MIUI had previously discouraged many consumers that were drawn to the well-designed smartphones on offer from Xiaomi. The custom theme that had been layered over the Android software had been quite off-putting on these otherwise stylish devices… Until now!
The Xiaomi Mi A1 is MIUI-free, running on Android One, which is a Google operating system designed for low and mid-range mobile devices.
Like the Google Pixel smartphone, it promises regular software and security updates, as well as all of the expected Google apps and Playstore preinstalled on the device, along with Mi Remote to be used with IR blaster, and Xiaomi camera app.
The Mi A1 has a smooth, sleek metal body. It’s 7.3mm thick and has a 5.5 inch LCD screen with 1920 × 1080 pixel resolution. The style of the Mi A1 is simple and attractive. Weighing only 165 grams, the device is extremely light and quite comfortable to hold and use, one could easily carry it around or slip it into a pocket or bag.
On the back of the device is a fingerprint scanner that is both quick to respond and accurate. The USB Type C charging port can be found on the bottom, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
There’s a 5 megapixel front camera with portrait mode, and a dual-lens 12 megapixel camera on the back with 2 optical zoom. The camera takes vivid, natural pictures in normal light and the dual lens works really well with good results. As for the video camera, one can look forward to extra creativity from the slow motion mode.
This device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and 4 GB of RAM. It comes with a 3080 mAh battery, which lasts the entire day. This can be attributed to the simple and uncluttered Android One Software. With the timely software and security patch updates, the device is regularly improved.
The downside of the Mi A1 is that the global version does not support 4G LTE, so 3G speeds will have to do.
For every day tasks and gaming, this device is user friendly, capable and cost effective.
