Xiaomi Mi Note review: Striking the right note

27 February 2015
Proper flagships are coming in pairs lately as every maker is trying to cater for different crowds. Apple, Samsung, HTC and Sony – but also Oppo, Meizu, Huawei. Up and coming Chinese makers have really hit a stride. Xiaomi here has done a fair deal of watching and learning...

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DaXiong, 28 Feb 2015"The Snapdragon 801 chip doesn't support an FM radio b... moreThe statement is right - Snapdragon 801 does not feature FM radio support. Those models you mentioned have FM radio because the manufacturers chose to add it on their own. Xiaomi didn't bother to tweak the chip further.

    "The Snapdragon 801 chip doesn't support an FM radio by default and requires extra chips to do so"

    This is completely false, several other phones with Snapdragon 801 has FM radio, such as LG G3, Nubia Z7 Max, Xperia Z3 etc!

    Xiaomi just followed the trend of iPhoneization with sealed batteries, no FM radio, no SD-card and generally less choice and value for the customer.

      Anonymous, 28 Feb 2015Wow bad review... No comparison against Huawei Ascend Mate 7.Did you read the review at all? Or you've checked the last page, saw your phone isn't there and went straight to post a non-sense comment here?

      The Mate7 is €100 more expensive, with bigger screen and body and thus it isn't a competitor to the Xiaomi Mi Note. That's why it is missing in the final words.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • dMi
        • 28 Feb 2015

        AnonD-265341, 28 Feb 2015I don't understand what the fuss is all about. This is no c... moreTrue, battery life is not very good, but it can be improved with an update. MIUI gets weekly updates.

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          • AnonD-142922
          • n5y
          • 28 Feb 2015

          I wud be MORE interested in Pro

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            • AnonD-265153
            • uCj
            • 28 Feb 2015

            It's highly priced because the Mi Note is not made cheap. Just like Apple. You can't expect S801 with premium material and design to cost around the $300 price range. Well, to this day, Snapdragon 801 still performs decently, unless a new chipset was made to eliminate that just like how S800 eliminates S4 Pro.

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              • Anonymous
              • 28 Feb 2015

              Very bad implementation of audio dac, shame because is good one.

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                • AnonD-265341
                • nba
                • 28 Feb 2015

                I don't understand what the fuss is all about. This is no competition to the most know companies. That battery life if horrible, not to mention the lack of sd and nfc. Stay clear of this crap.

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                  • AnonD-298939
                  • tDb
                  • 28 Feb 2015

                  Also Xiaomi phones and gorilla glass have always been a huge controversy.

                  This phone is no different; nothing on Xiaomi's or Corning's website that this phone has Gorilla Glass but I see Xiaomishop planted the seed and wrote Gorilla Glass 3 (hey, if it sells more phones) so now this unsubstantiated spec gets picked up by GSMArena and the cycle continues.

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                    • Angry Mobile Nerd
                    • tDb
                    • 28 Feb 2015

                    Unless you absolutely need the dual sim, you can pretty much get a Note 3 for the price of this. The advantage this has is in its home market it is compatible with China Mobile's 4g networks where as an international Note 3 would be stuck on 2g but this issue doesn't apply to 99.9% of the readers here.

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                      • Anonymous
                      • vau
                      • 28 Feb 2015

                      Wow bad review...
                      No comparison against Huawei Ascend Mate 7.

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                        • Anonymous
                        • XMF
                        • 28 Feb 2015

                        great design, bad battery life even worsen with non removable... junk type phone

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                          • AnonD-5666
                          • utb
                          • 27 Feb 2015

                          Worthless phone.. A phone with such hopeless batterylife should not be allowed to be released to public.

                          Display brightness @ 50% - 130 cd/m2
                          Even with such low brightness, browsing is a pathetic 6:19, and video playback is lousy 6:32.

                          Compare this against Note 4. Much more powerful SOC, more pixels, display brightness @ 50% - 291 cd/m2
                          Even with such high brightness, browsing is 11 hrs, video is 17:52. In reality Note 4 does 4 times more battery than this POS if you consider same brightness levels.

                          You get what you pay for, bad battery for a cheap phone.

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                            • Anonymous
                            • T4x
                            • 27 Feb 2015

                            Why they dont mention if it gets covered in fingerprint and smudges??

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                              • AnonD-78871
                              • wrd
                              • 27 Feb 2015

                              Waiting for audio quality test results.
                              It should be as good as Meizu MX4 Pro and Vivo X5 Max considering both phone is using the sam DAC

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                                • Anonymous
                                • v0q
                                • 27 Feb 2015

                                Epic battery. Beats my xperia p.

                                  • m
                                  • mick
                                  • fsW
                                  • 27 Feb 2015

                                  Nice built. But too big. Same poor battery life as my lg g3. And why are they not giving the option of using sd card instead of nano sim as other companies. This might be the real big failure

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • v0q
                                    • 27 Feb 2015

                                    AnonD-357689, 27 Feb 2015One of the best looking smartphone on the market.And should have been the best battery performer a last decade.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • phr
                                      • 27 Feb 2015

                                      if this battery holds up like this imagine the QHD version

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                                        • AnonD-357689
                                        • ajT
                                        • 27 Feb 2015

                                        One of the best looking smartphone on the market.