Xiaomi Mi 6: A killer flagship

By Samrat Amatya

Xiaomi, a Chinese OEM, which has been dominating the mobile industry for quite some time is here with their flagship smartphone — the Xiaomi Mi 6. Vatsal Impex, the official distributor of Xiaomi smartphones in Nepal has priced the phone at Rs 57,999 for the 128GB variant. The phone packs some cool stuff like a dual camera set up, a stereo speaker and a whopping 6GB of RAM.

Design

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is a good-looking smartphone which flaunts its glass and metal design. It not only looks good but also feels substantial in the hands. The phone can be easily maneuvered by a single hand all thanks to its rounded edges and curved back. Unlike its predecessor, the Mi 6 feels more solid and durable at 168g. The phone also comes with some level of water resistance giving it protection against those occasional spills. My only complaint with the design of the phone is the lack of a headphone jack.

Display

The Mi 6 packs a 5.15 inch Full HD IPS display with a pixel density of 428PPI. The display is covered by Gorilla Glass 5 and is edged out by a 2.5D glass. At 603nits the display on the Mi 6 gets abundantly bright even for outdoor visibility. The display also exhibits great viewing angles and true-to-life colours. That been said, a high-res Quad-HD display would have been more appreciated in a 2017 flagship.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is a beast at handling day to day task! The Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor backed by a whopping 6GB of RAM flew through everything that I threw at it. This inclusion is a much-needed one as Xiaomi has been notorious for their rather aggressive RAM management techniques.Gaming on this phone with the Adreno 540 GPU was an absolute breeze. Everything ran smoothly and I didn’t notice any visible lags or stutters.

Software

The Mi 6 runs MIUI 8.5 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The UI, although a far cry from stock Android, is clean, minimalistic and markedly functional. It is the only custom skin that I adore among all the Chinese OEM skins. It offers a perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. However, the iconography is stale and I can’t wait for the phone to get all the new MIUI 9 update.

Camera

In the camera department, the phone packs a dual camera setup made by two 12MP f/1.8 and f/2.6 sensors accompanied by a dual-tone LED flash. Dual camera is the current craze of the market and the Mi 6 keeps up with that. Among the two, the latter is a telephoto lens which gives the camera a 2X optical zoom capability. It also brings the ever so popular portrait mode for a bokehlicious picture! About the image quality, images taken from the cameras have exorbitant amount of details, contrast, and vibrancy. When I used the cameras in low light scenarios, the pictures were top-notch—details were preserved; however, a negligible amount of grain was detected. The stock camera app on this phone is also packed to the gills with tons of features and modes. The Mi 6 also has f/2.2 8MP front camera for selfies. The selfies taken on this phone in ample lighting condition is praise-worthy with high details and vibrancy. But unlike its rear counterpart, the low light performance is not what I expected it to be. Nonetheless, the cameras on this phone are amazing especially for what they are worth.

Biometrics and others

The phone has an active front mounted fingerprint scanner embedded into its home key. It works very well as I was easily able to unlock the phone in a jiffy. Though not the loudest, the Mi 6 conjointly packs a goodset of stereo speakers. There is also an infrared blaster which helps you control your TV, AC and other IR devices.

Connectivity

The phone supports dual nano SIM cards. Sadly, there is no inclusion of a micro-sd card slot on this device. Storage, however, won’t be an issue on this phone as it comes with 128GB of internal built-instorage. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 4G.

Battery

The Xiaomi Mi 6 packs a 3350mAh non user removable battery. I am more than satisfied with its battery life as I was easily able to get 5-6 hours of on-screen time on a single charge without any issues. Moderate users will be able to get a full-day worth of battery life. And if the battery does run out, there is the inclusion of Quick Charge 3.0 and USB Type C for faster charging time.

Conclusion

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is a killer smartphone which offers flagship specifications for half the price. The dual camera set up, the swift fingerprint scanner and the smooth UI makes using the MI 6 a true pleasure. If you want a sublime flagship smartphone without gaping a huge hole in your wallet, you should definitely get a Xiaomi Mi 6.