Xiaomi Mi Max review: Hulked up

Introduction

Goodbye Alexander Bell, hello Tim Berners-Lee and Ray Tomlinson. The inventor of the telephone would not have approved of the hulking 6.44" but the Xiaomi Mi Max is the kind of device the pioneers of WWW and email would have loved.

The Mi Max is a phone, sure, a dual-SIM one at that. But with its near tablet size, this device is clearly aimed at digital media and communication.

Though Xiaomi has priced it as a mid-fielder, the Mi Max gives a winning first impression. A slender metal body with thin bezels houses a large battery and a capable 16MP/2160p camera. There's a more premium option that offers tons of storage and a faster chipset with more RAM to boot, while still keeping a reasonable price.

Key features

• 6.44" IPS LCD display of 1080p resolution; 342ppi; Corning Gorilla Glass 4; Metal back
• 16GB/32GB model with Snapdragon 650 chipset (2x Cortex-A72 at 1.8GHz and 4x A53 at 1.4GHz cores); Adreno 510 GPU; 2GB/3GB RAM - the one we're reviewing
• 64GB/128GB model with Snapdragon 652 chipset (4x Cortex-A72 at 1.8GHz and 4x A53 at 1.4GHz cores); Adreno 510 GPU; 3GB/4GB RAM
• 16MP f/2.0 main camera with phase detection autofocus, dual-tone LED flash; 2160p video at 30fps;
• 5MP f/2.0 front-facing camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 4G LTE; Dual-SIM; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.2; GPS, GLONASS and Beidou; IR blaster; FM radio; Fingerprint reader
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 7
• microSD slot (takes the place of SIM2)
• 4,850mAh non-removable battery

Main disadvantages

• Big, large, massive
• Heavy at 203g
• No fast charger in the retail box
• No NFC means no Android Pay (or other wireless payment methods)

The 5.5" Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a well-loved device (with good reason), the Mi Max is the same phone in Hulk mode. Aside from the extra screen size (37% more real estate), it adds 4K video and improves endurance with more storage options and a bigger battery.

Xiaomi Mi Max official images

If you check the Mi Max page on the Xiaomi website you'll see that just about every blurb starts with "Big screen": play games and watch movies, read books and comics, view documents and web pages. Well, there's one that reads "big screen and big battery" and it is certainly true as well.

So that's it then - the Xiaomi Mi Max is ideal for multimedia marathons. The size of the screen increases comfort over long periods of time (squinting at "tiny" 5.5" screens can get tiring) and the 4,850mAh battery has more energy than you do.

So, we hope you're well rested because we're diving into the Mi Max.

Special thanks to HonorBuy for providing the review unit.