Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) Review

• Overview
• Design and Build Quality
• Display
• Performance
• Software and User Interface
• Camera
• Battery Life
• Connectivity and Networking
• Additional Features
• Comparison with Other Related Phones
• Pros and Cons
• Conclusion

Overview

The Xiaomi Mi A1, also known as the Mi 5X in China, is a smartphone that promises to deliver an exceptional user experience. With its sleek and stylish design, featuring a glass front and aluminum back, this device is sure to turn heads. Its 5.5-inch IPS LCD display offers vibrant colors and sharp details, making it perfect for multimedia consumption. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset and 4GB of RAM, the Mi A1 delivers smooth performance and multitasking capabilities. The dual 12MP rear cameras provide stunning photography, while the 5MP front camera captures beautiful selfies. With a 3080mAh battery and fast charging support, you can stay connected all day long. Available in various colors, including Black, Gold, Rose Gold, and Red, the Mi A1 offers something for everyone. Plus, with its competitive price point, this smartphone is a great value for money.

Design and Build Quality

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) boasts an aesthetically pleasing design that exudes a premium look and feel. With its sleek form factor and robust construction, this smartphone is built to impress. The device features a glass front with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, an aluminum back, and an aluminum frame, which not only enhances its durability but also adds to its overall elegance. The dimensions of the Mi A1 measure 155.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm, and it weighs 165g, making it relatively lightweight and easy to handle. The texture and finishing touches on the device further enhance its grip, allowing for comfortable one-handed usability. The placement of buttons and controls is well thought out, ensuring easy access and intuitive navigation. The thin bezels surrounding the 5.5-inch IPS LCD display maximize the screen-to-body ratio, providing an immersive viewing experience. The Mi A1's design and build quality showcase Xiaomi's attention to detail and commitment to producing devices that are both visually appealing and sturdy. Its combination of premium materials, sleek design, and ergonomic features make it a standout option in terms of aesthetics and physical appearance.

Display

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) features a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen size is decent, providing a good balance between usability and portability. The display offers sharp and detailed visuals with a pixel density of approximately 403 ppi.

In terms of color accuracy, the display performs well, delivering vibrant and true-to-life colors. The LCD technology used in the Mi A1 ensures good color reproduction and overall image quality. The brightness levels are adequate, allowing for comfortable viewing even in bright outdoor conditions.

To protect the display, Xiaomi has used Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which helps to prevent scratches and minor impacts. The screen-to-body ratio is around 70.1%, which means there are noticeable bezels surrounding the display. However, this design choice does not take away from the overall viewing experience.

The viewing angles are wide, ensuring that the content on the screen remains visible even when viewed from different angles. The display does not feature HDR or a wide color gamut, but it still offers a satisfactory visual experience for everyday use.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 also includes features like an anti-reflective coating, adaptive brightness, and a blue light filter to enhance the viewing experience and reduce eye strain. The touch responsiveness of the display is smooth and accurate, providing a seamless user experience.

Overall, the display of the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) is a solid performer, offering good color reproduction, sharpness, and outdoor visibility. While it may not have the latest display technologies like OLED or HDR, it still provides a satisfactory visual experience for everyday usage.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers impressive performance with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset and Adreno 506 GPU. The octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU provides smooth multitasking and app loading speeds, ensuring a lag-free user experience. The device's system optimization and thermal management contribute to its excellent performance.

In terms of benchmark tests, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) performs well. It achieves a GeekBench score of 4292 (v4.4), indicating its strong processor performance. The GPU benchmarks also showcase its gaming capabilities, with a graphics score of 3.5fps (ES 3.1 onscreen) in GFXBench. This suggests that the device can handle most graphics-intensive games with ease, providing an enjoyable gaming experience.

Furthermore, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) demonstrates good processor efficiency, allowing for extended battery life without compromising performance. Its Li-Po 3080 mAh battery is non-removable and can be charged at 10W wired. With an endurance rating of 87h, the device offers long-lasting usage for both gaming and everyday tasks.

The synthetic benchmarks and performance analysis of the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) reveal its capability to handle demanding tasks and provide a smooth user experience. The device's processor and GPU efficiency contribute to its overall performance metrics, making it a reliable choice for users seeking a high-performing device.

Overall, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) excels in terms of performance. Its chipset performance, GPU benchmarks, and gaming capabilities make it suitable for users who prioritize smooth performance and gaming experience. The device's impressive benchmark scores, processor efficiency, and system optimization ensure a lag-free and enjoyable user experience.

Software and User Interface

The Xiaomi Mi A1, also known as the Mi 5X, runs on the Android operating system. It initially came with Android 7.1.2 Nougat but is upgradable to Android 9.0 Pie. One notable feature of the Mi A1 is that it is part of the Android One program, meaning it offers a clean and stock Android experience without any heavy customization or bloatware. This makes the device user-friendly and ensures a smooth and efficient interface.

As part of the Android One program, the Mi A1 comes with a set of pre-installed apps that are essential for everyday use, such as Google apps and services. The absence of bloatware allows users to have more control over their device and choose which apps they want to install. This minimalist approach to software ensures a clutter-free and streamlined user experience.

The device also benefits from regular software updates and security patches directly from Google, ensuring that users have access to the latest features and improvements. With its stock Android interface, the Mi A1 offers a clean and intuitive user interface, making it easy to navigate and operate.

Overall, the software of the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) provides a user-friendly experience with its stock Android interface, absence of bloatware, and regular software updates. It offers a clean and streamlined interface, allowing users to personalize their device according to their preferences.

Camera

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) features a dual-camera setup on the rear, consisting of a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.6 aperture. This setup allows for 2x optical zoom and captures sharp images with good detail. The camera also offers PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus) for quick and accurate focusing.

In terms of image quality, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) performs well in daylight photography, delivering natural colors and good sharpness. The dynamic range is decent, allowing for well-balanced exposures in high-contrast scenes. The camera also performs well in indoor and outdoor photography, capturing clear and detailed shots.

When it comes to low-light performance, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers a dedicated night mode that utilizes noise reduction techniques to improve image quality in low-light situations. The camera also has a low-light sensitivity that allows for better performance in dimly lit environments.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) comes with various camera features, including portrait mode for creating bokeh effects, HDR (High Dynamic Range) for capturing greater detail in challenging lighting conditions, and panorama mode for capturing wide-angle shots. The camera also supports a pro mode, which gives users manual control over settings like ISO and shutter speed.

For video recording, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) can shoot 4K videos at 30fps, delivering high-quality footage. It also offers video stabilization for smoother videos and slow-motion video capture for creating dramatic effects. Additionally, the camera supports time-lapse photography, allowing users to capture long-duration events in a condensed form.

Overall, the camera of the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers a versatile and capable photography experience, delivering good image quality, especially in daylight, and providing various features and modes to enhance creativity in both photography and videography.

Battery Life

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) is equipped with a non-removable Li-Po 3080 mAh battery, which provides a decent battery life for everyday use. With its power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset and the optimization features of the Android One operating system, the device can last throughout the day with moderate usage. The battery capacity is sufficient to handle tasks such as web browsing, social media, and multimedia consumption. However, heavy usage, such as gaming or continuous video playback, may drain the battery faster. The device supports 10W wired charging, allowing for a reasonably quick charging time. Unfortunately, it does not support fast charging or wireless charging options. Overall, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers a reliable battery performance with good power efficiency, making it suitable for users who prioritize battery longevity and endurance.

Connectivity and Networking

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers a wide range of connectivity options to cater to the needs of modern smartphone users. It supports various network technologies including GSM, HSPA, and LTE, ensuring compatibility with different carriers worldwide. With its dual SIM capabilities, users can easily switch between two SIM cards for added convenience. The device also features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, allowing for fast and reliable wireless internet connectivity. Bluetooth 4.2 with A2DP and LE support enables seamless wireless connection with other devices such as headphones and speakers. In terms of navigation, the Mi A1 (Mi 5X) comes with GPS, GLONASS, and BDS for accurate positioning and location tracking. It also features an infrared port, which can be used for controlling compatible devices. The USB Type-C 2.0 port allows for fast data transfer and charging. Unfortunately, the device does not support NFC or wireless charging. Overall, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) provides a comprehensive range of connectivity options, ensuring that users can stay connected and enjoy fast data speeds and convenient connectivity features such as mobile hotspot functionality.

Additional Features

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) comes with several standout features that make it a compelling choice for gadget enthusiasts. While it may not have water resistance or wireless charging capabilities, it does offer a range of other impressive features.

Firstly, the device is equipped with a reliable and efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, ensuring smooth performance for everyday tasks and multitasking. It also runs on Android One, providing a clean and bloat-free user interface.

In terms of camera capabilities, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) boasts a dual-camera setup with 12 MP wide and 12 MP telephoto lenses. This allows for stunning depth-of-field effects and 2x optical zoom. The device also supports 4K video recording.

Furthermore, it features a fingerprint sensor located on the rear for quick and secure unlocking. Other sensors like an accelerometer, gyroscope, and proximity sensor enhance the overall user experience and enable various motion-based and environmental applications.

Overall, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) offers a solid package with its powerful processor, dual-camera system, and additional sensors. While it may lack some advanced features like water resistance or wireless charging, it provides excellent value for its price point.

Comparison with Other Related Phones

The Xiaomi Mi A1, also known as the Mi 5X in China, is a smartphone that offers a range of features and specifications that make it a competitive choice in the market. When comparing it to related gadgets, several devices come to mind for a comprehensive analysis.

In terms of its competitors, the Xiaomi Mi A1 is often compared to devices such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, the Nokia 6, and the Motorola Moto G5 Plus. These devices are all in a similar price range and offer comparable features. However, the Mi A1 stands out with its Android One program, which guarantees timely software updates and a clean user interface.

In terms of market positioning, the Xiaomi Mi A1 holds a strong position as an affordable mid-range smartphone. It offers a sleek design with a glass front and aluminum back, which gives it a premium feel. Additionally, its 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection ensures a vibrant and durable screen.

When comparing the specifications, the Mi A1 boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, which provides a reliable performance for day-to-day tasks and multitasking. Its dual-camera setup, featuring a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, allows for impressive depth-of-field effects and optical zoom capabilities. The device also offers a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for high-quality selfies.

In terms of pricing, the Xiaomi Mi A1 is known for its value for money. Priced at around 170 EUR, it offers a competitive package of features and specifications compared to other devices in its price range. The Mi A1 also differentiates itself by being part of the Android One program, which ensures a stock Android experience and timely software updates.

Overall, the Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) stands out in the market with its affordable price, impressive camera capabilities, sleek design, and the added advantage of being part of the Android One program. Its competitive positioning and feature set make it a compelling choice for users looking for a mid-range smartphone with a great value proposition.

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

The Xiaomi Mi A1 (Mi 5X) is an impressive smartphone that offers great value for money. With its sleek design and sturdy build, it is a visually appealing device. The 5.5-inch IPS LCD display provides vibrant colors and sharp details. The dual-camera setup on the back delivers excellent photo quality, especially in well-lit conditions. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 625 chipset, which offers smooth performance for everyday tasks. Additionally, the Mi A1 (Mi 5X) comes with stock Android and is part of the Android One program, ensuring timely software updates and a clean user interface. With a competitive price point, this phone is a solid choice for budget-conscious buyers looking for a reliable and feature-packed device.