Xiaomi Mi 6 review: Social climber

26 May 2017
Seven years in the making. That’s what Xiaomi says and you can feel the pride of a job well done. Is it arrogance? Maybe. And it may be surprising but not completely unfounded. A five-inch screen in a hot, curved metal-and-glass body. A dual camera with 2x optical zoom. A Snapdragon 835. The Xiaomi Mi 6 has many virtues and well… modesty isn’t one of them.

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  • Depressed Individual
  • UD{
  • 27 May 2017

'Social Climber ?' Srsly?

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • pVM
    • 27 May 2017

    AnonD-664474, 27 May 2017XZ Premium has 4K HDR display, please don't make me laugh o... moreAll lies generated by the mind of a fanboy.

    Sony's 4k is 1080p in everything bad photos/movie, so yes you get lower PPI in most of everything (given the bigger screen).

    XZP's camera is universally hated and easily the worst this year 'round. Just compare the samples with Xiaomi's. You have eyes, don't you?

    You can put soft buttons on Xiaomi you know. But who wants that when you already have hard buttons? It basically has as big as XZP's screen despite being smaller because a lot of XZP's useful areas is wasted by soft buttons. Soft buttons were meant to eliminate the chin, Sony understood their purpose completely wrong.

    Fingerprint placement if much better on the front because you don't need to handle the phone when on a table. It's basically half of the uses of the fingerprint scanner. Being able to launch a phone without taking it in your hand. It's revolutionary once you use it and can't do without it. Of course you wouldn't know that because you probably only used a Sony in your life and they never did fingertip right. Fingertip on Sonys is cumbersome at best.

    Also worse battery (despite the much bigger body, how did they manage to do that, I'm still wondering)

    Less ram, meaning less future proof and far slower (when yo disable MIUI's stringent ram management).

    Lastly Sony gives up after two years on their devices. 3 is the most I've ever seen. Xiaomi keeps them upgraded for 4 years minimum.

    The only that XZP sights is the front facing speakers. Still they're tiny, tinny and bad. Phone speakers would always be a bad idea. Now a good idea to have your phone build around them.

      Bantu, 27 May 2017Someone here who's familiar with audio tech , can you pleas... moreUSB type C supports both: If you use the provided 3.5mm adapter it would use the internal DAC, however, if your adapter has a DAC included it will use that DAC. Xiaomi used good DAC chips in their previous phones (the Mi 5 uses the Sabre ES9018K2M) and I expect more of the same here.

        • M
        • MG7
        • gMx
        • 27 May 2017

        After comparing i phone 7+ and mi6 regular cameras in photo comparison tool, the results are:
        In good light: mi6 performs better with more detail and better dynamic range while 7+
        images have more contrast.

        In low light: 7+ performs slightly better.

        Reply after comparing yourself from photo tool.
        http://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=4&idPhone1=8507&idPhone2=8065

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • n5u
          • 27 May 2017

          AnonD-632062, 27 May 2017It's a pretty good smartphone. The main deal-breakers are t... moreIt's also a bit on the bland side

            • D
            • AnonD-632062
            • J7S
            • 27 May 2017

            It's a pretty good smartphone. The main deal-breakers are the lack of the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the MicroSD card.

              • B
              • Bantu
              • v{u
              • 27 May 2017

              AnonD-257034, 27 May 2017USB C has pins for analog audio, so I think that the adapte... moreI see, I didn't know that it had analog audio pins...
              then must be , thanks :)

                • D
                • AnonD-523334
                • 7k7
                • 27 May 2017

                LLL, 27 May 2017MicroSD slot in favor of U11. And of course the headline s... moreThanx bro for pointing out the micro SD card. Such an important feature. Actually the only reason I skipped Mi5 was that xiaomi only sold 32GB version in India and went for 1+3 . But in this case, both Mi6 and U11 have 64GB and 128GB versions. And 64GB is still not less. So Mi6 this year, but it'll be better if xiaomi sells 128GB version.

                  • H
                  • Harwey
                  • JbV
                  • 27 May 2017

                  nice review GSMA,as usual.What bothers me the most is the audio section,you gave mi6 high marks,but no official data about dac chip..that typeC>3.5mm adapter in the box clearly has no audio chip inside,it looks very cheap.

                    • G
                    • Gem
                    • XHx
                    • 27 May 2017

                    Price is just too good.

                      • D
                      • AnonD-257034
                      • 0xx
                      • 27 May 2017

                      Bantu , 27 May 2017Oh , I wondered​ that too, thanks . Does the converter hav... moreUSB C has pins for analog audio, so I think that the adapter is simply a dongle with no chips in it.

                        anon4321, 27 May 2017lmfao.."Big pixels"?? 0.1µm is 0.0001mm (that's the d... moreSounds like a comment from someone who's not educated enough in mobile photography. Same quality comment as those who say octacore is always better than quadcore, regardless frequency, architecture and manufacturing process.

                          • B
                          • Bantu
                          • IWU
                          • 27 May 2017

                          leledumbo, 27 May 2017USB Type-C to 3.5mm jack adapter is provided in the box.Oh , I wondered​ that too, thanks .
                          Does the converter have a high end DAC included ? any news on that ?

                            • B
                            • Bantu
                            • IWU
                            • 27 May 2017

                            Someone here who's familiar with audio tech , can you please explain how the Mi6 can have good headphone audio quality without having a headphone jack ?
                            As in dies it require the plugged in headphones to have good separate DACs built in or does xiaomi provide an adapter with a good built in DAC?

                            Or how does the I herbal DAC of the phone come into play without a headphone jack? :o
                            .Appreciate it very much.....

                              • D
                              • AnonD-636638
                              • HBk
                              • 27 May 2017

                              [deleted post]I think (not sure) that these results describe the average score and not the highest (the video mentioned just the highest score achieved by each phone). Antutu benchmark website uses the same method (best performance tables are being created based on the average score of its phone).

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • JT5
                                • 27 May 2017

                                AnonD-468436, 27 May 2017why xiaomi used imx386? imx378 was far better for a little ... moreThe value of aperture f is a choice of the OEM. You can have same sensor with differents f.
                                OIS too. Does not come with the sensor, yiu choose to use it or not.


                                  • c
                                  • coolbeans
                                  • s0c
                                  • 27 May 2017

                                  AnonD-664474, 27 May 2017XZ Premium has 4K HDR display, please don't make me laugh o... moreYou won a phone argument. Cool.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • U}}
                                    • 27 May 2017

                                    mi6 really considered as good phone, but not impressive me as mi5 do last year
                                    Maybe because other phone already move way far better from last year like p10, s8 & g6

                                    Just waited for mi mix2 (wish) with more compact footprint, better cam & ip68

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-625786
                                      • nYS
                                      • 27 May 2017

                                      Very nice phone! I actually really like its design, but hopefully the build quality has been improved from the Mi 5 and Mi 5s.

                                        Nice. Now release a Mi6s with OLED and storage expansion