Xiaomi Mi 3 review: The way of the dragon

The way of the dragon

GSMArena team, 15 August 2014.

Performance

Xiaomi Mi 3 runs on the popular and powerful Snapdragon 800 chipset with a quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The Mi 3 comes with a 1080p display, which means the smartphone should be on par with the 2013 flagships featuring the same combo - Samsung Galaxy Note 3, LG G2, Sony Xperia Z1, plus the recently launched Oppo Find 7a.

Our first tests explores the raw CPU power, but for some reason Xiaomi Mi 3 fails to impress here. We did the test a couple of times, but either the app or the software optimizations are incompatible with the GeekBench 3 CPU benchmark.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7a
    3093
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    2937
  • Sony Xperia Z1
    2638
  • LG G2
    2243
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    1895
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
    1869
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    1837

Things immediately got better when we ran the AnTuTu compound tests, which in addition to the CPU calculations, throws in GPU and RAM routines, too. The Xiaomi Mi 3 gets an excellent mark here.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

  • LG G2
    35444
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    34972
  • Oppo Find 7a
    33344
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    31109
  • Sony Xperia Z1
    30850
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
    27613
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    25812

We've tested both regular and anti-cheat version of the popular Basemark OS II benchmark and we found the Xiaomi Mi 3 doesn't use any tricks to boost the scores. It does excellent on all three test we keep track of, so you shouldn’t worry about any performance hiccups.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    1289
  • Oppo Find 7
    1212
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    1082
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    1080
  • Oppo Find 7a
    1057

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7a
    2580
  • Galaxy S5 (S801)
    2415
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    2400
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    2253
  • LG G3
    1787

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7a
    10256
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    10063
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    10044
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    9007
  • LG G3
    8337

The Adreno 330 is a wide-spread GPU core and we already knew what to expect. The Xiaomi Mi 3 is on par with the Oppo Find 7a and beating the rest of the competition in both the on-screen and off-screen tests.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7a
    28.4
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    27.4
  • LG G3
    27.6
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    27.2
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    26.3
  • Sony Xperia Z1
    23
  • LG G2
    22
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
    17.1
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    12.3

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7a
    28.8
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    28.7
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    28.2
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    28.1
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    26.7
  • LG G2
    23.1
  • LG G3
    20.6
  • Oppo Find 7
    19.9
  • Huawei Ascend P7
    12.4

The Open GL ES3.0 Manhattan test puts the Xiaomi Mi 3 among the best devices we've tested o far.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    11.6
  • Oppo Find 7a
    11.4
  • LG G3
    11.9
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    11.8
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    11.7
  • Oppo Find 7
    11.1
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    9.9
  • Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
    9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia Z2
    12.2
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    11.7
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    11.5
  • Oppo Find 7a
    11.4
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
    10
  • LG G3
    7.4
  • Oppo Find 7
    6.7

The BrowserMark 2.1 tests HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. The Xiaomi Mi 3 did great on Kraken, but somewhat average on the compound BrowserMark test.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    6586
  • Oppo Find 7a
    6660
  • Snapdragon Galaxy S5 (S801)
    6043
  • Oppo Find 7
    6363
  • Sony Xperia Z2
    7041
  • LG G3
    7610
  • HTC One mini 2
    15684
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
    15885

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

  • Oppo Find 7
    1452
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
    1398
  • Oppo Find 7a
    1327
  • LG G3
    1254
  • Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
    861
  • Xiaomi Mi 3
    706
  • Gionee Elife S5.5
    432

Xiaomi Mi 3 and its Snapdragon 800 chipsets deliver excellent raw performance and provide hiccup-free gaming and blazing-fast Android + MIUI performance. There is nothing the Xiaomi Mi 3 can't do and it will have no one disappointed.

Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 28 Nov 2024
  • I@H

Writing my comment here using my mi3w. It's 2024 of November and this phone is still alive! 11 years of service is not so bad at all!

  • Ok
  • 21 Oct 2024
  • X%w

Ok

  • bob
  • 05 Jul 2021
  • I@a

signal problem mi3