It’s been a short while since Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) decided to remove the “Nokia” name from its smartphone business. But the Redmond-based tech giant shows no intention of slowing down, as it announces, and prepares for, the launch of the first smartphone that will drop the Finnish phone company’s title in favor of naming the series "Microsoft Lumia."
In the past, Microsoft has struggled to find a place in the market for its Windows Phone operating system, which, according to third-party analysts, is used in only 2.5% of mobile devices across the world. Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android leads comfortably in first place with an 85% share, followed by the many millions of iPhones running Apples Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) proprietary iOS.
Most of the phones released by Microsoft have only found a place in developing markets, where people just recently got a taste of what smartphones have to offer – their main appeal being the colorful covers and looks.
In more mature markets, Microsoft hasn’t made a significant impact, with brands like Apple and Samsung Elect Ltd (F) (OTCMKTS:SSNLF) taking the lion’s share. Microsoft’s smartphone business is also under threat from Chinese competitors in emerging markets, which offer decent quality phones and impressive specifications at a significantly lower price.
For now, it seems like Microsoft intends to stick to its previous strategy, which could be considered a questionable move by some. The company announced, “Microsoft is delivering the power of everyday mobile technology to everyone. Come back on November 11, to find out more!”
While the wait till next Tuesday is certainly on, sources say that Microsoft’s new phone will be far from a game changer. As rumors have it, it will have a 5-inch display of around 960 x 540, coming out to be an unimpressive 280 pixels per inch. The core will be quite mediocre as well, with a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 Chipset and 1GB RAM. The phone will feature 8GB internal memory and a 1900 mAh battery. Even the camera isn’t much to look at, with a 5 megapixel primary and VGA secondary front snapper.
The one thing that the phone does have going for it is its price, which is expected to be around $100-150 off contract. However, unless Microsoft makes some serious upgrades to the Windows Phone operating system, the new phone may not do very well.
Once again, Microsoft gambles with a low-end device, which is strange considering that just last week, two Chinese smartphone manufacturers – Xiaomi Inc. and Lenovo Group Limited (ADR) (LNVGY) – traded places as the third and fourth largest manufacturers in the world.
Lenovo and Xiaomi specialize in devices that offer much better specs than the phone Microsoft intends to offer. The two pose a serious threat to the tech giant’s business in the emerging markets. And as it is, Samsung and Apple’s premiums lines are often the phones of choice for many in the US, UK, and Europe.
While the release of Microsoft’s new phone doesn’t make earlier versions of the Lumia series such as the 1020, 1520, and 920 irrelevant, these old phones remain the best Microsoft has to offer to mature markets, and they haven’t been updated in a while. In the meantime, Samsung and Apple have been busy updating their devices year after year.
Microsoft has had a mixed experience with hardware. Consoles such as the Xbox and Xbox 360 performed extremely well, while the Xbox One (like some of its phones) was a bit of a disaster. The Surface tablet initially started off slow, but sales have picked up 127% since the release of the Surface 3 Pro.
November 11 and the months following it will show how well Microsoft’s rebranding efforts pay off for its smartphone business.
We review the Acer Liquid Jade, a mid-range mobile with a sleek and surprisingly slim, lightweight design, but regrettably not much in the tank.
Acer Liquid Jade design: Glossed over
When we first picked up the Acer Liquid Jade, we were really impressed by its slender and lightweight design – it’s just 7.5mm thick and 110g, making it one of the lightest phones we’ve played with recently. The phone is nicely curved in each corner and sports a rounded rear, so it fits nicely into the hand without jabbing at your palm - often an issue with 5-inch phones.
One-handed use is just about possible thanks to the Liquid Jade’s reasonably compact build, an impressive feat indeed. However, the phone’s glossy cover does make the phone a little slippery, so you’ll want to clutch it tight to make sure it doesn’t go flying out of your grasp.
We also found that the glossy rear was a magnet for pocket filth and general scum, which can look a little untidy, especially under bright lights. Best keep a hanky on stand-by.
You can’t open up the Liquid Jade’s back cover to access the battery and other innards, which means the SIM card slot is instead housed in a tiny drawer on the left edge of the phone. The power button is found up top, awkwardly placed if you’re using the phone right-handed, while the volume rocker is stuck on the right edge and much easier to access.
Our only real bugbear is the camera lens, which juts out a fair way from the back of the handset – even more so than the Apple iPhone 6’s lens. Still, it didn’t impede our grip and the Liquid Jade is still a good-looking budget blower. If you prefer a splash of colour, however, you’d probably prefer the Nokia Lumia 630 or Lumia 635, which boast changeable covers, including a very eye-catching green and orange.
Acer Liquid Jade screen and media: HD visuals
That 5-inch screen stretches almost edge-to-edge across the front panel and there’s very little glass between the display and your finger, so your homescreens almost appear to be floating on the surface. The Liquid Jade sports a 720p resolution, giving 294 pixels-per-inch, which is comparable to the phone’s closest rivals, including the Motorola Moto G. In simple terms, that means you can comfortably browse desktop versions of websites and HD movies look impressively crisp, bolstered by some accurate and attractive colour reproduction.
A strong top brightness means you can also use the Liquid Jade out in harsh sunlight, without being forced to squint through the glare.
The Jade makes a big deal of its DTS HD speaker, which sits at the bottom of the phone’s rear side, perfect positioning for your palm to smother it. In fact, there's even a DTS logo branded right on the phone's rump. However, even with the speaker pointed at your face and the volume pumped up to max, it’s not exactly ear-explodingly powerful - although we’ve heard far, far worse. Audio quality is generally fine, but we’d still recommend plugging in earphones when you’re kicking back with a movie.
As for storage space, you only get 8GB built into the phone itself for carrying around your media collection, but you can quickly and cheaply expand via a micro SD memory card, up to a further 32GB. It’s a shame you can’t slot in cards with more storage, especially with some phones now accepting up to 128GB, but at least the option’s there.
Acer Liquid Jade user experience: A whole new ‘droid
Acer has skinned Android 4.4 KitKat with its own user interface, which isn’t a massive departure from the norm but still looks nice to our jaded eyeballs.
We love how you get tons of quick-access power features tucked in a handy menu, which can be accessed at any time by dragging two fingers down from the top of the screen. As well as the usual brightness, Wi-Fi, GPS etc. toggles, you can also check how much data you’ve used from your allowance, turn on the wireless display mode (which can throw the Liquid Jade’s screen to a larger display) and fiddle with your alarms.
Acer has also chucked in a few of its own apps, which you’ll either love as special bonus features or else condemn as crapware and immediately uninstall. As well as a document editor, file manager and media players, you’ll find some businessy apps for hooking up to and making the most of Acer’s cloud service.
There’s also a ‘Quick Mode’ which will be well suited to older users, with its simple, stripped-down desktop and larger fonts. You can still add whatever apps you like to the desktop, so all of your favourites can be quickly accessed with a tap.
Also worth noting is that the Liquid Jade is a Dual SIM delight, handy if you currently carry both personal and work phones. Just slot both SIMs into the little drawer and you can use either for your calls, texts and data.
Acer Liquid Jade performance and battery life: Awkward
Although the Liquid Jade just about copes with everyday use, we noticed a fair bit of slowdown rearing its ugly head rather often. When booting up the phone, our widgets were little more than swirling loading circles for a minute or so each time. Flicking through menus occasionally gets laggy and apps sometimes take a while to chug into life.
Battery life is unfortunately another awkward turd in the swimming pool. Usually we’d charge the Liquid Jade overnight and use it for emails and texts and a tiny bit of web browsing each morning, and come noon it was usually already at least half depleted. It’ll just about last the day if you’re restrained, but that’s with the CPU power saving mode activated. Try streaming video or playing games and the Jade will be history in just under three hours, a pretty poor result all-round.
Acer Liquid Jade camera: Stay out of the dark
A 13-megapixel camera juts out of the Liquid Jade’s rear and that's a pretty high pixel count considering the cost of the phone. In good lighting conditions, the happy news is that you'll capture sharp photos boasting realistic colours and plenty of detail, even with closies. It's an easy match for the new Moto G in terms of daylight performance.
In low light, the Liquid Jade’s camera starts to suffer, with images often appearing grainy – and that’s if the auto-focus actually manages to work at all. You’ve got a basic LED flash to help out, but even with that enabled, we found the auto-focus sometimes crapped out on us, giving blurred results.
You also have a 2-megapixel front-facing cam for capturing slightly fuzzy selfies.
Acer has added in a ton of bonus modes to play with, including the usual panorama and burst modes, plus a terrifying beauty mode that makes your whole family look like demented anime sex pests. Then there's the more unique features, such as the multi-angle mode which can be used to snap something from six or seven different positions and then flick through them at will. Of course, this feature only works on the phone, so its use is rather limited.
Acer Liquid Jade verdict
For £229, the Liquid Jade is sadly a little overpriced, although you can find it cheaper if you look hard enough. We really like the thin and light design, while the 5–inch screen is bright and crisp enough for everyday use and kicking back with some movies on the go, but the excellent Moto G boasts exactly the same pros and pretty much none of the cons.
Summary: A rumor that Lenovo could acquire BlackBerry woke up traders. But the broader question is whether Lenovo has the chops to manage the Motorola and BlackBerry brands along with its own and not be crushed by indigestion.
Lenovo is rumored to be pondering a bid for BlackBerry, a possibility that could lead to some major indigestion considering the PC maker is about to close the purchase of Motorola Mobility. But the concept does raise the question about whether a multi-brand effort can work in the smartphone market.
According to Benzinga, a financial news site, Lenovo could make an offer as early as this week. Other news outlets picked up on the report since BlackBerry shares were moving on the rumor.
I'd argue that Lenovo buying BlackBerry this soon is a stretch. First, there are regulatory issues. In addition, BlackBerry finally has some momentum and it's doubtful it would sell out with the launch of the latest BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the linchpin of its turnaround plan, on deck November 13.
Now a Lenovo takeover of BlackBerry may make sense just not at this moment. Lenovo is integrating IBM's x86 server business and Motorola Mobility soon. Google executives said they expect theLenovo takeover of Motorola to be completed shortly.
Should Lenovo buy BlackBerry it would become the Acer of smartphones. Acer acquired Gateway and Packard Bell to create a group of brands to hit various market segments. Ultimately, Acer remained the alpha brand and the one people know best today. The multibrand strategy worked somewhat for Acer, but wasn't a home run.
Fast forward to Lenovo and the smartphone play. Lenovo would have its own smartphones, which do well in China, Motorola, which does ok in the US and is stronger around the world, and BlackBerry, a enterprise-focused vendor. Lenovo would have to keep all three of those brands and complicate its management strategy.
There's an argument that BlackBerry would give Lenovo a solid enterprise stack — servers, PCs, smartphones and the software and security to manage it all — but a purchase right now looks a bit unwieldy.
Stranger things have happened in technology and BlackBerry looks like it would be a great asset to be acquired. But all these rumors get stopped by the simple question for both sides of the deal: Why now?
CREDIT: REUTERS/JASON REDMOND
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) looks set to ditch the Nokia name from its Lumia range of smartphones just months after buying the Finnish company's handset business. According to a post on Nokia France's Facebook page on Tuesday, the page will change its name to Microsoft Lumia "in the coming days." Microsoft declined comment. Under the terms of the $7.2 billion deal, which was struck in September 2013 and completed in April, Microsoft acquired Nokia's handset business, though not the name of the company itself. Finland's Nokia (NOK1V.HE) continues as a networks, mapping and technology licensing company. It owns and manages the Nokia brand and only licenses it to Microsoft. Microsoft has said in the past it plans to license the Nokia brand for its lower-end mobile phones for 10 years and to use the name on its smartphones only for a "limited" time, without saying how long that might be. New Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has begun to reduce the scale of its phone-making operations. Of the 18,000 job cuts he announced in July, about 12,500 came from the unit acquired from Nokia. Credit:http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/us-microsoft-nokia-idUSKCN0IB2AY20141022
If you’re trying to decide between the iPhone 6 and Android, chances are you’ve at least taken a look at the Samsung's Galaxy S5. Both phones are among the most popular devices out there today, and for good reason.
The iPhone 6 is Apple’s slimmest, yet one of its largest phones to date. (The iPhone 6 Plus is even more massive, but it'll compete with Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Note 4 phablet). For the first time in two years, Apple upgraded the screen resolution and gave its smartphone a completely new design.
The Galaxy S5 is also one of Samsung’s best phones yet. It’s the first phone to come with a fingerprint sensor, and Samsung has done an excellent job at cleaning up its TouchWiz user interface while still offering all of the special features you’d find with the Galaxy S4.
So, how do they compare? Here’s a look at some of the key differences between both phones.
How They Look And Feel
One of the first things you’ll notice about the phones’ physical attributes is the difference in size. Although the iPhone 6 is a lot larger than the iPhone 5s, it’s not quite as big as the Galaxy S5. The iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch screen, while the Galaxy S5 comes with a 5.1-inch display.
Design can be subjective, since it depends on the user’s taste in most situations. That being said, there are some general conclusions to be made based on how comfortable the phones feel and how easy they are to use.
Let’s start with the iPhone 6. Apple’s new smartphone features a unibody metal design that’s been slimmed down since the last version. It now has the same curved edges you’d find on the iPad Air, making the phone seem much more sleek than the last version. The entire back of the phone has a brushed metal look, while its predecessor featured glossy plastic strips on the top and bottom of the phone.
It’s also worth noting both phones have fingerprint sensors embedded in their home buttons. These can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate purchases. On the S5, you can use it to verify purchases through PayPal, and you can use the iPhone 6’s fingerprint scanner to authenticate iTunes purchases. Soon, you'll be able to use the iPhone 6 fingerprint sensor to authenticate payments through Apple Pay, which will let you buy stuff in stores by tapping the phone against a special reader.
There’s no doubt about it — the iPhone 6 is a beautiful phone. It’s super thin at 0.27 inches slim, while the Galaxy S5 measures about 0.31 inches thick.
I wouldn’t call the Galaxy S5 clunky, but it’s not as thin as Apple’s newest flagship. The Galaxy S5 is an improvement over the Galaxy S4, and its hard dimpled back makes it easy to grip. That being said, the iPhone 6 just feels more premium in terms of build quality. The S5’s new textured plastic back makes it less susceptible to fingerprint smudges than its predecessor, but it’s not the most attractive.
Some people might prefer the S5’s design (as I said, its subjective based on the user’s taste). But if you want one of the thinnest and lightest phones around that feels like a premium product, the iPhone 6 is your best bet.
Screen Quality
There’s also a difference in the screen resolution between phones: the iPhone 6 has a 1334 x 750 resolution screen packing 326 pixels per inch, while the Galaxy S5 has a 1920 x 1080 screen with 432 pixels per inch.
On paper, the Galaxy S5’s screen should be noticeably better than the iPhone 6’s. But in real-world testing, there didn’t seem to be too much of a difference. Both phones rendered images and video extremely sharply and crisply.
There are some discrepancies in the way each phone’s screen renders color, however. When watching the trailer for “Gone Girl” on both phones, whites looked brighter on the iPhone, while they seemed to have an ever so slight tint of yellow on the Galaxy S5.
That being said, colors appear bolder on the Galaxy S5 than the iPhone since it uses an AMOLED display instead of an LCD. The iPhone’s colors may be truer to life, but bright colors will pop a little more vibrantly when you view them on Samsung’s screen. (Note: the screens on both phones were set to the maximum brightness).
How The Cameras Stack Up
Both the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S5 have top-notch cameras, but there are some areas where one may succeed over the other. In my comparison, I noticed that the iPhone was able to capture better photos in low light. But when it came to general image quality in good lighting, both phones were able to capture clear and colorful images.
Here are some test shots I took with both phones. (Note: both cameras were set to Auto and photos were taken at the same place at the same time.)
This is a photo taken of Business Insider's Melia Robinson with the iPhone 6. The corner we're standing in is actually very dark, but you wouldn't be able to tell based on this photo.
And here's that same photo taken with the Galaxy S5. It's a bit dimmer and grainier than the photo taken with the Galaxy S5.
Battery Life
Regardless of whether you opt for the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5, you should be able to get through a full day of work without a problem. Battery life also varies depending on how you use your phone, how many notifications you get, which apps you use, and a bunch of other variables.
I got a solid eight to nine hours of battery life out of the Galaxy S5 after moderate to heavy usage. Business Insider’s Steve Kovach reported about the same results in his review. The iPhone 6 lasted for about the same amount of time for me, but Business Insider’s Dave Smith says he usually gets about 10 hours out of his iPhone 6. So it’s really about how you use it and how your settings are configured.
The bottom line is that battery life doesn’t seem to be too different between the two.
Samsung does have two key advantages over the iPhone when it comes to battery life. The Galaxy S5 has a removeable battery, so you can swap it out with a fresh one if you're running low on juice. It also has a special "Ultra Power Saving Mode" that makes the screen black and white and only lets you use a handful of basic apps. This mode lets you squeeze a few extra hours out of your battery if you're in a jam.
Apps
App selection is one of the most important things to consider when buying a smartphone. Luckily, both Google's Play Store for Android apps and Apple's App Store each have over 1 million to choose from.
However, Android apps tend to be a little less polished than iOS apps. Developers seem to pay more attention to iOS, giving apps for iPhone the best features and design elements and first. In many cases, it feels like developers still see Android as an afterthought.
New apps and games tend to launch on iPhone first. If you like using the latest and greatest developers have to offer, you should stick with iPhone. You could be waiting months for the coolest hit app to hit the Galaxy S5.
User Interface
The user interface is probably the biggest difference between the two phones. It all comes down to your personal preference — do you like Android or iOS?
Android allows for much more customization, and Samsung has done a great job of making its software a little less clunky and more palatable for users with the Galaxy S5. But it’s still a little too cluttered for my taste.
With Android, you can add widgets to your home screen, making each home screen look entirely different from the next. iOS is much more basic — you unlock the screen and you’re immediately presented with your apps and folders. Some might call this boring (and I completely understand why), but the iPhone’s interface is simple and slick enough for anyone to be able to pick it up and use it.
Samsung’s user interface is a little more complicated, and has a lot more moving parts than iOS. That being said, you get a little more functionality out of Samsung’s software. You can open more than one app at a time and you also get access to more shortcuts by swiping down from the top of the screen than you do with the iPhone.
Conclusion
If you’re in the market for a new phone, the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S5 are excellent choices. Both phones are more than suited to take care of your everyday needs, but there are certain areas where one may succeed over the other.
If design really matters to you, go for the iPhone 6. It’s the most attractive smartphone out there (although the HTC One comes close), and it’s extremely thin and light. The aluminum design makes it feel like a really premium product. The iPhone 6 also takes better photos in low light conditions, which may be important depending on how often you use your camera for indoor photography.
The Galaxy S5 is better suited for hardcore multitaskers,and it also includes a heart rate monitor for those who need to closely monitor their health. It also has a larger screen, which is important to consider. If you use your phone for reading or watching TV shows often, you may benefit from the bigger display. If not, the iPhone 6’s sleeker design may be easier to squeeze in your pocket or use with one hand.
Xiaomi has been an up and coming competitor in the Chinese market for a few years now, and it all started with its custom version of Android simply titled MIUI. Back in the Gingerbread days MIUI was the bastion of innovation, bringing things to the table like real-time lyrics when playing music, custom lock screens, a powerful theme engine that themed the whole user interface, and whole slew of other goodies. One of the biggest simultaneous draws and drawbacks to MIUI, however, was its clear design after Apple’s own iOS, something that some Android users loved and plenty of others hated. Android is different than iOS in so many fundamental reasons it’s striking when switching back and forth between the platforms, but MIUI tries to bridge that gap by creating a sort of hybrid between the two, and Xiaomi’s latest flagship phone isn’t any different in that regard. The Mi4 is a top-end 5-inch Android phone with a super high quality built that appeals to the aesthetics of a 4th generation iPhone, but places plenty of other design elements from various Android phones into the mix as well.
Then there’s the fact that Xiaomi launched its brand new flagship phone with the same old version of MIUI that the Mi3 runs, but did something rather unique; the beta for MIUI 6 began as soon as the Mi4 came out, and while Xiaomi plans to launch the new and improved OS next month, users can try it out right now with relatively little pain. All this comes together in an incredibly unique experience that has brought me to review the Xiaomi Mi4 a little differently from other phones. This review is going to focus on the phone you’re going to get today if you ordered it, pre-packed with MIUI 5 running Android 4.4.2 KitKat, and my next review will focus on what’s changing in MIUI 6 and how that improves (or doesn’t) the shortcomings of the phone.
Specs
5-inch 1080p IPS LCD
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz
Adreno 330 GPU
3 GB of RAM
16 or 64GB internal storage, no microSD card support
3000 mAh Li-Po battery
Android 4.4.2 MIUI 5
13MP Sony Exmor IMX214 rear-facing camera, LED flash
8MP Sony Exmor IMX219 front-facing camera
As you can see from the specs it matches every other flagship phone out there in every single department, and even bests most with the camera sensor. There are a few phones now that feature this sensor, notably the OnePlus One and the Oppo Find 7. The battery is large for the screen size, but the physical dimensions of the phone still fall within normal range of todays’ thinnest phones. Right now the Mi4 only comes in a WDCMA variety, but an LTE version is planned to come out soon. I’m running the Mi4 on T-Mobile’s network here in the US, and it’s just as good as other non-LTE phones I’ve used in the past, but here’s the whole list of spectrums the phone supports so you can see if it works where you live:
HSPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Display
The Mi4 features a 5-inch IPS LCD panel with great brightness levels, which results in fantastic viewability in sunlight, and extremely good viewing angles. You can literally look at the phone from the side and it’s still just as clear as viewing from the front, and you don’t get any of that weird color variation when viewing from the side that some types of displays exhibit. It’s also a 1080p display so seeing pixels is nearly impossible unless your face is right up to the display. My problem here is with the saturation levels, which are about as crazy as anything from Samsung’s AMOLED displays. Bright colors tend to have a neon glow to them, and overall the saturation levels were too high no matter what I changed in the software settings Xiaomi provides. While this gives the screen an immediate wow factor, the colors are just plain inaccurate.
Hardware and Build
What seems to be an afterthought for some phones out there was clearly the first thing Xiaomi thought of when it designed the Mi4. Right out of the box you’ll notice striking similarities to the iPhone 4/4s, and plenty of differences too. The frame around the edge of the phone is metal and feels smooth and cold to the touch. You’ll find the upper edge of the metal to be chamfered, which creates a great aesthetic to match the perfectly flush screen on the top. There are no protruding bezels here, although the back does have a very slight curve to it that you won’t see on an iPhone.
Speaking of the back the Mi4 ships with a fairly standard slippery, shiny plastic back in either black or white, but Xiaomi has made the back completely removable and are even planning on selling over a dozen different replacement backs that feature materials like leather, fabric and plenty of others too. This is a fantastic design that gives the user significantly more options in customizing their phone other than just the software.
The build quality of the phone is second to none too, and is an absolute joy to hold in the hand. The device feels incredibly solid and has a really nice weight to it; not too light, not too heavy. This weight makes it feel more substantial than some other plastic phones out there, but it’s not so heavy that you’re going to have a tired arm after being on the phone for an hour. My biggest problem with the design is that since Xiaomi is using a metal frame, which inherently has almost no friction to it, and also uses a nasty slippery back, this thing is going to fly out of your hands once the humidity drops from the summer weather. I would absolutely recommend getting a case for it until Xiaomi releases the additional backs, which is a crying shame considering how beautiful the device is.
The size of the device is phenomenal and is super easy to use with one hand. Being someone who prefers a phablet sized device normally it was actually refreshing to use the Mi4’s 5-inch screen, and since there are super minimal bezels here the device felt really good in the hand. I’ve got no problem reaching every corner of the screen and typing one-handed too.
On the front of the phone you’ll find three capacitive buttons in a very Samsung-like arrangement of menu to the left, home in the middle and back button on the right. These behave exactly as you would expect and offer no tactile response other than a vibration when pressed. The buttons on the side of the phone, however, feel fantastic and are made of the same metal that the frame is, giving a quality click when pressed. My issue here is that they are both on the same side, and on the right side of the phone no less, meaning unless you’re a left-handed individual these buttons are not comfortable to find when talking on the phone as I had to constantly thumb around for the volume rocker in a very awkward position for my thumb.
The top of the phone features a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and what looks to be an IR blaster, although there was no IR blaster software included with the phone, and 3rd party apps I tried to use didn’t do anything. The bottom of the phone features a nice, loud single speaker that’s super clear and didn’t rattle at all for me, even on max volume. Next to it is a standard USB 2.0 micro USB port for charging and interfacing with computers.
Performance and Memory
Performance here is the same as you’re going to find on any flagship nowadays. Android 4.4 KitKat is smooth as ever, and although Xiaomi has disabled the ability to switch to the faster and smoother ART runtime, the good old Dalvik works just find no matter what you’re doing outside of the usual hiccup here and there that Dalvik has always exhibited. Games all flew by at smooth framerates, and I never had a performance drop outside of Dalvik’s inability to scroll through lists smoothly.
RAM usage is pretty perfect too. On the initial setup of the phone I had a lot of weird problems with apps force closing, apps running in the background like Google Now getting killed to free up RAM, etc. All of these were solved after a factory reset, and I was extremely glad because I couldn’t imagine a phone with this much horsepower having such difficulty running modern Android. Multitasking was a breeze; jumping between apps is instant and there’s never any reloading of applications since there’s so much memory to work with. Even image heavy apps like Hangouts or Chrome never got killed, which is something to really appreciate.
The version I have comes with 16GB of internal storage, which is super small nowadays and won’t hold a whole lot, and unfortunately without microSD card support there’s no way to expand this storage at all. Thankfully Xiaomi sells a 64GB model for just $50 more, which is completely worth the price given how much more storage that is compared to the price you pay for it. On the bright side keeping SD cards out of the equation makes file management much easier, so there’s no guessing at where the picture you just took or downloaded was saved to.
Battery Life
Great overall battery life
Fantastic standby
Given that the Mi4 “only” has a 5-inch screen but still features a battery the size of most phablets, you can bet that the battery life is phenomenal. In my time of testing the best I got was nearly 5 hours of screen on time, over an hour and a half of talk time, streaming music to a bluetooth speaker for nearly 8 hours and even an hour of using my GPS via Runtastic. At the end of an 18 hour day it still had 12% battery left, and if I turned on battery saving mode this would likely have gotten me through the rest of the night if I used it conservatively. This is as good as I’ve gotten with any phone I’ve ever used, and the other days of use were similar in battery life. I’ve even got an Android Wear watch connected all day too, so that’s an extra drain given that it’s constantly syncing and using the bluetooth radio. You’re not going to get much better battery life than the Xiaomi Mi4, that’s for darned sure!
Software
Here’s where the big test comes in, as the hardware is feels phenomenal, built well and downright gorgeous too. Software really makes the experience last though, so no matter how good of hardware you’ve packed in those daily annoyances with software will ruin an otherwise perfect phone. This was where I had the biggest problem with the Mi4, but most of it is down to preference, so let’s break this down by section.
UI
The visual user interface looks like a mashup between iOS and Android, with the menus and navigation feeling much more iOS than anything. The lockscreen style depends on the theme you’re running and can vary wildly between just a slide to unlock style to one with multiple app shortcuts. All the lockscreens I tried with lockscreen music supper were super disappointing because they didn’t feature full-screen album art, and in some cases no album art of any kind. While most lockscreens you can choose in the theme engine don’t have any shortcuts to find to quickly jump into your most used apps straight from the lockscreen, there was a nice system hook for holding down the home button while on the lockscreen to toggle the flashlight. Pressing the power button will shut this off and was a very convenient way to use the flashlight when I needed it.
Lockscreen charging
Lockscreen music
Moving onto the home screen you’ll find, again, a mix between iOS and Android. There’s no app drawer here to be seen at all, so all the icons and widgets you have will be on the desktop, switching between pages to see everything you’ve got. Since this is Android you can generally choose your home launcher to be whatever you want it to be, but I found some issues. First of all I couldn’t use the Google Now Launcher at all; even when it was installed I didn’t have the option to set it as my default. Secondly you lose many of the theming abilities when not using the built-in launcher, and it felt disjointed when only having parts of the OS themed and not others.
The settings menu holds two tabs: one for quick settings like ring tones and wallpaper, and one for all settings. Dragging down the notification shade actually looks like a mix between iOS and HTC’s Sense 4 UI from years ago. It features only single line notifications under most circumstances, and has to be grabbed with two fingers and dragged down to be expanded instead of the single finger expansion Google introduced back in Android 4.3 Jellybean. This is unfortunate and downright annoying, as the change was made for good reason and there’s no good reason to go back to it. I did like Xiaomi’s version of quick toggles though, as you can swipe left and right on the notification drawer at any time to go between quick toggles and notifications, and on top of that Xiaomi is using a much more Google style of quick toggle than Samsung or LG, for example. This means the quick toggles actually give you information instead of just being quick buttons, so it’ll tell you things like what WiFi connection you’re currently on, mobile network, etc.
Notifications
Quick Toggles
Customize Quick Toggles
There are also a number of very sensible placements through the UI, things like clicking the clock in the notification bar takes you to the Clock app, or clicking the date takes you to Calendar. Holding down long press even gives you a quick button to clear all apps, something not done on most Android phones. Speaking of multi-tasking, the interface is interesting but ultimately archaic and takes us back to the Gingerbread days. Long pressing on home brings up open apps, listed in a horizontal row of icons paginated with 4 icons per page. This makes it truly difficult to quickly multitask because you not only have to hold down the home button for 2 seconds to get to this interface, but you also need to remember what the app’s icon looks like with the theme you’re using. On the positive side swiping down actually locks the app into memory, which is something unique that I’ve never seen before on a phone, which was cool especially if you’ve got a bunch of apps open and want to prioritize what gets closed and what doesn’t. Swiping up kills the app, but again without an actual preview of the way the app last looked it’s annoying to figure out what needs to be closed.
Themes
Categories
Applying
Theme
You can change pretty much every aspect of the UI through MIUI’s powerful theme engine, and if MIUI has innovated in any way in particular it’s with the theme engine. There’s only one other phone on the market not made by Xiaomi that can do this too, the OnePlus One, but since that’s CyanogenMod it’s handled very differently. MIUI uses its own theme store that categorizes themes by paid and free, popular and new, and even in themes like nature, cars, etc. From there if you like only parts of the theme you are using but would like to change others, like the icons for example, you can go into the specific components section of the theme manager and change practically any individual part of the UI. It’s powerful and unique, and being a community driven marketplace there are plenty of themes added and updated all the time, although you’ll find that the best ones are likely ones you have to pay for.
Sort of related to themes is the store for all sorts of media that Xiaomi provides. In addition to themes Xiaomi provides a ton of different wallpapers and sounds that rival even that of Zedge or another big app that provides similar content. There’s plenty of both free and paid versions of everything, and I didn’t find that the quality of the free ringtones or alarm sounds were any better or worse than the paid ones. The biggest obstacle for me here was down to a language barrier, as even though I have my system language set to English much of the store is in Chinese, but it’s possible to navigate the store if you just take your time and look around at the icons and other visual cues.
Xiaomi Apps
Every non-Nexus phone always comes with its manufacturer’s own set of unique apps that add features to the phone, and the Mi4 is no different. MIUI has its own set of apps like sound recorder, compass, FM Radio and others, and they are all included here too. Xiaomi has added a number of little tactile feedback hints throughout the UI that just make the phone feel really good when using it. There’s something oddly satisfying about the phone vibrating lightly when it ticks through the minutes on the analog clock, or that very distinct clicking vibration when adjusting when your alarm is going to go off. There are also other simple things like swiping through text in the notes app to cross through the text or to undo that action.
In some apps when you long press to edit text there’s a large magnifying glass that pops up to give you a better close-up view of where you’re dragging, and I found highlighting text to be a little more responsive on the Mi4 than on many other Android phones I’ve used. There are also some Xiaomi apps that support pop-up windows, such as the notes or messaging apps, which help with multitasking while using features that often require you to switch back and forth between apps. It’s not quite as well done as the pen-window feature on the Galaxy Note series, for example, but it’s better than most other phones because this sort of thing just isn’t usually offered out of the box.
Security and Data Management
China’s network topology is a unique one, and like many countries in Europe or Asia the cost of data is very high. Because of this MIUI features some incredible data management that lets you not only set a monthly limit for data and give you alerts when you’ve used a certain percentage, but it also lets you fine tune these settings per app. In the data management app you can select whether specific apps are allowed to use WiFi, Cell Data, both or neither at all, which really helps when you have an app that likes to go rogue and eat up data. By default the data management is a little overly aggressive though, and I found myself needing toturn it off altogether because I couldn’t even download apps from the Play Store on WiFi.
Security is second to none here, and I was incredibly impressed with the app permissions management in the system. While the Play Store lets you know what apps are allowed to do when you install them, I’d wager that most people don’t even read these permissions when they download them. In MIUI when an app asks to access data outside of itself the OS asks you whether or not it’s OK, and gives you the option to always allow this action if you trust it for that particular app. This prevents apps from getting ahold of data you might otherwise not want them to, like reading your contacts list or GPS position. This was refreshing to see on a phone right out of the box, and a great alternative to something like permissions management found in CyanogenMod since it automatically asks you rather than you having to dig around and find the setting.
Cloud storage is a big thing for phones anymore, and Xiaomi’s cloud offerings might just be the best and most coherent set I’ve ever seen. More than just data syncing data and backing up photos, MiCloud gives each user 10GB of free storage to store contacts, call logs, messages, photos, browsing data, music and more. There are a ton of other system apps including DouKan Reader that sync your eBooks and the like as well, and the messaging app actually works over the cloud too by pairing your SIM card with the service, allowing you to use the MiCloud web interface to interface with your phone and send messages too. It’s a fantastic service that rivals all others.
Phone Calls and Network
Phone calls were as good as they come, especially in HD voice. The clarity of the audio that comes out of the speaker is absolutely top notch, and like any good HD voice call it felt like the person was right next to me rather than talking to me on a phone. The speakerphone is fantastic too, and provides a much louder and clear experience than I am used to on most phones. Having the main speaker on the bottom of the home helps with acoustics too.
Network speed was also about what you would expect from a non-LTE phone. T-Mobile has arguably the best HSPA network in the US given that they were the only ones that took the tech seriously before their LTE rollout, and it shows even in congested areas. The best I could pull down with the network was around 12mbps down and 1.5mbps up, which is really more than enough for most mobile content.
Sound
While cameras always get the biggest showcase in most reviews, music playback is likely something that most users will use more often than anything else on their phone. I’m happy to say the music playback on the Mi4 is nothing less than excellent, but it’s still not quite the best I’ve ever heard from a phone. Even still it bests most phones, if for no other reason than the powerful equalizer and heaphone optimization that Xiaomi uses in the OS. When you plug in headphones you are prompted to customize your listening experience, which will take you to the equalizer section of the music app and lets you not only choose from preset equalizers, but also create your own and save them, as well as select what type of headphones you use. You can choose from generic earbud or in-ear headphones, as well as various Xiaomi branded ones to adjust the music to better fit those speakers. Definitely don’t turn this setting on if you aren’t using what’s listed though, as it does all sorts of funky things to the music when listened to through a car system, for instance.
Camera
Video
The Xiaomi Mi4 doesn’t have OIS, so while it’s got a disadvantage in the video category right out of the box when compared to an LG G3 or something, most phones don’t have hardware stabilization, so odds are you won’t notice the difference if you haven’t used a phone with OIS before. Xiaomi has taken full advantage of the Sony Exmor IMX214 sensor that’s behind the lens by giving extra options like HDR video and super slow-mo video. Time-lapse video is also present, and gives you the ability to change it from 1-second per shot all the way to 60 seconds per shot. You’re going to need a tripod or something else to hold the phone still to actually use this feature though, so I won’t spend anymore time on it. Slow-mo video is pretty standard fare nowadays, providing up to 120FPS at 720P resolution, and competes with the best of the slow-mo phones out there at the same resolution and speed. There’s unfortunately no way to choose framerate though, just normal, slow or fast, so you don’t necessarily know what you’re getting into before you hit start.
HDR video is flat out amazing looking, and provides an excellent way to record video in bright conditions with lots of shadows and contrasting lighting conditions. It’s also good indoors but with lots of light, so during the day is fine, but the noise ramps up exponentially as light sources decrease. Noise in auto mode is much better in low light situations, and actually seems to be reduced with 4K video over the lesser options. Speaking of 4K recording, you can even record HDR video in 4K, meaning quality is never a problem, just choosing the best mode based on the light at hand. Audio recording was less than stellar though, and often I’d hear what sounded like wind blowing into the mic interrupting whatever sounds are supposed to be there. Hopefully this can just be fixed with a software update.
