Will Chinese Smartphones Surpass Established Brands in Sales?

[Manindra]

I hope all works well for Qualcomm Brahmins.

If Qualcomm caste system beat China meritocracy system in Mediatek, it means they are superior system.

Its already beat Mediatek in quality & quantity both.

 

[theniubt]

Huawei’s octa-core Kirin 920 processor outdoes Snapdragon 801

A couple of benchmark results which have surfaced from Huawei’s new home-made octa-core Kirin 920 processor, showing some serious horsepower under the hood. The upcoming processor from the Chinese smartphone company that features four Cortex-A7 cores and four Cortex-A15 cores, beats out Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 in the AnTuTu benchmark.

The device was able to achieve an impressive score of 37,363, which is higher than the Snapdragon 801, and not too far behind the Snapdragon 805 expected in the next generation premium flagships to debut later this year.

According to some leaked specifications, the processor is capable of supporting a 2K display thanks to its Mali 628MP4 GPU, dual-channel DDR3 RAM, and even a whopping 32MP camera sensor. 4G LTE support is also expected, although it’s unknown at which bands.

If the benchmarked performance holds up upon release of the eventual flagship (presumed to be the Ascend D3), Huawei’s own home-grown processing solution may help the Chinese manufacturer become a major player this year, and not just in China.

 

[jkroo]

Huawei’s octa-core Kirin 920 processor outdoes Snapdragon 801

A couple of benchmark results which have surfaced from Huawei’s new home-made octa-core Kirin 920 processor, showing some serious horsepower under the hood. The upcoming processor from the Chinese smartphone company that features four Cortex-A7 cores and four Cortex-A15 cores, beats out Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 in the AnTuTu benchmark.

The device was able to achieve an impressive score of 37,363, which is higher than the Snapdragon 801, and not too far behind the Snapdragon 805 expected in the next generation premium flagships to debut later this year.

According to some leaked specifications, the processor is capable of supporting a 2K display thanks to its Mali 628MP4 GPU, dual-channel DDR3 RAM, and even a whopping 32MP camera sensor. 4G LTE support is also expected, although it’s unknown at which bands.

If the benchmarked performance holds up upon release of the eventual flagship (presumed to be the Ascend D3), Huawei’s own home-grown processing solution may help the Chinese manufacturer become a major player this year, and not just in China.

ZTE also has a 8 core product and has good performance. But I forget the bechmark grades.

 

[cnleio]

If they only assemble then those cannot be OEMs. Cause OEMs manufacture stuff. And ODMs design as well as manufacture.

Why not ?
Except Electric Schematic design and codes, they imported from foreigns ( lack circuit-board / mainboard R&D), other PCB layout + electronic parts and components + institution mould design + assembly-line + SIT + EMI + Package all made in China.
↑That's strickly OEM, compared with ODM it lack circuit-board design and program codes.

Well, former post i speak simply about OEM. In the fact OEM include other PE process.

 

[rott]

Yeah will try someday, been busy for a while. Though have seen commercial looks nice. But I've seen the xiaomi reviews I guess it haven't arrived here yet. The xiaomi ui is most I like just waiting for completion of warranty of my phone, then I'll install it on mine. BTW are they planning to launch their phones here? Don't know but I read somewhere that they are going worldwide, till now they've only been selling in China only. And this is main reason of people misunderstanding the phone manufacturing companies of China, cause those who used to sell previously out of china were cheap and waste of money. Now the manufacturer like gionee are coming out but because of previous experience people will obviously be skeptic about it whether to buy it or not and that also on such high price like the E7. Though I am positive that it'll slowly normalize the image of Chinese manufacturer. Which phone u use BTW?

Xiaomi phones coming to Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand!

I use Huawei Ascend Mate.

 

[djsjs]

Xiaomi phones coming to Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand!

I use Huawei Ascend Mate.

me too.super battery!!!

 

[Reviewer21]

Xiaomi phones coming to Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand!

Hey! that's a good news. Hope they launch here asap. btw how's the battery backup of ascend?

 

[rott]

Hey! that's a good news. Hope they launch here asap. btw how's the battery backup of ascend?

For a 6.1 inch screen and under moderate usage, it would last me for two days without a single charge.

 

[Reviewer21]

Okay for example if I surf defence.pk all time with
Wi-Fi for all time then for how long will it last?

For a 6.1 inch screen and under moderate usage, it would last me for two days without a single charge.

 

[rott]

Okay for example if I surf defence.pk all time with
Wi-Fi for all time then for how long will it last?

The whole day? Even if you browse for the whole day, it should last enough for you to get sick of PDF,

 

[Reviewer21]

lol. Good, Planning to get a new one, will check out this one too.

The whole day? Even if you browse for the whole day, it should last enough for you to get sick of PDF,

 

[shuttler]

Exactly, people wait for the latest iPhone, people feel curious about the newly launched Samsung, because they are the innovators, the trend setters who deliver something fresh something unexpectedly wonderful with every major new launch. By virtue of having some manufacturing units of these phones in China, Chinese phone makers copy these phones quickly and launch their own phones at a cheaper price, simply because they didn't have to spend a single penny on Research & Development, but that doesn't make a phone iconic.

Chinese phones are nothing more than cheaper alternatives of quality branded phones, they are not innovators or trend setters, but ordinary copycats.

" The Rise of China's Innovation Machine Once Mostly Known for Manufacturing Prowess, Chinese Tech Fir

The Rise of China's Innovation Machine - WSJ.com

The Rise of China's Innovation Machine
Once Mostly Known for Manufacturing Prowess, Chinese Tech Firms Are Challenging Market Leaders
By
JURO OSAWA in Hong Kong and
PAUL MOZUR in Beijing
View Graphics


Pofile of some Chinese Companies begins here:
China's technology companies are turning from followers into innovators

Chinese companies still face a perception problem among consumers in many parts of the world that their products aren't as high-quality or reliable as others. Some foreign competitors have alleged that Beijing gives unfair advantages through subsidies, cheap financing and control over the currency market.

But, many executives at Chinese and Western companies contend, China's technology sector is reaching a critical mass of expertise, talent and financial firepower that could realign the power structure of the global technology industry in the years ahead.

"Traditionally Chinese companies were fast followers, but we are starting to see true innovation," said Colin Light, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The rise of China's tech industry is fueled in part by its growing investment in research and development. According to a study released in December by U.S.-based Battelle Memorial Institute, R&D spending in China will likely reach $284 billion this year, up 22% from 2012. That compares with just 4% growth forecast in the U.S. to $465 billion for the same period. It forecasts China will surpass Europe in terms of R&D spending by 2018 and exceed the U.S. by 2022.




At Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co., the world's second-largest telecommunications-equipment supplier by revenue after Sweden's Ericsson, annual R&D expenditures rose fourteenfold in a decade to $5.46 billion in 2013 from $389 million in 2003.

When Peter Zhou joined Huawei straight out of graduate school in 2000, the company's Shanghai research center had a few hundred workers in a shared office. Every Wednesday night after work, Mr. Zhou and other young Chinese engineers gathered for study sessions, sometimes using university textbooks from the U.S.

"At that time, Huawei was not at the same level as Western companies," Mr. Zhou, now an executive at Huawei's wireless-equipment business, recalls.

"We were like students."

But in the past decade, Huawei overtook Western rivals such as Nokia Corp.NOK1V.HE -0.51% and Alcatel-Lucent SA ALU.FR -1.10% in the telecom-gear market. Part of its success stemmed from Huawei engineers' creative ways to upgrade wireless networks using software instead of a costly method of replacing all hardware components, according to Mr. Zhou.
Huawei now has an R&D center in Shanghai that employs more than 10,000 engineers, many of whom have computer-science degrees. As the mobile industry deploys faster fourth-generation networks, Huawei is already working on the technology for fifth-generation networks, which could be ready around 2020.

year, some European Union officials alleged that unfair subsidies from the Chinese government allowed Huawei to sell its gear at lower prices in Europe. Huawei denied those allegations.

In October, when Danish telecom carrierTDC TDC.KO -0.68% A/S announced a $700-million deal to replace its existing Ericsson equipment with Huawei's gear, TDC Chief Executive Carsten Dilling said that he chose Huawei for its technical expertise, not its prices—adding that Huawei was "actually quite expensive."

Glory Global Solutions Ltd., a U.K.-based global supplier of cash-handling machines used at banks, opened a research center in Shanghai in 2011. The center's Chinese engineers are developing advanced sensor technology to identify various security features embedded in bank notes to detect counterfeit bills, combing software programming, hardware engineering and scientific methods like spectrometry.

Working on cutting-edge technology with Chinese engineers involves a risk of them leaving to set up local competitors, said its Chief Executive Paul Adams. Still, local engineers are bringing new ideas to Glory Global, he said.

China is also moving up the technological curve in sophisticated areas like mobile processor chips, where it used to be absent. U.S. competitors like Qualcomm Inc.QCOM +0.28% and Nvidia Corp. NVDA +0.31% are still far ahead, but China's Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co. and Allwinner Technology Co. are increasing their presence in the fast-growing market for chips used in low-end smartphones and tablets. Last month, the Chinese government announced plans to spend almost $5 billion to create a fund to make investments in the country's microchip industry.

In consumer products, few Chinese brands have succeeded in becoming household names globally. But personal-computer makerLenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK -3.25% , which last year overtook Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +2.50% as the world's largest PC maker by units sold, is setting a new precedent with its aggressive global expansion in smartphones. In the third quarter of last year, Lenovo ranked third in smartphone sales globally after Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -0.08% and Apple Inc., AAPL -0.56%according to research firm Gartner.

International Business Machines Corp.'s IBM +0.54%PC business in 2005, released its first smartphone in China in 2010. At that time, its executives knew that the company lacked many of the resources necessary to compete globally in smartphones. Lenovo recruited many people from telecom and Internet industries to inject "new blood," according to Chief Strategy Officer Zhou Qingtong.

Around 2010, Lenovo also created a team of mobile-app developers. In mid-2013, it launched Qiezi, an app for both Apple's iOS andGoogle Inc. GOOG +0.66% 's Android operating systems that enables two phones to instantly share photos and videos without an Internet connection. In four months after its debut, Qiezi gained more than 30 million users, according to Lenovo.

"We needed a game changer," said J.D. Howard, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who joined Lenovo in early 2012 to head its overseas mobile device operations.

In 2012, Lenovo signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the U.S. National Football League that allowed it to use NFL trademarks in its marketing. Lenovo also hired National Basketball Association star Kobe Bryant for its smartphone ads in Asia and enlisted Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher in its latest marketing ploy in the U.S.

Since 2012, Lenovo has launched smartphones in overseas markets such as Indonesia, India and Russia. In Indonesia, it now takes up more than 10% of the local smartphone market.

"Apple is of course a cool brand, but I think Lenovo is cool too," said Amalia Pulungan, a nonprofit worker in Jakarta who bought a Lenovo smartphone in October.

In late December, Lenovo opened its new hub for research, development and production of smartphones and tablets in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, after it spent $800 million to build the 200,000 square-meter facility.

"We definitely want to be number one in smartphones, but it will be a long journey," said Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing during an interview.

While Chinese companies have made big gains in hardware, many of them face a challenge that has plagued other Asian technology companies: developing software and user interfaces that appeal to a global audience.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY +0.20% , which owns the WeChat smartphone application, is bucking that trend. Launched in late 2010, WeChat dominates China's mobile messaging market and the majority of the app's 272 million monthly active users are in China. But last year, it spent $200 million on overseas ad campaigns to push WeChat into many markets including India, South Africa, Spain and Italy. Tencent says the app has more than 100 million downloads abroad.

WeChat was ahead of competitors in offering an easy-to-use feature for sending recorded voice messages and it is challenging the dominance of Silicon Valley's WhatsApp, which has more than 300 million monthly active users globally.

Mikey Mashila, an 18-year-old fashion designer in Johannesburg, downloaded WeChat last summer, after seeing the app's TV ad featuring Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi.

"Everyone knows Messi in South Africa," said Mr. Mashila, who invited his friends to join WeChat and now uses the app as often as WhatsApp.

"In handsets or laptops, Chinese tech companies' global expansion has been much more of a hardware story so far, and I think what's fascinating about Tencent is that it's becoming a software and services story," said Michael Reynal, a portfolio manager at San Francisco-based RS Investments, which has about $27 billion in total assets under management.

Tencent's share price nearly doubled last year and its market capitalization of $123 billion isn't far from Facebook Inc. FB -0.71% 's $139 billion market value.

Tencent isn't alone. A basket of Chinese tech stocks rose 42% over the past six months, according to Reorient Financial Markets. Over the same period, the S&P North American Technology Sector Index rose 18%.

Behind the overseas expansion of Lenovo, Huawei and Tencent, the domestic startup scene is also becoming more vibrant. In China, where smartphones are sole Internet tools for many consumers, the behavior of local mobile users has at times presaged trends in the U.S.

Several years ago, Chinese entrepreneur Tang Yan researched his idea of a location-based mobile dating app that would connect strangers in close geographic proximity, and was surprised to find few examples of such services among major U.S. apps. "I thought if the idea is right, then it would get hot in America first," said Mr. Tang, who is now chief executive of Beijing Momo Technology.

Mr. Tang launched Momo, a dating app, in China in 2011 and now has more than 35 million monthly active users. The most similar app in the U.S., Tinder, launched in September 2012.

"More Chinese players are beginning to realize that to survive in the long run and have sustainable growth, they really have to innovate," said Bernard Kwok, a Beijing-based senior vice president of U.S. software maker Symantec Corp. SYMC +0.70%
"

IDC: 2014 Technology Outlook for China’s Growing Mobile Phone Industry
19 Feb 2014

Beijing, February 19, 2014 –According to the International Data Corporation (IDC)’s China Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker (2013 Q3), China’s smartphone shipments are expected to reach 420 million units in 2014, with a year-on-year growth of 19.8%.

“China's smartphone market will remain relatively high growth in 2014, but its growth rate will drop dramatically compared with the 63.6% growth rate in 2013,” says James Yan, Senior Analyst of Client System Research, IDC China.

He explains that an increase in smartphone penetration is likely to be the main cause of the slowdown. Once smartphones are popularized, they are bound to be updated and replaced.

In addition, telecom operators will put forward even higher requirements for hardware configuration of customized new model products in 2014, such as: 5-5.5 inch High Definition (HD) screen, quad-core high-frequency, multi-mode and multi-frequency.

“Accordingly, the mobile phone vendors will need to adjust their strategies constantly to meet the needs of telecom operators. As far as the end users are concerned, price cuts and entries of large number of new models into the market will give them more options.”

Yan believes that in order to attract the end users and accomplish higher sales targets, the vendors are likely to carry out more diverse market activities and competition in China’s smartphone market in 2014 will become more intense.

To stand out in such a competitive market, innovation in technology is an absolutely must. IDC believes that China's mobile phone market will show the following technical innovation trends in 2014:

1. The vote of mobile phone chip vendors for five or multi-mode 4G chip platforms will boost innovation in the mobile industry. 4G chips may not only drive business growth of mobile phone vendors and telecom operators, but also promote innovation in related phone components and mobile services; they may even change the way people use mobile phones. 4G technologies have two standards: FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. IDC forecasts that the 4G mobile phone market in China is likely to first focus on the deployment of triple-mode 4G chips at its early stage. Upon technological maturity of chip vendors as well as improvement of network deployment, there will then be more chip vendors to release five or multi-mode 4G chip platforms. In short, integrated five or multi-mode 4G chip platforms will gradually become the dominant configuration of mobile devices.

2. 2K screen resolution with Low-temperature Poly-silicon (LTPS) technology will be adopted by more high-end smartphones. More end users have begun to use large-screen smartphones to watch high-definition videos, and high-definition screen is the basis for good mobile video experience, so the vendors’ demand for high-definition screen is witnessing a rapid growth. IDC estimates that more mobile phone vendors will adopt emerging 2K LTPS screen in 2014, with not only higher resolution, higher color saturation and lower cost, but also less power consumption.

3. The application of Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) technology in high-end smartphones will be put under the spotlight. Smartphone cameras have evolved from 2 million pixels to 16 million or even higher pixels, which has been very difficult to have a breakthrough over, while the users’ demand for image stabilizer remains strong. IDC estimates that cameras adopting the OIS technology will be given priority in the smartphone development in 2014. The OIS relies on special lens or structures of CCD sensors to minimize image instability caused by users’ movements. Compared with the electronic image stabilization, the optical image stabilization enjoys better effects.

4. Collective collaboration among telecom operators, device vendors and financial system is required in order for NFC technology to gain popularity. While there had been some NFC-enabled mobile phones in 2013, few voices were heard in NFC technology market due to lack of promotion by large-scale enterprises and extensive cooperation among up-and-downstream players. Additionally, the limited applications of NFC technology failed to meet the increasing demands from the users. IDC believes the premises of application and popularization of NFC technology in smartphones are the reasonable allocation of multi-party interests in the supply chain, and the initiation and lead of industry-pioneering companies.

5. Bending technology holds promise for the future of mobile phones. The application of bending technology in mobile phones is mainly manifested in: bendable screens and batteries. Currently some breakthroughs have been made in these two bending technologies, alongside with many challenges as well. For example, with screens being bent, it is difficult to maintain high resolution and color purity quality. At the same time, mass production with lower cost will be the key, which poses a challenge and also presents an opportunity for the bending technology. IDC does not believe that the bendable phones will score large quantity shipments in China’s market in 2014, but is optimistic about the future prospects of this technology.

6. The application of dual smartphone operating systems will facilitate different experiences for users. Dual operating systems have already been applied on some phones, but the real dual smartphone operating systems are rarely seen. IDC expects that in 2014, competition in the smartphone operating system will be even more intense. Vendors, out of need for innovation and business expansion, will try to develop two operating systems on a single smartphone. The application of dual operating systems will provide users with different and fresh experiences. Meanwhile, multi-operating systems will also provide more space for the development of cross-platform personal cloud service.

IDC: 2014 Technology Outlook for China’s Growing Mobile Phone Industry - prCN24688114

 

[jkroo]

From ABI Research news show that ZTE rank 5th, Huawei rank 6th and Lenovo is catching up.

London, United Kingdom - 10 Mar 2014 ABI Research reports that Chinese handset vendors will account for over 50% of mobile handsets in 2015. Chinese vendors already accounted for 38% of mobile handset shipments in 2013 and the ongoing shift in growth to low cost handsets, especially smartphones, will increase their market share. Greater China has long dominated the mobile handset manufacturing supply chain, but now its OEMs are beginning to dominate sales at the expense of the traditional handset OEMs, including even Samsung. Many of the Chinese OEMs have focused almost exclusively on the huge Chinese market, with little activity beyond its borders, but this is set to change. Huawei (6th in worldwide market share for 2013) and ZTE (5th) have already made an impact on the world stage, but other Chinese handset OEMs like Lenovo—the Motorola acquisition is a clear statement of intent—and Xiaomi are set to join them. “Chinese vendors already take up five of the top ten places in terms of worldwide market share, despite three of them only really shipping into China. The Chinese vendors highlight the changing shape of the mobile handset market, as the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem, specifically reference designs, enable the next wave of smartphone growth in low cost emerging markets and amongst price conscious consumers everywhere,” said Nick Spencer, senior practice director, mobile devices. “South East Asia has already experienced this trend, but ABI Research expects to see the impact of these Chinese vendors increasing in all emerging markets and even advanced markets, especially on prepay,” added Spencer. These findings are part of ABI Research’s Smartphones and Handsets Research Service. ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

 

[shuttler]

Here comes 小米 Xiaomi baby!

First batch of Xiaomi Mi3 smartphones sold out in Singapore

Sidney Wong
Hardware Zone
Monday, Mar 10, 2014

It only took two minutes for stocks to run out.

The first batch of Xiaomi Mi3 was snapped up by consumers within minutes after it went on sale at 12 noon on Friday.

Priced at S$419, the Mi3 is a good deal if you do not require 4G LTE connectivity and a memory card slot.

RELATED STORIES

• Xiaomi's new smartphone Redmi: 10 things to love
• Telcos reveal Xiaomi Redmi price plans

Its midrange offering, the Redmi has proven to be very popular among consumers too. The first batch sold out within 8 minutes on February 21 while the second batch was gone in 6 minutes.

Xiaomi sells most of its smartphones through its website and social networks in China. For Singapore, Xiaomi also partnered with the three telcos to sell its phones. Selling phones online helps the company minimise costs for consumer as it eliminates the need for middlemen and distributors.

Many critics pointed out that Xiaomi is using scarcity marketing to create artificial shortages, the Chinese phone maker stated that these flash sales are used to gauge consumer reaction to each phone model. If the response to a particular phone model is positive, Xiaomi will increase production of the phones to meet demand. This helps to keep costs to a minimum while ensuring that there is no surplus.

Xiaomi Mi3 - A flagship smartphone that doesn't cost a bomb

Overview

Xiaomi may be a new player in the mobile scene here, but its marketing strategies and presence do not go unnoticed. Its midrange smartphone, the Redmi, is so popular among consumers in Singapore that the first batch of stocks ran out in 8 minutes on February 21. The second batch released six days later was snapped up in 6 minutes.

It's not hard to guess why the Redmi sold like hotcakes; it presents itself as an extremely good value for money smartphone and delivers good performance for its price point. Its flagship smartphone, the Mi3 is selling very well in the Chinese market too. Here's a quick overview of its sales figures for the past few months:

• 100,000 units were sold out in less than two minutes (to be exact, 86 seconds or 1 minute and 26 seconds) on October 2013

• 150,000 units were sold in 9 minutes and 55 seconds on WeChat

• 50,000 units were sold out in 4 minutes and 59 seconds on January 7

Let's take a look at what the Mi3 has to offer and how it stands among the other Android flagship smartphones.

The Mi3 (front) is the flagship smartphone for Xiaomi whle the Redmi (behind) is the midrange smartphone.

Design and Handling

Upon first handling the Mi3, we felt that it had an uncanny resemblance to certain phones that we've reviewed. It took us quite a while to figure it out, and perhaps you may disagree with us, but the Mi3 has a similar feel to Nokia's Lumia devices.

RELATED STORIES

• Xiaomi's new smartphone Redmi: 10 things to love
• Telcos reveal Xiaomi Redmi price plans

The curvy sides of the Mi3 and the speaker grille at the centre bottom section are design trademarks of Nokia Lumia smartphones, especially the older models such as the Lumia 800 and 900. As such, you can expect its handling to be fairly good and perhaps even a tad better than the Lumia devices considering the Mi3 is quite sleek at 8.1mm and weighs 145g. It is even lighter than the 4.7-inch Redmi which weighs in at 158g.

The Xiaomi Mi3 (bottom) has similar design attributes as the Nokia Lumia 900 (top) such as the curved sides and the speaker grille.

The Xiaomi Mi3 has a flatter design compared to the Redmi which has a slightly tapered back.

As a flagship smartphone, the build quality and design of the Mi3 is obviously a rank better than that of the Redmi, and can rival most of the Android flagship smartphones except the ASUS PadFone Infinity and HTC One which have an aluminium unibody that looks and feels premium. Having said that, on first appearances, the Mi3 also seemed to have an aluminium back. Looks can be deceiving, so we clarified it with Hugo Barra himself and confirmed that it is actually plastic. Yes, you read that right - it's not metal.

According to Xiaomi, the chassis has an internal magnesium alloy structure encased in three layers of graphite. This gives the Mi3 a solid feel and a "metallic" appearance. The sandblast finish further helps to keep the Mi3 looking clean even after using it for a week; fingerprints and smudges aren't obvious and to most, you probably can't spot it.

Looks can be deceiving; the Xiaomi Mi3 does not have a metal rear. It is actually plastic.

Unlike the Redmi, the Mi3 does not have a removable back cover and battery. Perhaps Xiaomi wants to maintain the elegant design of the phone and does not want a removable cover to break the uniformity. The normal-sized SIM card slot can be found at the top centre section of the Mi3. There is also no memory card slot to further augment the 16GB internal storage capacity of the Mi3. Out of the box, the Mi3 comes with 12.28GB of available storage space to install apps and store multimedia files.

Most Android smartphones today use micro-SIM cards and the Xiaomi Mi3 is an exception to the rule. It uses a standard sized SIM card. Seen here is a micro-SIM card in a black SIM card adapter.

The Mi3 also has the standard three capacitive navigation buttons located below the display, but unlike the value-oriented Redmi device, Mi3 comes with backlighting. You can turn it off or determine the duration of the the backlight if you think it is unnecessary or further preserve power draw. You can access these options via Settings > Buttons > Button Light or Button Light Settings.

The small notification LED that resides below the home button on the Redmi is shifted to the right side of the front-facing camera above the display. You can set it to light up in any of the 7 colors (blue, red, yellow, green, cyan, white and violet) for notifications, calls and messages.

5-Inch Full-HD IPS Display

The Mi3 comes with a 5-inch Full-HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) IPS display, which is on-par with almost all the Android flagship smartphones we've seen so far including the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2.

We find the display to be as good as most of its competing peers, but it is not as bright as some of the other phones. In addition, its anti-glare coating appeared to be ineffective when using the phone outdoors as we had to bump up the brightness to 100 per cent to read content comfortably.

Xiaomi also includes a Glove mode for the Mi3, which makes the display more sensitive; this allows you to navigate the interface even when wearing gloves, ideal in harsher temperate climate. This feature can be enabled via Settings > Display > Glove mode. You can also adjust the colour temperature and saturation of the display, an option that is also present in some Samsung mobile devices.

You can adjust the color temperature of the display to be warm, standard or cool. There is even colour saturation options - standard and brillant.

Software Features

The Mi3 ships with MIUI V5 OS (JXDSGBA8.0) which is based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. We've a detailed explanation on what is MIUI and the top five features of the platform in our review of the Redmi device, which also uses the same OS. As such, we will not be discussing these aspects again. Since MIUI is a new interface for most users in this part of the world, we're currently working on a separate article to explore more features of MIUI V5.


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[shuttler]

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Performance Benchmarks

The Mi3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon (MSM8274AB) quad-core 2.3GHz processor and 2GB RAM. For your information, the MSM8274AB processor is part of the Snapdragon 800 family which also includes the following common part numbers 8074, 8674 and 8974. You can refer to Qualcomm's site for more info.

The LG Nexus 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE+ run on the MSM8974 processors. Without going too much into the technicalities of the different model numbers, the MSM8274AB only supports HSPA+ network while the MSM8974 generally supports 4G LTE networks. Therefore, the Mi-3 is not a 4G LTE-enabled smartphone.

We will be comparing the Mi3 against the other phones of its class which it competes against. The list will include the ASUS PadFone Infinity (late 2013), LG Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE+ and Sony Xperia Z1.

Quadrant Results

Quadrant evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performances.

The Mi3 held up pretty well against the other Android flagship smartphones with the second highest score of 21,439 in the Quadrant benchmark. The near-stock Android interface running on the PadFone Infinity might have contributed to a better performance.

3DMark (2013)

Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones, mobile devices and ARM architecture computers.

For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark consists of three test sections:

3DMark Ice Storm is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark test that uses fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of your device. Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU performance of your device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance.

3DMark Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited is used to make chip-to-chip comparisons of different chipsets, CPUs and GPUs, without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result.

Almost all the recent flagship smartphones maxed out the scores for the Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme, hence we will only be looking at the scores for Ice Storm Unlimited.

Without other factors affecting the outcome, the Mi3 emerged top in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark which is followed closely by the Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE+.

SunSpider Javascript

SunSpider Javascript measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.

The Mi3 clinched another victory over its peers in the SunSpider Javascript 1.0.1 benchmark. In fact, the Mi3 replaced the Nexus 5 with the best performance of any Android device to-date.

Real World Usage Experience

Number crunching aside, the Mi3 generally felt smooth. While its responsiveness is certainly faster than Redmi on all fronts thanks to the Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM, the Mi3 still feels a tad slower than the Nexus range of devices, which still deliver the smoothest Android user experience thus far.

The power setting on the Mi3 was set at Balance mode most of the time, although while we were at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 last week, we used the phone on Battery Saving mode. Unfortunately, when using the Battery Saving mode, slow down in operation was noticeable when accessing apps. For example, it took at least one second longer for the Mi3 in battery saving mode to load the Play Store, Gmail and Pulse News Reader as compared to Balanced and High Performance modes.

Imaging Performance

The image quality is expected of a 13-megapixel camera. In our standard photo test, we observed plenty of details captured with minimal noise.
We took the Mi3 for a spin while we were at MWC 2014 and these are some of the photos taken in auto mode, full screen 16:9 imaging ratio and at standard picture quality setting. The photo samples we use have not been post-processed and are copyright to SPH Magazines. They are provided for your reference and we ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere.

Normal day time shot.
Xiaomi Mi3, f/2.2 at 3.51mm, 1/100 sec, ISO 100.

Evening shot.
Xiaomi Mi3, f/2.2 at 3.51mm, 1/17 sec, ISO 900.

Night shot.
Xiaomi Mi3, f/2.2 at 3.51mm, 1/14 sec, ISO 1600.

Left: Normal (non-HDR) Right: HDR,
Xiaomi Mi3, f/2.2 at 3.51mm, 1/667 sec, ISO 100

Overall, you can tell that imaging quality is pretty good without much noise observed from the captured shots, even in darker ambiance.

Battery Performance

Our standard battery test for mobile phones includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100 per cent

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on

• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

Even though the Mi3 has the largest battery capacity among the phones compared, it did not last the longest in our video looping battery test. It only managed five hours and 44 minutes in our battery test, which is about average from the list of other phones compared. For your information, the power setting of the phone was set to Balanced mode.

The crux of the issue seemed to be the phone's high power draw, in some cases nearly twice as much as its competitors. It's strange to see the Mi3 drawing so much more power despite sporting the same 5-inch Full-HD display and the same family of Snapdragon 800 processors. Could the device be more optimized for performance and thus the higher benchmark results seen earlier? It's a possibility, but a the moment, the phone's battery life is just average.