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Xiaomi Mi 4 vs Xiaomi Mi 3 - A Worthy Successor? [Mobile 88 Online (Malaysia)](Mobile 88 Online (Malaysia) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) With the unveiling of the Xiaomi Mi 4, which happened yesterday, the Mi 3 can finally retire gracefully as the flagship poster boy for Xiaomi. With the Mi 3 being such a hot-selling phone with its incredible pricing for a spec package that can compete toe-to-toe with some of today's latest smartphones, the Mi 4 has big shoes to fill indeed. Can the Mi 4 up the ante and is it a worthy successor to one of the best smartphones to emerge last year? DisplayThe Mi 4 does not get a screen-size bump from the Mi 3, maintaining the 5-inch IPS LCD display with the exact resolution from its predecessor (1080 x 1920). However, its bezel has gotten narrower which certainly enhances its good-looking factor. Design The biggest change to the Mi 4 in this department is certainly the inclusion of metal/steel frame on its body, a departure from the all-plastic look of the Mi 3. As a result, the Mi 4 definitely looks the better (and more premium) out of the two. And while the Mi 3 employs a very square and boxy design, the Mi 4 has rounder edges which make the device more hand-friendly. Dimension-wise, the Mi 4 is both slightly thicker (8.9mm vs 8.1mm) and heavier than the Mi 3 (149g vs 145g) The back cover of both phones are removable and swappable but the Mi 4 offers a large array of new back covers in various cool finishes such as wood, bamboo, leather, marble, denim and others. HardwareHardware upgrade is mandatory in a new flagship edition, and in the Mi 4 almost every important specs get upgraded. The amount of RAM gets increased from 2GB to 3GB as well as the processor, from quad-core 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz. Besides that, chipset-wise, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 is replaced by the newer and faster Snapdragon 801. Like the Mi 3, the Mi 4 comes in a choice of either 16GB or 64GB for the internal storage but unfortunately, a microSD slot is again missing in the new phone. The battery powering the Mi 4 (3080 mAh) does not differ much from the one powering the Mi 3 (3050 mAh) though, and it is still a non-removable one. Last but not least, LTE support is finally introduced with the latest phone. The lack of LTE in the Mi 3 continues to be its major shortcoming SoftwareThe Mi 4 runs on Android KitKat out of the box and it will be preloaded with the new MIUI 6 ROM. However, Mi 3 units here in Malaysia have just received the 4.4 KitKat update recently and likewise should be able to run MIUI 6 too so there isn't much to separate these two in terms of software. CameraWhile the rear camera of the Mi 4 remains as the same 13MP shooter with dual-LED flash as in the Mi 3, with the addition of 4K video recording, those who love to take selfies will be delighted to know that the front camera is being given the highest megapixels count possible in today's standard – 8MP Price & AvailabilityTrue to Xiaomi's philosophy of making top-end phones super affordable, the Mi 4 is priced at only RM1,099 for the 16GB variant and RM1,299 for the 64GB variant, according to Xiaomi Malaysia. The 4G edition (which is most likely the one we'll be getting) will only be made available in China starting in September and it probably won't be making its way into our market anytime soon. Meanwhile, the Mi 3 is currently being sold here at RM769 and will be available during Xiaomi Malaysia's periodic online sale. Xiaomi Mi 4 vs Xiaomi Mi 3 Do you think the Mi 4 is a worthy successor to the Mi 3? • Yes • No Vote View Results Total Answers 1 Total Votes 1 (c) 88 Mobile.com 2014. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |