Table of Contents
Xiaomi Mi A1 Review | Product Introduction
Xiaomi Mi A1 was first officially announced in May 2017, in a Xiaomi India conference held in New Delhi, launched the company’s first Android One smartphone. The biggest highlight of the machine is powered by Google’s Android One system, which means that the original operating system experience.
The new Mi A1 phone comes with a 5.5-inch 1080P display, equipped with Snapdragon 625 Octa Processor, 4GB RAM + 64GB of ROM combination, rear dual-camera, dual 12.0 MP camera, dual card dual standby, post-fingerprint recognition sensor, 12.0 MP dual camera, post-fingerprint recognition sensor, and a built-in non-removable high capacity 3080 mAh battery.
As mentioned. The main selling point of the Mi A1 phone is that it runs on stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and in the future will be to update to Android 8.0 Oreo as soon as it is available. The Xiaomi Mi A1 is currently on pre-sale and available in black, gold and rose gold at a retail price of Rs 14,999 in China. For more information about the product you are welcome to check TOMTOP Store (Link Posted below):
Xiaomi Mi A1 Review | Gold Edition
Xiaomi Mi A1 Review | Black Edition
Xiaomi Mi A1 Highlights:
- Colors: Black, Golden
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 8-core 2.0 GHz
- GPU: Adreno 506 650MHz
- IR Blaster: Yes
- Memory & Storage: 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM, Micro-SD Card up to 128GB.
- Fingerprint Unlock Technology – YES
- Connectivity: Dual frequency WiFi 2.4/5GHz, Bluetooth Version 4.2
- Screen: 5.5″ 1080P FHD Sunlight Display, 450nit,multipoint capacitive
- Body Material: Metal+Plastic
- Design: Ultra-thin Full Metal BodyWear resists an anti-grease coating, anti-dirt, anti-scratch, anti-fingerprint, with smooth and soft touch.
- Cameras: 12MP Wide-angle + 12MP Long-focus Dual Cameras with 4K Video recording and a 5MP front camera for taking beautiful amazing Selfie photos.
- 4G-LTE Network: FDD-LTE, TDD-LTE, UMTS, GSM, nearly full global coverage.
- Battery: 3080mAh, Longtime talk and standby, with 5V2A fast charge support.
- Interface: Double-side Type C port
- Sensors: G-sensor, L-sensor, D-sensor, Gyroscope, Hall-sensor, E-compass, Light sensor, Gravity sensor.
Xiaomi A1 Package
Xiaomi A1 Package 1
Unboxing the Main Package
- Xiaomi A1 Main Package 1
Xiaomi A1 Phone Unboxing
Xiaomi A1 Unboxing 1
Package Content:
- 1x USB Type-C Cable
- 1x EU Charger (5V/2A)
- 1x Xiaomi A1 Phone
- 1x Quick Guide
- 1x Sim Eject Tool
Appearance & Design
A1 is available in two color variants: Black and Gold. The phone design is an unibody type, which means that the phone is made of two main parts. The back cover is made from metal, that also composes half of the phone body without any separate frame with additional plastic enclosures and coated with gold. Looking at the front side of the phone. It has a white color with a combination with gold giving the device a premium-looking feeling that resembles the Huawei Honor 6X design. In terms of weight and thickness, the phone thickness is only 7.3 mm and weighs 163 gr with one inserted nano sim.
Xiaomi A1 Review | Weight
Hardware Platform
Powerd with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 8-core 2.0Ghz. With this processor, you may expect improved battery life performance for a 3000mAh battery with about +6 hours of screen time. In terms of specifications, Qualcomm’s hardware is more than enough for above average everyday usage. In my tests, the device didn’t seem to heat much when running AnTuTu Benchmark software and the experience of running apps and playing games on the Android One operating system was excellent.
Xiaomi A1 Review | Device Information
Xiaomi A1 Device Info HW 1
Performance & Benchmarks
The Mi A1 Snapdragon 625 processor performance was better than the Doogee Mix MediaTek P25 hardware ranking AnTuTu benchmark test result of 60465. But, although the A1 showed greater CPU and 3D performance compared to the Mix device thanks to its Adreno 506 GPU, the UX (User experience) score was higher in favor of the Mix.UX test is divided into two sub-scores — Multitask and Runtime. The Multitask score represents how well the device can multitask, so a multicore CPU will help here. The Runtime score is a measure of how effectively Android’s Dalvik runtime executes applications.
Xiaomi Mi A1 vs. Doogee Mix | AnTuTu Scores Comparison
Xiaomi Mi A1 |AnTuTu Bencmark
- Xiaomi A1 AnTuTu 1
3D Performance
More relevant for users that like to play high-resolution games with their devices. Based on 3DMark benchmarks running the ‘Sling Shot‘ benchmark test, the score I got was high and above average, ranking 464 points. A result that is equivalent to that of the following devices:
- Lenovo P2
- Motorola Moto Z Play
- Asus ZenFone 3
- ZTE Nubia Z11 Mini S
- Motorola Moto G5 Plus
- Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus
- Xiaomi Mi Max 2
Xiaomi A1 | 3DMark benchmarks
- Xiaomi A1 3DMark 1
Software
The Xiaomi Mi A1 comes pre-installed with a global international ROM powered by Google Android One Operating system, that is basically having a “Slim” and more lightweight UI based on Android version 7.1.2. With this new version, you don’t need to sweep your fingers too much to reach all settings and functions. The focus of the new UI design it to provide improved user experience and fast applications access without opening extra unnecessary screens.
Remote IR function (IR Blaster)
Very similar to the LeEco / Coolpad brand phones Qualcomm embedded a universal remote functionality inside the Xiaomi Mi A1 with the special App called ‘Mi Remote‘ the user can pick electrical appliances from a very large number of manufacturers and vendors which include Japanese, Korean and mostly Chinese brands and control their main basic functions. The list is composed and divided into different categories, such as Set-top Boxes, TVs, AC, DVD, Hi-Fi Systems that can be powered and also control different functions of the specific device. You can also add multiple remote profiles with desktop shortcuts. If you have a Xiaomi TV box it is also included in the list of companies.
Xiaomi A1 Software
- Xiaomi A1 Android On 1
Display
The Mi A1 is equipped with a beautiful 5.5-inch FHD 10 point touch display. From my personal user experience playing with it, it’s very responsive, and it has the same level of picture quality and sharpness as the Huawei Honor 6X.
Cameras
Maybe one of the highlights and strong points about this phone. The Xiaomi A1 is equipped with a dual 12MP Wide-angle + 12MP Long-focus Dual Camera that produces good quality pictures and 4k videos. Based on my tests, the zoom function worked extremely well in taking still photos of objects located a few kilometers away. The dual rear camera supports a special 2X lossless zoom function that lets the user select different zoom factors ranging from X1.1 up to X10. Naturally, when you increase the zoom up to x10, the quality of the picture will decrease and become blurry. But still, if you will take photos in optimal light conditions and use a factor ratio between X2 – X7, the photos will maintain relatively good picture quality and will not get too noisy. In addition, the front-facing selfie camera also produced reasonably photos, and overall both cameras performed well and above average.
Camera Settings & Special Features
Xiaomi A1 Camera | Stills photography Features
Outdoor Photos #1 | Zoom range Up to X10
Outdoor Photos #2 | Zoom range Up to X10
Outdoor Photos #3 | Zoom range X2 – X7
Outdoor Photos
Indoor Photos | Low light / dark Room with Flash Assistance
Speaker & Audio
As with most Chinese smartphones, the Xiaomi A1 has a single speaker system that produces pretty loud high-quality sound for a $209 phone. Few other points worth mentioning. Based on Qualcomm board design, the IR Remote sensor is located on the top of the phone, and because of this design change, the phone audio 3.5 mm headphone jack port (aux port) was “moved” to the bottom of the unit. And finally, for users that like to use their phone as a radio, this phone doesn’t have a built-in radio tuner.
Microphone
The microphone sensitivity to background sounds and sounds was pretty average and normal for a Chinese phone. Xiaomi A1 software didn’t include a pre-installed microphone recording app, so if you need such an app, you can download one from the Google Play Store.
Navigation
Worked ‘out of the box’ and performed extremely well running ‘HERE WeGo‘ navigation in offline mode with maps stored locally in the device, without internet connection while driving.
GPS-TEST
Battery
Xiaomi cut some costs with the phone charging feature. One of the downsides of using this device is the lack of quick charging support. After trying to charge the phone with TUTUO QC-025P Charger that does support Qualcomm Quick charge 3.0 standard, the charging rate didn’t change and didn’t make any difference. Also, based on USB voltage / current meter readings bridged between the charger unit and phone, the measured power was 5V with current between 0.33-1.38A.
Battery Life
With the Xiaomi Mi A1 3080 mAh battery you can expect approximately 4.5-5 hours of screen-on time using the phone in “light” mode that includes some browsing, playing videos from YouTube, GPS and camera usage. Again, this result may change and depend directly on user-specific usage. What functions are used, the brightness level of the screen that normally impacts on battery draining.
Xiaomi A1 | Charging Test & Power Consumption
Xiaomi A1 Charging Using Original Charger
Final Verdict
Xiaomi definitely did a great job squeezing many features into this phone, including good design and very high built quality. Bottom line, it’s definitely worth buying a phone.
Pros
- Price
- Good Display
- Good Speaker
- 2X lossless Zoom
- LED Notification light
- 4K video recording function
- Great Build quality & Design
- IR Blaster
Cons
- No FM Radio
- Unfortunately, there is no support for Quick Charge.
