Xiaomi Mi 6 is flagship smartphone that squeezes in a speedy processor, high screen resolution and plenty of power on a fairly small 5.15 inch phone with Full HD display. The Mi 6 has been beautifully crafted with front and back panels made from Gorilla Glass 5 joined by a stainless steel band giving the smartphone a smart and smooth appearance.
The phone comes in different colours and its appealing design is more apparent in the blue and gold versions. The black one that we received was comfortable to hold especially with its 7.5mm slimness. The only drawback in terms of design being that its glass back makes it quite slippery, which may very well be the reason for including a soft clear case in the box. The Mi 6 also boasts a 1,080-by-1,920-pixel IPS LCD display on a 5.15 inch LCD panel that is very bright and colourful. The glass front has a ceramic fingerprint sensor that’s exceptionally fast and reliable.
An indoor image taken by the Xiaomi Mi 6:
There is one speaker next to the USB-C port and another above the display which offers clear enough sound for watching videos. When it comes to audio, the phone manages to give decent audio but nothing extraordinary for the audiophiles.
A low light, night-time image taken by the Xiaomi Mi 6:
The phone runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 SoC that ensures that the Mi 6 runs fantastically well with no lag or slowdown when switching between apps or playing games. The phone has 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of storage available. There is no microSD slot available to expand the memory, so you have to make do with the 64GB storage space that is built-in. A huge 3,350mAh battery resides inside the glass body which is huge for its 1080p display and phone size. We were easily able to breeze through the day on a single charge and when not streaming too many videos, the battery even lasted a few hours into the next day.
Where Mi 6 stands out is its dual 12-megapixel camera setup that takes some pretty compelling shots that frankly surprised us. The pictures we took were very good with vibrant colours with excellent depth in the photos thanks to its wide aperture. Even the selfies were pretty decent with its 8-megapixel front-facing camera that has a wide-angle lens as well. One thing that is amusing about the front camera is that tries to guess your age and gender, usually fairly accurately. A note of caution though: Do turn off the ‘dual camera watermark’ option in settings or you’ll see “Shot on Mi 6, on a dual-camera” written on every photo.
An outdoor image taken by the Xiaomi Mi 6:
The biggest omission on the Xiaomi handset is the dedicated headphone jack. Admittedly, many people are using Bluetooth Headphones these days, but if not then you are stuck with using the bundled 3.5mm dongle that can be pretty annoying if you lose the adapter or forget to carry one on you. So, on the Mi 6 you’ll have to use the USB-C charging port for wired headphones, or use a set of wireless Bluetooth ones. In case you want to charge and listen to music at the same time, that will never happen with the Mi 6. Also, despite the absence of a 3.5mm jack, the Mi 6 is merely ‘splash resistant’ rather than IP-rated waterproof, again taking away any reasonable explanation for its absence.
Overall, the Mi 6 is fast, powerful and beautifully designed (especially the blue and gold models) with a vibrant, bright screen and an excellent battery life. It does have a small drawbacks, like the lack of a headphone jack and microSD slot, however, for its price this is something that we are ready to ignore. For a flagship phone, it is an incredible performer and offers all the features you need packed inside a convenient sized body, sporting a pretty decent camera and if you are ready to ignore its few shortcomings, it is definitely a good buy.
Price: AED 1499