XIAOMI MI A3

amazon XIAOMI MI A3 reviews

Design: compact, easy to use with one hand

Xiaomi Mi A3 has a design with a familiar design in today’s cheap and mid-range smartphones: plastic frame, the front is a water drop screen, the back has a surface that is treated with gradation effects and is curved. The difference of Mi A3 is compact with a 6-inch screen, compared to the common ground in the mid-range segment of 6.3-6.5 inches. This combines with a long body ratio (19.5: 9) and a thin screen bezel so the device is easy to use one hand. The Mi A3 also feels solid and well machined despite the plastic frame.

The front of the Mi A3 is a 6-inch AMOLED screen with a controversial HD-only resolution, not Full-HD like the previous generation and the notch has a 32MP selfie camera. In particular, at the price of only $200 now, Mi A3 is a quite rare smartphone in this price range with an in-screen fingerprint sensor. However, the recognition speed of this fingerprint sensor is a bit slow, similar to the fingerprint sensor in the screen of the Samsung Galaxy A50s but is noticeably slower than the Vivo S1 or Realme and Oppo devices. Therefore, if you do not set up too much into security, unlocking by face recognition will be faster.

The back of the Mi A3 uses Gorilla Glass 5, the surface is treated with fancy light streak effect. The plastic frame has a uniform color with the back. This phone is available in 3 colors: white, blue and gray, of which white and blue look more prominent, while gray looks more traditional.

On the sides, Xiaomi has listened to users returning to the memory card slot (shared with a SIM slot) and 3.5mm audio jack, something not found on the older Mi A2. It uses a Type C port and has an external speaker on the right on the bottom edge. Speakerphone of this phone is quite large volume, clear sound and balance, we can say is good in the price range of $200.

Screen: controversial resolution

Compared to the old Mi A2 generation, the screen of Mi A3 has 2 major changes, one is praised and the other is controversial. The transition to AMOLED panels is considered a plus point of the product, but HD + resolution with a pixel density of 268 PPI makes many people surprised. This is a relatively low resolution, making the application icons and text appear not sharp, smooth. This difference is noticeable when compared to the same sized screen with Full-HD resolution.

It is unclear why Xiaomi uses HD resolution on Mi A3, but this is the machine that it advertises as a cheap gaming smartphone, so the low resolution will make the device smoother. In addition, an additional benefit of HD resolution is significantly improved battery life.

In terms of display quality, the display features AMOLED panels such as bright colors, high contrast and wide viewing angles. However, the color is a bit too green, so the pages with white background look cold and not bright. Outdoors, the screen can be used comfortably in the shade or when it is cloudy, but in the sun it is still a bit difficult to see due to the maximum brightness is not high.

Performance and software: enough, good game

Xiaomi Mi A3 uses the Snapdragon 665 processor, an upgrade over the Snapdragon 660 chip on last year’s Mi A2 generation. In terms of performance power, the two chips are similar. The point that the Snapdragon 665 is upgraded is based on the 11nm process, which is more energy efficient than the 14nm process on the Snapdragon 660 and better image processing capabilities.

Specifically, the Snapdragon 665 has 8 CPU cores divided into two clusters, a cluster of high-performance quad-core Kryo 260 Gold (similar to Cortex-A73) clocked at 2GHz and the energy-efficient quad-core cluster of Kryo 260 Silver (similar to Cortex A53) 1.8Ghz clock speed. Compared to Snapdragon 660, the high-performance quad-core cluster of Snapdragon 665 is also lower than 200Mhz.

The GPU on the Snapdragon 665 is the Adreno 610, which is no more powerful than the Adreno 512 on the Snapdragon 660 chip but saves more than 20% power, according to Qualcomm’s announcement.

On performance measurement applications, the Mi A3 is similar to the Mi A2 and the Redmi Note 7 uses the same Snapdragon 660. However, with the advantage of a lower HD resolution, the Mi A3 can handle applications and smooth graphics and use more than the previous generation.

With gaming, Mi A3 can play well and smoothly the game with average graphics, not too heavy. As for heavy games like Pubg Mobile, the device can be stable at average frame rates. We tested it with GameBench (a dedicated app for smooth measurement of application experience) with some familiar games on Mi A3. The results showed that the device played smoothly at a high frame rate of 60 fps and was stable with moderate graphics games such as Dead Triger 2 and Mobile Union. However, with heavy graphics game Pubg Mobile, the device only achieves 26-30 fps, medium smoothness but high stability.

In terms of software, Mi A3 is the phone included in the Android One program. The devices in the Android One program run the stock Android operating system, which Google works closely with the manufacturers.

Currently, the Mi A3 is running Android 9. The main advantage of the Android One platform is compactness, fast security updates and new software updates soon, in the long run. In addition to the three applications, Mi Community, Lazada and Aliexpress, the company does not install any other applications of the company and third parties. Therefore, no application duplication and junk applications appear on the machine. However, if compared with Xiaomi phones using MIUI, this phone lacks some interesting features such as increasing game speed and dark mode, perhaps waiting for Android 10.

Extremely impressive battery time

The battery is the point that Mi A3 has a strong upgrade compared to the old generation. It has a 4,030mAh battery, which is 35% larger than the 3000mAh battery on Mi A2. Meanwhile, the machine has a low screen resolution and Snapdragon 665 chip on 11nm process to save power. The combination of these three details has helped this phone have an extremely impressive battery life, much higher than smartphones in the mid-range segment today.

The Mi A3 supports 18W Quick Charge 3, but to save cost, the company only offers a regular 10W charger. To get the most out of your charging speed, you need to buy a quick charger. With 18W fast charger, the device will take about 1 hour and 40 minutes to fully charge (30 minutes to charge 45%), while the bundled charger takes about 2.5 hours (30 minutes to charge 27%).

where can you get a XIAOMI MI A3 online

Xiaomi Mi A3 64GB + 4GB RAM, Triple Camera, 4G LTE Smartphone – International Global Version (Not just Blue): Buy it now

Xiaomi Mi A3 128GB, 4GB RAM 6.1′ 48MP AI Triple Camera LTE Factory Unlocked Smartphone (International Version) (Kind of Grey): Buy it now

Camera: all three basic cameras are fine

According to the trend, this year’s Mi A3 also uses a cluster of 3 rear cameras including the main camera using Sony IMX582 sensor, 8MP ultra wide-angle camera and a 2MP camera to support the background capture shooting feature. At the front, the device has a 32MP camera. Sony’s 48MP camera is now very popular in the mid-range segment. Even Samsung has used the IXM582 for the Galaxy A50s recently, not the 48MP ISOCELL GM2 sensor developed by Samsung itself.

Regarding the application, Xiaomi has brought the familiar MIUI camera application to Mi A3, not the default Google camera application. This application fully supports the familiar shooting features on the phone today such as automatic HDR, AI, portrait, night, panoramic, short video … The adjustment between normal camera lenses, Wide angle and 2X digital zoom can be switched easily on the capture interface.

The quality of photos taken from the 48MP camera, super wide angle camera, background image removal combining the main camera with the 2MP camera and the selfie photos from the 32MP camera of Mi A3 all have similarities compared to recent mid-range smartphones. It can be said that the difference in cameras between mid-range smartphones is now quite small.

In bright enough conditions, the main camera of Mi A3 captures a lot of details, natural colors, bright bands and good contrast in bright enough conditions. In 2X zoom mode, the image still retains color and the refractive index is not different from the normal mode.

In low light, the 48MP camera also gives good photos, colors still retain natural focus, less noise and sharpness. Night mode improves the overall image quality, especially in dark areas. But similar to the recent Redmi Note 8, the Mi A3’s night mode improves the details on the photo to a moderate level, not being as out-of-the-night as the other phones. Therefore, photos in night mode are sharper but still look natural.

With the background erase shooting mode, Mi A3 uses a 48MP main camera in combination with a 2MP secondary camera to create image depth maps. The images remove the background that separates the subject from the background accurately and smoothly, without smudging. Like Samsung devices, Xiaomi allows users to customize the level of background erasing before and after shooting.

8MP ultra wide-angle camera is now almost the default detail on mid-range smartphones. With this camera, it can take pictures in small spaces, buildings, landscapes or group photos. Experience the ultra wide-angle camera on Mi A3 is no different from recent smartphones we have reviews such as Realme 5 Pro, Redmi Note 8 or Samsung Galaxy A50s. Bright enough photos have a wide range of light, natural colors and fine detail though not as high as the main camera.

Selfies from the 32MP camera of Mi A3 are also quite impressive: lots of detail, beautiful colors and quite sharp. The mode of clearing the background also separates the subject from the background quite well even if only one camera. However, in the mode of clearing the background, the sharpness of the image is greatly reduced.

Summary

The smartphone market has entered a ripe stage, the difference between products is increasingly blurred, especially in the mid-range segment. This is true not only of design but of basic experience as well. Water drop screen, plastic body, glossy back surface with color shift effect, integrated multiple cameras with similar quality, enough performance for all needs except graphic heavy gaming, 4,000 mAh battery enough to use comfortably during the day and the software is increasingly simple and light just like pure Android.

The Mi A3 has all these features, and even the battery is impressive, due to its energy-efficient Snapdragon 665 resolution and chip. Meanwhile, the current market price is also very comfortable, only about $180. The most significant criticism of this product is the HD resolution, which is quite low when compared to the Full-HD resolution that is widely used in the mid-range segment. So, if you freak out at this point, it’s better to experience the screen of the machine in reality before making a decision.