Mi Max: Go Big! - Full Detailed Review

As you guys know, Xiaomi Malaysia released the Mi Max here in Malaysia and I did a first Look and Impression a while ago. In case you guys haven’t read that, I’ll put the links right below here.

So, switched to Mi Max for a week to two and tried out how it fits my day to day life and is it any worth it or not. This is my full review on the Mi Max. Let’s not waste anytime and get right into it. It’s better that you read my First impression and then continue with this.

Look & Feel:

Mi Max is no small phone. It’s definitely huge and this is the kind of device that you’ll wanna use two hands to operate. Haha. And holding it in one hand is actually nice but then you can’t reach the screen. You might have to move your hand a bit and then start using it.

The phone looks really beautiful, I can tell you that. In fact, it feels durable and stronger. The metal body definitely can take a beat or two. The front 2.5D glass gives that immersive illusion and you’ll feel really nice. It’s exactly like the Mi Note, which also has a 2.5D glass on the front. It’s a Corning Gorilla Glass 3, but you might have to use a tempered glass on top of that to get additional protection.

And I really have to say that this phone is crazy thin at 8.5 mm. Which to me is thin AF. It has this curved back that fits right in your hand but the problem is that it’s kinda difficult to hold it. You’ll feel like you might drop it or something. Eitherway, some people love thin devices. So, why not? Haha.

Performance:

This phone packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 650, Hexa-core clocked in at 1.8 GHz. 3 GB RAM.

Under light usage, the phone worked fine. Like using simple apps like all the social networks and other system apps like phone, messaging. And multitasking with this device was nice too. It took like a real champ. My personal multitasking involves streaming music via Apple Music, reading article, downloading episodes on my iFlix, texting and so on. So, switching between apps was quite good enough.

Gaming with this device. Well, I am not a huge gamer but I played games like Monument Valley and other games that has beautiful graphics just to see whether the frame stutters or not. On the other hand, I gave the Mi Max to my brother and he played games like Mortal Combat X, Modern Combat and other power intensive games too. This is what exactly he said. “Prithivi, can I keep this phone?” Hahaha. I did observe the way he played, and the fps was on point. Definitely recommended for gaming and entertainment use.

And I used it more like a productivity device. Using google Docs and viewing all my study guide on that device was fine. No regret.

There are time when the phone glitches and when you tap home, the wall paper orientation changes. Not sure why, but yeah. Probably a software glitch.

Display

I’ve said this a million time. Hahah. But here I go again. This phone features a really huge display at 6.44” inches and it’s full HD. It has a pixel density of 342 ppi. And this is probably one of the gorgeous displays I’ve ever seen. One thing with Mi is that, their display is tad good. Like all the device I’ve owned from Mi so far, has the nicest display. Well, except for one or two devices.

Watching YouTube or your favorite music video on a display this huge is just great. I watched one of my favorite singer, Tove Lo’s new Music Video Cool Girl like a lot of times, (Check it out if you want) binging series through iFlix, reading articles, browsing websites and also using this as my phablet for classes instead of carrying my Xperia Z2 Tablet with me. It was just great.

The XXL Font mode really took full use of the device. It made Mi Max the best device for that font option.

I’d definitely give 4/5 for the display.

Camera:

It has a 16MP Rear camera with an aperture of f/2.0. And on the front of the device, we have a 5MP selfie shooter. The camera performs just exactly like the Redmi Note 3, because it has the very same sensor.

Color production is average and it shoots decent picture. What interests me the most is that, this device let’s you change the exposure time, Focus and the ISO under Manual Mode. Unlike Redmi Note 3, it only allows you to change the White Balance and ISO. So, if you’re an avid mobile photographer then you’ll have a great time with this.

Here’s some sample shots that I took with the Mi Max and let me know what do you feel about each pictures.

I do hope that the camera software let’s you play with more features under manual mode by altering the lighting and more. Which will make a really great camera.

Battery Life:

One of the reason why Mi Max is popular is because of it’s battery. It has a humongous 4850 Hi Density Battery that can last up to whooping two days. When it comes to battery, I test the device under three conditions. Light usage, Heavy Usage and Standby. So, here’s my opinion on every single condition.

Light Usage

I unplugged the phone from the charger with 100% and started my day out of my house with 91% battery. So, it was just a normal day and normal classes. I used the phone as my reader, made some normal calls, usual social networking and so on.

Around 11:40, that’s when I came back home from dinner and left my phone on the table. I checked the stats, and even after 4 Hours of screen on time, I still had like 41% percent battery left. I was kinda surprised. Just to make the test a bit more interesting, I stayed up all night just so that I can drain the battery till 10 or something.

It was 1:41 am and it still had 35% left. I gave up, connected the device to a charger and went to sleep.

Heavy Usage

I left home around 8 in the morning and used it for 2 hours or so. After that, I had like 70% battery.

Not sure what I did to get the battery all the way to 18% but I played Game of Thrones: Telltale Series, Social network, streaming music, watching iFlix… and other normal task. The screen on time was longer than I expected, 8 Hours.

Which is too good to be true. And I had like 18% left. I think I could have used it for another hour. Haha.

Standby Mode

I don’t call this test standby. But I’d classify it under like very light usage or something. I’ll let you guys be the judge of it. So, starting off the day with 98%, with a screen on time of 37s. I have no words for that.

Passed the Mi Max to my brother because he wanted to play Modern combat 5 on this. So, he played for like 2h 30m. Also did a bunch of other stuff for another hour like social networking and so on. The battery dropped to 52% around 10pm.

Nothing much. If the phone was really on standby mode where you didn’t use anything, I do have a feeling that it will last longer than I think.

Looks like you got your camping buddy right there.

Gaming Mode

I did this test just for 2 reasons. Number one, to see how the phone handles the intense content that really drains the phone. And to see the performance.

So, I charged the device for like few hours an then unplugged it. So, I had like 78% when I woke up. That was it. I called my brother, gave him the Mi Max to play.

After a whooping, 7 ½ hours screen on time, it had like 13% left. Reason being, I did connect the phone to the charger for few moments. Didn’t bother to screenshot how long my brother was playing. Gave him the phone back and told to return it to me when you see 3% left.

Guess what, it was good. He got to play another 40 minutes of Modern Combat. And that was it.

In short, this phone’s 4850 mAh does wonders. I don’t think you’ll ever get disappointed with this device. I can tell you that.

Call Quality & Connectivity:

Call Quality was great, I didn’t really had any problems with it. The person on the other side said that my voice sounds crispy and clear. And I didnt go through any situations where the call drops or the line drops and comes back of sorts.

Connectivity on my TuneTalk 4G was awesome. I did a lot of stuff like browsing through sites, streaming content. Though there was times that it kept buffering once or twice and I had to reboot the device, but other than that it was just great.

WiFi & Bluetooth Connectivity:

I don’t really like holding a device this huge to my face. A week later, I paired it up with my Bluetooth Headset to talk to my friends and family. And the connection was good. But when I connect to a device like my car’s bluetooth control or my home theatre, it has this odd sound when playing the song. So, yeah… But like in 5-10 second, it goes back to normal.

And the WiFi connectivity was great. Connected to my university WiFi and moving across blocks, it was still connected. Pretty great. Some devices tend to lose the connection when you move few steps away from the WiFi but this didn’t. Good job there.

Software UI & OS:

 

This device runs MIUI 8 on top of Android Marshmallow (6.0.1). So you get all the Android Marshmallow goodness. Nah just kidding. You’ll get all the features in MIUI 8. One thing I like about the MIUI 8 in Mi Max is that under permissions, you get to play with the android permission instead of the permission setting which you saw in MIUI 7. Good job there.

One thing with a device this huge is sometimes, some apps just doesn't support and I had to download the apk right out of apkmirror and use it. For instance, Apple Music.

Other than that, you get the colorful and vibrant UI which can be customized under themes. MIUI 8 has some great optimization going on compared to MIUI 7. But the camera software needs to be improved in a lot of ways.

In case you guys have a hard time using the capacitive buttons, you can enable Quick ball which let’s you use all the capacitive buttons on the screen. If you want to check out more on the Mi Max’s MIUI 8, Here’s a video below that I made a week ago.  

Others:

Since it’s a phablet, I had troubles installing certain apps because it wasn’t compatible with a device this big. Like for instance, I use Apple Music and I had to download the apk from apkmania and install it. It did work but not sure why it doesn’t support this device.

The speaker is facing downwards and when you place it horizontally, you’ll hear it on the right side or the left side. Depends on way you keep it. If the speaker was rear facing, you’ll face this. When you place it on a table will give the muffled sound. Eitherway, the speakers were loud and clear. You’ll definitely like it.

The fingerprint sensor located at the back gives you a lot convenience in unlocking the device. One thing I’d love to see is, double tapping the fingerprint sensor to enable accessibility to the top part of the device just like the Windows 10 Devices in the market and a fruit company too. Mi Max doesn’t have that feature where tapping the fingerprint sensor allows you to take a picture. Hope it’s available in the next update.

Conclusion:

Mi Max is definitely a device that a lot of people will like. I see this device more suitable among the elderly because a device like this allows them to read without any trouble. And for me, I’d treat it more like a tablet than a phone. Because I am not a huge fan of big device but it did serve me right during the two weeks.

I’d definitely recommend this phablet to people who like big devices and wants to get it for entertainment or productive purposes. It’s cool. Right now, you can get it from authorized sellers across malaysia or you can get yours through Lazada (Look for “Sold and Fulfilled by Lazada”). And the price is RM 999.

As always, thank you so much for reading this and I will catch you guys in the next article.

This is Prithivi Raj / Vesper

Signing off.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• Great display
• Long lasting battery
• Quick and snappy performance

Cons:

• Huge device. Might be a bit uncomfortable.
• Camera Software needs to be improved