This is Xiaomi's cheapest phone, but not uncompromising.

Introductory

Xiaomi’s phones come with a MIUI interface, more precisely, they arrived until two years ago. That's when the company introduced the device called Mi A1, in the name of which the A mark refers to Android, more precisely, to the factory, unmodified version of Android.

Xiaomi’s goal with this phone, and of course its successors, was to give something to those who prefer the simple interface and have more confidence that the factory Android update, as promised by the company, will be fast. Plus, we’ve also heard that there will be at least two of the main versions coming over the years. So, in one pan of the scales, there’s MIUI with its complexity, in the other, factory Android with its simplicity and the ability to update quickly.

With regard to A1, then it turned out that, unfortunately, nothing is what it seems. Despite the Pure Android, the updates were definitely lagging behind in what came, there wasn’t always any thanks either. The good news is that the bigger issues have been overcome these days, though, the A1 and A2 Lite that follow Mi A2 are still slow to get the updates, but what they get is at least free of more serious issues.

When the A1 arrived, everyone was fainting at the photographic skills. We expected A2 to continue this tradition, but unfortunately we had to be disappointed. In the case of A3, for my part, I didn’t expect anything like that anymore, but as you’ll see from the article, I was positively disappointed, even if it wasn’t bustlingly big.

External

Nowadays, we don’t find it weird at all if a phone’s display has a picture diagonal well above 6 inches. We love it, not even the thing, because the big screen is more convenient to watch movies, browse the internet, read, write a letter, so, in general, everything. In return, one-handed use is forgetful, they are hard to fit in the back pocket, and anyone who likes to press a baker's shovel to their ears for a phone call anyway.

Precisely because of this, you really need to appreciate the phone that stays at the 6-inch size. To give you my own example, the devices that come to me, I always comment with my life partner, you know, more eyes see more. For a long time, the A3 was the first thing he said he could bear. And this can be traced back to nothing but size.

My darling is accidentally using a Xiaomi Mi A1 for several years now, and it doesn’t make sense to replace it. So far, the excuse has always been that what I show him is too big. In the case of Mi A3, it's that we can't keep it anyway, but it would be nice, but don't spend money on it because it likes A1. You feel like a pretty weak argument, so I already know what the next gift will be for him.

Anyway, to talk about the facts, the phone is 153,48 x 71,85 x 8,475 millimeters and weighs just 173,8 grams. With that, it’s a small and light phone today, which is pretty sad somewhere.

There isn't a little problem with the look anyway, in fact. The front and rear Gorilla Glass cover, metal housing, a 32 megapixel self-contained camera on a drop-shaped island at the front, a 48-megapixel main camera at the rear in the usual serial layout, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and a depth sensor. There is no fingerprint sensor, at least on the back, in front of it, under the glass.

It’s a pleasure to find a traditional jack on the top edge of the device (I hate it when placed on the bottom), and it’s an even greater pleasure that the infra now has a place that seems trendy now. At the bottom is a speaker grille, with a mono speaker, of course, a Type C connector, and that's it. The power button and volume control are in the usual position on the right. With this mobile, we can’t complain that it got too high, as the phone isn’t too big either. On the left, again only in the usual place is the SIM tray, into which we can insert two SIM cards in the usual way, at least if we do not want to use an SD card, because if so, we have to sacrifice one SIM.

Hardware

Central unit

The central unit of the phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665. This unit with an eight-core proci is the direct successor to the SP 660, with more modern manufacturing technology and updated cores, but with a slightly more dewy GPU. We love the 660, which drives the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4, the company’s tablet, for example. Enough everywhere, just as the 665 will be enough. If we really want to get involved in something, it would be that while running games, here and there we will be forced to compromise on the detail of the graphics.

Depending on the processor, you can also view our standard tests:

Display

The display of the phone is what most people have criticized, and unfortunately we cannot say that this criticism is without any basis. The fact is that Xiaomi used an AMOLED panel with HD + resolution, perhaps to keep the price low. This resolution is already quite unusual among the plethora of FHD + phones these days, but the situation isn’t as awful as it can be filtered from online reviews.

It is a fact and undeniable that despite the small diagonal, we will see signs of lower resolution up close. To say the least, the letters are a little hairier. However, this only shows up if we look really closely at the filters, because going back to my sweetheart, who tried my Mi A3 well, didn’t notice that the resolution of the display is worse than the resolution of the beloved A1. So this is the theory, that is, the difference between the paper form and the actual use.

Anyway, if the low resolution is on the minus side, let’s put on the plus side that we get an AMOLED panel instead of an IPS, with all its benefits. Brilliant colors, high contrast and brightness, at least compared to IPS, but among the AMOLED competitors, what we get is completely average. If you’re already AMOLED, turn back to the fingerprint sensor for a moment, which you wouldn’t have been able to put under the display with IPS, so the phone looks like it works like larger, premium phones when it comes to unlocking.

Kamerák

You may have read more about the resolution of the sensors, and the kind of cameras, so now let’s run through them!

The 32 megapixel resolution of the self-contained camera isn’t too weak, in fact, I’m 8 or 12 megapixels on my part, but anyone who loves to take photos will be happy with the many pixels. The quality of the camera is average, we get image enhancement functions, the captured images are quite detailed, so the little one is not bad.

Of course, most people are interested in backplane cameras. As I wrote, I didn’t expect much good, but luckily the situation is better than I expected. With the 48 megapixel main camera, the Sony IMX586 sensor under the lens is no longer a novelty, nor is the fact that we can see a super aperture value of (f / 1,79). Thanks to the 4-in-1 pixel layout, the images taken with the main camera shoot 12-megapixel photos, which are impeccable in the usual way, in the middle, and disappear more and more details as you move towards the chair.

This is not uncommon, unfortunately this is common with telephone cameras, the only question is how big the central sharp area is. Fortunately, the Mi A3 is big enough. With this phone, we also have the ability to take 48 megapixel images, but in addition to some well-chosen subjects, it is completely unnecessary to use. Stay more than 12 megapixels, we’re doing much better. We can’t complain about the dynamics of the images or the automatic white balance adjustment either, both are basically impeccable.

In the case of the Xiaomi Mi A1, I really like the hardware double zoom, but unfortunately, nowadays, in this price range, we have to say goodbye to this extra. There is software, double zoom instead. This is much more than what we saw a few years ago, as the algorithm is not trying to duplicate existing pixels (i.e., it doesn’t want to do something out of nothing), but is cutting out the middle of an image taken with a 48 megapixel sensor. It does some software image enhancement, sharpening, and then there's the zoom option. The procedure works quite well, though, again, just in the usual way, if we crop the image on our desktop, we will get better results than if we entrusted this to the phone.

Night (evening) photography, on the other hand, was a really pleasant surprise. The camera produced miles better than expected, the noise reduction works great but is not disturbing, it eliminates details, the colors are also good, so take off your hat!

I don’t want to write more about the 8-megapixel wide-angle camera than I wrote about the self-timer camera. Not bad, usable, but I would mostly use it if it were more important for as many parts of a room as possible to fit the picture than for good quality. So realtors will love it.

Unfortunately, it was a particularly nasty time to take the test shots, but the point still seems that way.

Other skills

No need to let go of things, everything is Xiaomis, that is, almost perfect. The wifi is ac standard, dual-channel, has Bluetooth, navigation is aided by the fact that in addition to the usual GPS support, BEIDOU and GLONASS are not left out, there is a compass, gyroscope, magnetic sensor and accelerometer, which is a bit lacking in NFC, the lack of which is difficult to explain .

The built-in battery is quite large with its 4030 mAh capacity, which can be charged with the included 10 watt quick charger, but if you find this time too much, you can buy an 18 watt QuickCharge 3.0 charging head, the phone knows it too. As a matter of fact, in my experience, this battery is enough to achieve two-day, battery-powered mode under normal use, and if we treat it sparingly, the three days can be very narrow, but don't rather count on it.

Use

As it turned out so far, the two of us tried the phone. Impressions are good. My couple couldn’t get involved in anything, though he claims he still takes better pictures with the A1 in good light than with the A3, although he added, it may not be the problem that the A1 is already very he was used to, that is, he knew what he could get out of it, while in the case of A3 he did not have the opportunity to “practice” at that level. He really liked the relatively small size, especially the fact that the A1 was capable of a bit even narrower due to the other aspect ratios, in return it was minimally longer.

For my part, maybe I’d tie it to the vibrating motor, which could be a little stronger because I’m used to something else. I felt a little unnecessary that the USB Type C connector on the case got a lockable cap. True, it protects you from dirt, but it was hard to poke it out when charging, it’s hard to plug in the cable, then, once the charging is done, it’s hard to screw the cap back into place. Sure, if I bought myself a phone like this, my first thing would be to cut it off with a scalpel.

I can't report any other interesting things, or rather negatives. The volume of the speakers is adequate, as is the problem with the microphone. The handling of navigation satellites, in a way worthy of Xiaomi’s tradition, is perfect, although for the first time, it takes a little longer to find the satellites than is normal. Luckily, this is really only the first time this has been the case, later there was no problem with that either.

Summary

I was basically prepared before the phone test to see why I would pull it off, but due to my own experience, camera capabilities, and my partner’s feedback, the overall picture became much more favorable. In fact, I can say that my companion, who was quite critical of phones anyway, was very happy, so the title of the article was born, which means that the phone is really in women's hands.

If we can rise above the HD + AMOLED display, if we love the simplicity and usability of the factory Android, then we can have a beautiful phone that shines with real Xiaomi values ​​for cheap.

If you liked it, then a GBA36402 using a coupon code, we can now buy a version with 54 GB of storage and 283 GB of memory for free, duty-free delivery for HUF 64. Click here:

Xiaomi Mi A3 4 / 64 GB - Coupon code: GBA36402 - 54 283 Ft

More Xiaomi tests here

Finally, read a reading from a reader about how Grandpa had his first encounter with Xiaomi's phone: