Xiaomi Mi4c first impressions

I loved the look and feel of the Xiaomi Mi4i, but the performance and optimisation issues upset the device as a whole. Is the new Xiaomi Mi4c any better? I go hands on with the latest Xiaomi Mi4c in my first hands on impressions.

The Xiaomi Mi4c launched a few weeks ago and we have already received our review unit from shop.gizchina.com. Physically the phone is very similar to the Xiaomi Mi4i, but it has an updated chipset and also ships with MIUI 7 Beta (or at least our review model did). After a few days with the phone here are my first impressions.

Xiaomi Mi4c first impressions - Design

Physically the new Xiaomi Mi4c and previous Xiaomi Mi4i are almost identical but not quite. Both phones have a 5-inch 1920 x 1080 FHD display and both have the same polycarbonate bodies, but there are a few slight differences.

The new Xiaomi Mi4c ships with a USB Type C plug where as the Mi4i has a standard USB. Another slight difference is the colours of the phones. The Mi4i is a brighter, purer, white colour, and the Mi4i has English markings on the back.

Other than that they both look and feel the same, which is perfect for me. I love the 5-inch form factor of this phone, the soft to the touch finish and the super convenient one handed operation. No matter how accustomed I am to using 5.5-inch+ phones, its always a pleasure to get my hands on a decent 5-inch phone.

For those of you not familiar with either Mi4i or Mi4c here is a quick tour around the exterior of the phone. The front has a 5-inch FHD display with 5 mega-pixel front facing camera.

Xiaomi used a polycarbonate unibody design which keeps the Xiaomi Mi4c slim while retaining a large battery. The white body (other colours are coming soon) has the power and volume rockers located on the right (the same as all Xiaomi devices). There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and IR remote sensor at the top, and USB Type C in the base.

The rear of the Mi4c has a speaker, Mi logo, dual tone LED flash and 13 mega-pixel camera. Xiaomi are using both Sony and Samsung rear sensors on the Mi4c, I'm not sure which my phone has but I'm more than happy with the performance.

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Hardware

While a lot of the Xiaomi Mi4c is the same as the Mi4i there are differences in hardware. That terrible Snapdragon 615 chipset (which has ruined plenty of good phones) has been ripped out and a Snapdragon 808 has been put in its place. The 808 is a 6-core processor with Adreno 418 GPU, and so far runs much better than the SD615.

Xiaomi will eventually release 2 versions of the Mi4c, but so far only the base model is available and this is what I have on review. To confirm this means that my Xiaomi Mi4c has 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory (another model with 3GB RAM will be launched). If you think 16GB won't be enough storage for you then you had better wait for the 3GB RAM model which will get 32GB internal memory. Neither version has SD card support, but both offer dual SIM standby.

USB Type C is a change on the Mi4c, but it isn't the faster 3.0 so no super fast data transfer speeds. There is fast charging though and the large 3080mAh battery can charge to around %40 in an hour.

The Mi4c also has a new "Edge Tap" feature. What it basically does is allow you to tap the edge of the phone to take a photo. It might seem like a gimmick but it is such a neat little feature I find myself using it quite a lot, it's especially good for selfies. By default only camera support is on, but head in to settings and you can also set up "edge tap" to work like a back button too.

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Photo samples

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Performance

I've not really had time to play any games on the Xiaomi Mi4c yet, but I can see that the new phone is much better optimised than the previous Mi4i. General day to day performance is blistering, the phone is fast and there is no lag or slow down. What makes the performance even more impressive is that I'm running a Beta of MIUI 7.

There are no crazy over heating issues yet either. Using the phone for general smartphone use can build a little heat, which is to be expected, but we aren't seeing anything that raises any alarms. I'm so impressed with MIUI 7 that, I'll be updating the Mi4i to it this weekend too.

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Gallery

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Specifications

Model:	Mi4C
Sim Card:	Dual 4G SIM (2 x micro), Dual Standby supports 4G, 3G, 2G network, but does not support two slots using 4G network simultaneously. If one SIM card is using 4G /3G network, the other SIM card can only access to 2G network.
Color:	White \| Black \| Blue \| Pink \| Yellow
Capacity	RAM: 2GB ROM: 16GB
Multi-Languages	English,Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Chipset	CPU: Snapdragon™ Snapdragon™ 808 CPU, 1.8GHz GPU: Adreno 418 GPU
System	MIUI 7 base on Android 5.1 OS
Screen	Display Size: 5" Sharp/JDI Full HD display Resolution: 1920 x 1080 resolution, 441 PPI Multitouch: Yes Technology: All-new Sunlight display with hardware-level,pixel contrast adjustments IPS 178° wide viewing angle
Camera	Rear Camera:13MP Sony/Samsung camera,5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture Front Camera: 5MP front camera, f/2.0 aperture Features: Two-tone flash,Supports manual mode, real-time HDR, Torch Supports 1080p video recordings Others: 5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture
Network and Wireless Connectivity	4G FDD-LTE: Bands 1(2100 MHz)/ Bands 3(1800 MHz)/ Bands 7(2600 MHz) TDD-LTE:Bands 38(TD 2600) / 39(TD 1900) / 40(TD 2300) / 41(TD 2500) 3G: TD-SCDMA:Bands 34 (TD 2000) / 39(TD 1900) WCDMA:Bands 1(2100 MHz) / 2(1900 MHz) / 5(850 MHz) / 8(900 MHz) CDMA 2000:Bands BC0 / BC1 2G GSM: Bands 2(1900 MHz) / 3(1800 MHz) / 5(850 MHz) / 8(900 MHz) CDMA 1X:BC0 / BC1 GPS:GPS, AGPS,GLONASS,Positioning by BDS(BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) Bluetooth:Bluetooth 4.1,Bluetooth HID WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n, 802.11ac wave 2 include MU- MIMO, supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands，Wi-Fi Display,Wi-Fi Direct OTG:Yes USB: Type-C Port
Battery capacity and life	3080mAh all-day battery Sony/Samsung/ATL 4.4V lithium-ion polymer battery 3080mAh (typ) 3000mAH (min) Standby Time: About 2~3 days
Sensor	Electronic compass,Gravity sensor,Light sensor,Gyroscope,Hall sensor,Proximity sensor

Multi-media	Supported video formats: Supports: H.264–Baseline/Main/High, MPEG4–simple/ASP, H.264–0, VC-1/WMV9–Simple/Main, VC-1–Advanced Supported audio formats:Supports: PCM, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ , MP3, WMA – V9 and V10, AMR – NB and WB, FLAC, APE
Size	Dimensions: 138.1mm×69.6m×7.8mm Net Weight: 132g

Xiaomi Mi4c Impressions - Conclusion

I will continue to use the Xiaomi Mi4c through the weekend and get some gaming time on the device, but so far I am confident that the Mi4c is the phone the Mi4i should have been. This though fills me with mixed emotions. On the one hand I am happy that we finally have a decent product to take up the lead in the flagship mid-range Xiaomi fleet, but on the other I'm upset for the owners of the Mi4i and what they could have had.

We have pushed the Xiaomi Mi4c review ahead and it will be complete on Monday. If you have any questions about the Xiaomi Mi4c let us know.

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