Xiaomi Mi Max review: Hulked up

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi Max comes in several configurations, we have the base version with Snapdragon 650, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The top model has an S652 chipset and an extra gig of RAM.

Snapdragon 650 has become a very popular choice in the midrange. While it's built on the old 28nm process, the two Cortex-A72 cores offer a lot of speed and the Adreno 510 GPU is fairly capable.

The difference between the 650 and 652 is the core count - the former has six cores (2x A72 + 4x A53), while the latter has eight adding two extra A72 cores. If budget allows it, the two extra cores are nice to have, but as we're about to see, the base Mi Max is pretty fast to start with (and the GPUs are the same anyway).

System performance is similar to the Samsung Galaxy A9 (which uses Snapdragon 652). AnTuTu 6.0 thinks the Xiaomi is faster, Basemark OS 2.0 thinks it's the Samsung.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  91609
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  89345
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  74488
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  64591

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Huawei Mate 8
  2017
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1529
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  1362
• Oppo R7 Plus
  968
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  931

Digging in deeper, we see that the two extra A72 cores do increase multi-core performance, a boost of around 25%. Single-core performance is higher than the Cortex-A57 used in the likes of Nexus 6P.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  6323
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4759
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  4226
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  3861
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3204

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  1536
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1466
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  1363

The Adreno 510 GPU proves capable of 1080p gaming. The Adreno 405 (used in the Oppo R7 Plus) doesn't really cut it and neither does a Mali with fewer cores (2-core Mali-T760 in the Xperia C5 Ultra). The Huawei Mate 8 with a 4-core Mali-T880 is faster, but the difference isn't huge. The Nexus 6P has a fast GPU (Adreno 430), but its on-screen performance is hampered by its QHD screen (the rest use 1080p).

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  18
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6.4
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  11
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  11
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  9.4
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.1
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  3.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  25
• Huawei Mate 8
  18
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Huawei Mate 8
  10
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  9.4
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.3
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.9

The Xiaomi Mi Max did quite well in the Basemark X tests and came out on par with the Mate 8. Again, notice that the Snapdragon 652 in the Galaxy A9 doesn't have a faster GPU.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• Huawei Mate 8
  15593
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  15487
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  15290
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  5695
• Oppo R7 Plus
  5349

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 8
  27425
• Xiaomi Mi Max (S650)
  27070
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  26081

A Snapdragon 650/652 chipset is a mark of quality for a midrange device. Even the hexa-core processor in the 650 runs modern Android smoothly (the 3GB of RAM weren't an issue either). You might be tempted by the S652 version of the Mi Max, but it's not a must. In either case, the GPU performance is the same and handles games at 1080p easily.