The very first Xiaomi phone that captured my heart and made me switched to this company is no other than the legendary Mi 3. The only phone that I have held that is so rectangular in design (looks like a powerbank these days), and quite edgy to be honest, but of course those are so yesterday, how can I complain right?
I am glad I was able to buy a brand new sealed Mi 3 and this was the phone I never did an unboxing since I was only a regular me back then, just another user of Xiaomi. If I was who I am 5 years back, this is how I will unbox this awesome phone. So sit back and relax, let me entertain you the retro way.
Tech Specs of the Mi 3:
Unboxing the Mi 3
Design
The Mi 3 is quite a squarish design, which makes it unique and standout compared to other flagships of its league. The distinct design is quite nice and it does give you a nice grip as the sides are rounded to prevent the edgy feeling on the sides. Now the top is quite flat and the corners does feel a little edgy, its not really that comfortable should you run your hands on the corners. The MI logo which represent the company are present on the upper left bezel of the phone screen as well as at the back cover and its embossed by the way.
The front with a peel-off film with the MI logo
Display and Audio
The Mi 3 sports a Full HD display at 5 inches and it was quite impressive. The good thing about 5 incher phones is that its quite ample on the hands especially for Asians whose hands are not as big as those from the Western part of the world. We tried to watch some movies on this phone and it was quite ok. The sounds on the loudspeaker were weak and we do recommend you trying on a headphone jack for better sounds entertainment.
Processor
Instead of being able to grab the global variant which is a SD 800 2.3Ghz Quad Core Processor, we were able to buy the China variant sporting a Nvidia Tegra which can power up to 1.8Ghz Octacore. There is not really much difference, in terms of multitasking both did performed well. We tried on some games like Candy Crush and it was running smoothly on this flagship phone.
We tried the AnTuTu benchmark and it was awarded with a 17120 points. Which is already impressibe during that time.
MIUI V5
Camera
The main camera of the Mi 3 is a 13MP shooter coupled with a 2MP front snapper. The rear camera was able to capture some great photos while there are still some limitations to it like the focus is quite a bit weak. It does took me some time to properly focus on a single subject. On night scene, its quite obvious that its quite a bit grainy.
Sample Photos
Selfie Camera
Battery
The Mi 3 is quite a bit slow in charging, I drained the phone to 20% and was able to charge it full using the supplied charger and cable fro around 3 hours and 49 minutes. The performance of the phone is not bad and I used it for a week as a daily driver, the battery life is quite good as I was able to last thru the day without having to charger the phone.
Verdict
The Mi 3 is a all around performer, be it for multitasking or for camera, it just give you what you need. The overall design for me is quite edgy but there is not much problem once you have a jelly case on it. The winning factor for me here is that its quite light at 145 grams and its pretty to carry it inside your pocket. The Mi 3 definitely is a all around performer at P10,990 on its Lazada Sale in the Philippines.