The Samsung Note 7 fiasco was a bit of a letdown as things blew out of proportion for the stylus equipped Galaxy series smartphone. The obvious choice for Samsung fans was the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge (or even the upcoming Galaxy S8) and the Korean electronics giant has some concrete disaster management steps lined up to overcome the fiasco.
But what about the folks who want the cool stuff for a relatively affordable price? Enter Xiaomi. The Chinese conglomerate has been in the news for its feature packed budget smartphones. It has been aggressively introducing products under the Mi and RedMi brands. Extending their smartphone range is the latest flagship, the Xiaomi Mi Note 2. This smartphone is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor, the Mi Note and is one of the most appealing devices in its segment. The Mi Mix, which made its debut along with the new Mi Note 2, is an eternity beyond anything that the Chinese brand has revealed till now. But we’ll talk about the Mi Note 2 first.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way. Yes, the Xiaomi Note 2 looks like the Samsung Note 7. It’s got the curves and if you exclude the spherical camera (versus the Samsung’s square-ish unit with round corners) and the absence of the stylus, the two devices would look like long lost cousins. Similar to the Samsung Note 7, the latest Mi device uses a 5.7-inch OLED flexible display which is curved on both ends. However, unlike the Note 7’s QHD screen, the Mi device gets a full HD display with a screen to body ratio of 77.2%. The lower resolution is a smart choice as it would consume less battery than the QHD display. Speaking of battery, the Mi Note 2 comes with a substantial 4070 mAh battery which should hold enough power to take the phone through the day without breaking sweat.
Under the hood is the latest hardware available anywhere as of today. The Mi Note 2 gets Qualcomm’s 2.35 GHz Snapdragon 821 processor which can be bundled with 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The model range starts with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage and goes upto 6GB version with 128GB of storage. Then there is the one with global bands which supports 6 types 37 bands – that’s iPhone territory. Other features include NFC, Quick Charge 3.0, USB Type-C, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/-AGPS, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and HD audio playback.
Then there is that shooter. Contrary to the rumours, the Mi Note 2 skips the dual camera setup and instead comes with a 22.56 MP Sony IMX318 Exmor sensor. The camera gets an f/2.0 lens which should deliver decent low light performance while keeping the images sharp. Low light photography is aided by dual-tone LED flash. The rear shooter can capture videos at upto 4K while the EIS with its 3-axis gyro offers better stability. Other features include hybrid PDAF and contrast autofocus system along with and low-light and long-exposure.
The front camera too is feature rich. Upfront is an 8 MP shooter with Sony IMX268 Exmor RS sensor with f/2.0 aperture. Unlike most of the smartphones, this one gets autofocus feature which lets you click better selfies. Images are further optimised with improved group selfies and Beautify 3.0.
Pricing was affected by the smartphone’s complicated design with dual curved display. So while the base model with 4GB RAM / 64GB of internal storage, in China, has been priced for 2,799 yuan (US$413/INR 27,600); the 6GB of RAM / 128GB of storage costs 3,299 yuan (US$490/INR 32,500). The top of the line variant which supports 6 types 37 LTE bands will come for 3,499 yuan (US$516/INR 34,500). Buyers can select between the Piano Black or the Glacier Silver.
To be honest, the smartphone looks phenomenal from the front but not so great at the rear and that’s mainly because of the camera. The spherical camera has been smoothly merged into the rear panel with absolutely no bulge which is good thing but it’s too simple for my choice. The glass panel will improve the feel of the smartphone but it will also be a fingerprint magnet and folks with OCD (like me) would probably be cleaning it after every couple of operations.
Lastly, it’s the availability issue as Xiaomi has no plans to launch the new Mi Note 2 in India. So unless you can source a Mi Note 2 from your contacts in China (or markets where it will be available), it is highly unlikely that you could ever lay your hands on the device.
Missed the launch event yesterday? Check out the complete video below:
Images Sourced from en.miui.com
