New Delhi: It's not even been three months since Xiaomi introduced the flagship Mi 4 smartphone in India, and the company has now announced a new variant of the phone - Mi 4i - that comes at a relatively lower price. While many look it at as a successor to the Mi 4, it, however, is actually a more-affordable version of the old Mi 4 - which still remains Xiaomi's flagship in India.
Though the new Mi 4i doesn't have the engine and a few other elements as powerful as the Mi 4, it takes a lead over the Mi 4 on some key fronts. The most important of all is network connectivity. The dual-SIM Mi 4i provides 4G support on both the SIM slots and support for up to 16 bands, while the single SIM Mi 4 in India is a 3G phone.
As Xiaomi's India head Manu Jain explained in an interview with IBNLive, when the entire Mi 4 roadmap was being planned, Xiaomi was not present in India. So, the company did not know about the whole spectrum situation in India that there were dual spectrums - TDD 2300 MHz and FDD 1800 MHz. So, that was not taken into account and hence for them to efficiently have an antenna which would cater to both these bands was turning out to be a little bit of an issue. "We could have done that, but then it wouldn't have been as efficient as what we would prefer. Hence, we decided to launch the 3G version of the Mi 4 in India," said Manu. But having got a complete understanding of the spectrum situation in India, Xiaomi has brought the Mi 4i to India with 4G LTE support.
The Mi 4i has the same 5-inch full HD display with a pixel density of 441 ppi as the one on the Mi 4, but what may help the new phone score even more is its improved readbility under sunlight. According to Xiaomi, the Mi 4i comes with the latest Sunlight Display, which uses hardware-level technology to adjust contrasts for each pixel in real time, thereby improving readability in sunlight. The use of advanced OGS full lamination technology is said to eliminate light refractions caused by air gaps between each layer, so you get more screen light, richer colours and better contrasts.
Unlike the Mi 4, the latest Mi 4i features a unibody design that wraps the rear of the phone completely, all around the sides, and blends with the edges of the display. As claimed by Xiaomi, the back cover is coated for extra resistance to fingerprints and grease. The months-old Mi 4, on the other hand, appears to be losing to the Mi 4i in terms of asthetics and looks.
While we like the Mi 4's cameras - both front and rear - we are yet to test the ones on the new Mi 4i. While the primary camera on both the phones have a 13-megapixel sensor, what may help the Mi 4i gain more points here is the dual-tone flash accompanying the camera. The Mi 4i's two-tone flash calculates the amount of cool whites and warm yellows to mix and emit when the flash goes off. It does this by assessing colour temperature of the environment, so images look natural and beautiful even with flash, explains Xiaomi. Even in low-lighting, the two-tone flash can assess room colour temperature to emulate natural lighting, adds the company. While we have lauded the the 8-megapixel front camera on the Mi 4, we are to ascertain the performance of the 5-megapixel front camera on the yet-to-be-released Mi 4i.
Both the Mi 4 variants run MIUI6, the latest Android-based user interface for Xiaomi smartphones, but the one running the Mi 4i is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop unlike the Android Kitkat based MIUI 6 on the old Mi 4.
Going by the units on the spec sheets, the Mi 4i is even slightly thinner and lighter than the original Mi 4.
Where the Mi 4 seems to be outdoing the new Mi 4i is the engine. The original Mi 4 has a powerful chipset paired with better RAM when compared to the Mi 4i. But then the former costs Rs 5,000 more than the latter for the 16GB model. While the Rs 12,999 Mi 4i comes only in 16GB, the Mi 4 comes in two storage variants - 16GB and 64GB, priced at Rs 17,999 and Rs 21,999 respectively. None of them has an option to expand memory.
It appears that the Mi 4i could score more than the Mi 4 on many fronts. But does it justify the difference of Rs 5,000 in their price tags? Wait for out detailed review for the verdict.
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