Xiaomi Mi A1
$199.99The Good
- Solid metal build
- Great fingerprint reader placement
- Vibrant and bright screen
- Fast day-to-day performance
- Stock Android is fluid and smooth
- GPS, bluetooth and Wi-Fi all work
- Real 4K video
The Bad
- Tons of regulatory text muck up the design of the back of the phone
- Backlight bleeds around capacitive buttons
- No camera stabilisation whatsoever
- 2x Zoom Lens does not work in low light
- Single bottom firing speaker is tinny
- Audio when filming videos is garbled by aggressive noise reduction
The Xiaomi Mi A1 (5X) is a mid-tier smartphone with decent specifications and a metal build. At a budget price of $200, the phone offers some features found mostly on advanced smartphones: a secondary back camera for optical zoom, fingerprint unlock and stock Android. There are a few places that Xiaomi can improve for its next iteration: for example, the camera is virtually unusable in low light due to its lack of optical stabilization. Also, the secondary zoom camera lens does not work in low light; the camera app defaults to the main camera with digital zoom (likely so that it is not as blurry from camera shake). The design could also be refined: thinner bezels, less regulatory text on the back of the phone and no backlight bleed from the hardware capacitive buttons would be welcome changes. Overall this is a decent phone from a company who has experience making solid budget devices.
Note: make sure you check compatibility with your local network, otherwise this phone may not function.