Xiaomi Mi A2 review

A1 for Android One, A2 - still Android One

The Xiaomi Mi A1 was the company's first smartphone to take part in the Android One program, hence the name. There's no Android Two, so the Mi A2 sticks to Android One - meaning pure Android experience with quick updates as soon as Google's done with them. Sure enough, the Mi A2 we have here is running the latest Android 8.1 Oreo, though it's still on the June 5 security patch for some reason.

Android as Google intended shows up when you wake up the phone - clock, notification cards, two shortcuts on the bottom. Fingerprint enrollment uses the standard Oreo interface. Unlocking works as advertised and is quick and reliable. Past that is the standard Android 8 homescreen with a pull-up app drawer.

Lockscreen • Fingerprint enrollment • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer

The quick toggles and notifications shade changes color depending on the wallpaper - white for lighter ones, black for darker ones. A setting for that is coming with Android P, or at least there is one in the beta build. The task switcher is the usual rolodex and wouldn't it be great if Google put the 'clear all' button on the bottom instead of up top? Anyway, multi-window is supported natively since Nougat.

As for gestures, there's the one - double press the power button to launch the camera, if that even counts as a gesture.

Quick toggles • Notifications • Task switcher • Multi-window • Gestures

As for multimedia, it's all in the hands of Google and its default apps. Google Photos is in charge of gallery-related tasks and video playback, while Google Play Music is the audio player, and Google's Calendar is the Mi A2's calendar of choice. The default Files file manager with batch actions and Google Drive sync is present, but let's face it - it's beyond basic.

Google Photos • Google Play Music • Equalizer • Calendar • Default file manager

No wonder then that Xiaomi's added its own, with categories and fancier looks. There's also the Mi Remote app which lets you use the phone's built-in IR emitter to control a wide selection of home appliances - Mi TV's included, naturally. The company's in-house file sharing app Mi Drop is also pre-installed.

Xiaomi File Manager • Mi Remote • Mi Drop

Synthetic benchmarks

While the Mi A1 was using a Snapdragon 625 chip which prioritized power efficiency over absolute performance, for the Mi A2 Xiaomi is using a higher grade 600-series SoC. The Snapdragon 660 packs an octa-core Kryo 260 CPU in a 4x2.2GHz + 4x1.8GHz configuration (8x2.0GHz Cortex-A53 setup in the Mi A1). The Adreno 512 GPU is also a step up from the 506 in the previous model. Now, our review unit is the 4GB version, but a 6GB option will also be available (with 128GB of storage at that).

We've had the Snapdragon 660 in the office on a number of occasions and you'll find the Meizu 15, Nokia 7 plus, and BlackBerry KEY2 in the charts below (plus a couple of Oppos). Popular chips in this segment include the Snapdragon 636 (Redmi Note 5 Pro and AI) and 630 (Nokia 6.1, Moto G6 Plus and X4, and Xperia XA2 Ultra), while Samsung has the brawny Exynos 7885 (Galaxy A8) and the modest 7870 (Galaxy A6) in the midrange. We've thrown Huawei's Kirin 659 and the 970 for comparison's sake, as well as a Mediatek Helio P60 (Oppo R15) and the latest Snapdragon to have - the 710 (Mi 8 SE).

In this unusually varied crowd, the Mi A2 posts scores towards the top of the pack in single-core GeekBench, virtually identical to the rest of its S660 brethren. The Mi 8 SE's S710 has a couple of the more powerful Kryo 360 Gold cores, and one of of those posts noticeably better figures than a Kryo 260 in the A2's S660. Then come the two Helio P60-powered Oppos and the E7885 Galaxy A8 (2018) with their Cortex-A73s, and it's all sorts of Cortex-A53-based chips from then on.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  1890
• Nokia 7 plus
  1634
• BlackBerry KEY2
  1628
• Meizu 15
  1620
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  1617
• Oppo R11s
  1614
• Oppo R15 Pro
  1612
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  1532
• Oppo F7
  1531
• Oppo R15
  1520
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  1329
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  1327
• Huawei P20 Lite
  938
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  882
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  882
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  877
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  866
• Motorola Moto X4
  866
• Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
  755
• Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)
  733

Weirdly enough, the Mi A2 doesn't remotely reach the results of the other S660 phones in the multi-core portion of GeekBench, and even trails the S636 Redmi Note 5s. Here, the S710 doesn't have any advantage over the S660s.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  5908
• Oppo R11s
  5907
• Oppo F7
  5901
• Nokia 7 plus
  5893
• Meizu 15
  5877
• BlackBerry KEY2
  5830
• Oppo R15 Pro
  5809
• Oppo R15
  5806
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  4918
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  4696
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  4625
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  4418
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  4292
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  4225
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  4198
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  4160
• Motorola Moto X4
  4136
• Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
  3905
• Huawei P20 Lite
  3756
• Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)
  3718

It's nice to see the wall of 15fps results from the S660 devices from the offscreen Manhattan runs in GFXBench - the Mi A2 isn't doing anything out of the ordinary with its Adreno 512 here. The Adreno 616 in the S710 shows its muscle with a more than 50% higher score.

There's more variation in the onscreen test with every manufacturer having its own take on the tall screen resolution and the KEY2 actually having a less than FullHD display while the Meizu 15 and the Oppo R11s are classic 16:9 phones. The frame rates reflect that.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  23
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  15
• Oppo R15 Pro
  15
• Nokia 7 plus
  15
• BlackBerry KEY2
  15
• Meizu 15
  15
• Oppo R11s
  15
• Oppo F7
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  9.9
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  9.9
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  9.8
• Motorola Moto X4
  9.8
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  9.7
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
  6
• Huawei P20 Lite
  5.1
• Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)
  3.2

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  22
• BlackBerry KEY2
  17
• Oppo R11s
  15
• Meizu 15
  15
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  14
• Nokia 7 plus
  14
• Oppo R15 Pro
  12
• Oppo F7
  11
• Motorola Moto X4
  11
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  10
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  9.7
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  8.7
• Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)
  6.7
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  6.3
• Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
  5.6
• Huawei P20 Lite
  4.9

It's probably the lower multi-core performance that sets the Mi A2 back in Antutu, where the other S660 devices are again closely packed together, the A2 behind them. The Meizu 15 alone actually scores a tad lower than the Xiaomi, so there's that.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  170218
• Oppo R15 Pro
  146526
• BlackBerry KEY2
  140984
• Nokia 7 plus
  140820
• Oppo R15
  140161
• Oppo F7
  139414
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  130927
• Meizu 15
  125444
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
  115195
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro
  107737
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  90918
• Motorola Moto G6 Plus
  90263
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  89110
• Huawei P20 Lite
  87431
• Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
  69899
• Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018)
  63632

Overall, the Mi A2 is a dependable performer thanks to its upper midrange Snapdragon 660 chip. It's a considerable step up from the S625 of last year's model and the S630 and S636 of today's competition. We did observe unusually low multi-core CPU results, but we didn't see that manifest itself as a problem in actual use. Some heat build up was also present with a modest amount of throttling too, but it's nowhere near the worst offenders in this respect.