 2014I feel the Price point Metric is not emphasized enough in t... more"esp from a review-conclusion point of view"

                                *facepalm* Did you even read the conclusion? They don't even mention the S5 or the Note 3.

                                As for your comment about audio quality and "NO" competition for this price, what about the Meizu MX3? The MX3 actually sells for the exact same price as the Mi3 (in China) and has excellent audio output that actually beats a lot of the international players thanks to its Wolfson WM5102 audio chip. You can check GSMArena's review for yourself. In general, actually there are a lot of competing devices, you just have to take those horse blinders off and look.

                                  • D
                                  • DoDo
                                  • THh
                                  • 16 Aug 2014

                                  Wow! This is the worst white balance and saturation on a phone camera I've seen in a few years...

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • j}7
                                    • 16 Aug 2014

                                    I don't even know how to pronounce it.

                                    Zy-o-me? Ex-ow-me?

                                    Anyone?

                                      • a
                                      • antidumb
                                      • thu
                                      • 16 Aug 2014

                                      Anonymous, 15 Aug 2014Oh hi, iPhone. Eh, wait a second...your troll is stupid

                                      since when iphone have half circle curve on the side and sharp corner?

                                      did you live in cave and never saw the iPhone?

                                        • s
                                        • sandeep
                                        • utK
                                        • 15 Aug 2014

                                        If it doesn't support 4k recording then why is 4k shooting mode available there?

                                        In Indian version, i don't have a option for slow motion video also. Only normal (1080p 58.89fps) and fast motion(time-lapse) modes.