Xiaomi has finally unveiled its 2017 flagship, the Mi 6 in an event held today in China. The event was live streamed to viewers who hooked up from around the world. The Xiaomi Mi 6 as expected, comes packed with high-end features, coupled with an amazing design that will certainly not disappoint. Top of the pack is the Snapdragon 835 chipset which the device features, making it the first domestic Chinese brand to use the latest Qualcomm flagship processor.
Xiaomi Mi 6 Design, Specs & Features
The Xiaomi Mi 6 utilises a four curved design which means it is curved on all sides both at the front and rear aspects. The flagship device also comes with a glass body at the back which is aided by the curved edges to give owners the ability to firmly grip the phone. In addition, the Mi 6 comes with a stainless steel frame which ensures that the phone is sturdy despite the glass body. It is interesting to note that there is also a top-end model with a ceramic glass body.
Still, on the design, the Mi 6 is said to offer the best visual experience nad has an elegantly curved back. The front is also curved but is not a full-screen display. There are bezels at the top and bottom edges of the display. As severally rumoured, the Mi 6 does not feature the legendary 3.5mm audio jack and from all indications, it is an IP67-level water resistant smartphone. The device instead features a USB Type-C port but we don’t know if a Type-C to 3.5mm audio connector would be offered by Xiaomi just as Apple did on the iPhone 7 and 7Plus.
Further, the Mi 6 uses an underglass fingerprint sensor just as found on the Mi 5S. The sensor is embedded in the home button. Xiaomi also tweaked things a bit by adding more colour options for the 2017 flagship.There is a new blue variant as well as a silver variant. The silver variant comes with a special design which is made of metal and a special ultra-reflective mirror finish. The variant will not be available soon as the production process isn’t very fast.
Talking about the specs, the Xiaomi Mi 6 sports a 5.15-inch display with a resolution of 1080 pixels. The display is a negative LCD display which has 600-nit max brightness and 1-nit super low ultra-dark brightness and is ideal for night time reading. The display also comes with a special eye protection optimization which ensures that your eyes are not adversely affected by the screen, especially at night. The reading mode on the device reduces the harmful blue light from the screen, and at the same time, maintains the colours displayed.
The Mi 6 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset under the hood clocked at 2.45GHz with Adreno 540 GPU firing up the graphics. The SD 835 is a 10nm chip and comes in an octa-core architecture, which means the phone promises to be efficient as well as powerful. Xiaomi also took things a tad higher by including 6GB of RAM on the device and you can only guess the fire power this device will be capable of outputting. The storage versions include a 64GB storage and 128GB version. The official Xiaomi score when the device ran through AnTuTu shows it pulled 184,292 points and that is about one of the highest scores around presently. On the GFX Manhattan off-screen test for GPU, the phone scored an impressive 63fps. The Mi 6 also comes with Vulkan 3D rendering API, which will ensure realistic graphics and efficient GPU performance.
Furthermore, the Mi 6 features 2 x 2 Dual Wi-Fi support for better speed and larger range and has stereo speakers. There is also support for 4G+ which promises 600Mbps max download and 100Mbps upload speeds, as well as NFC with Mi Pay support in China. The smartphone also crams a 3,350mAh battery under its hood which promises up to a day’s usage at optimum use.
Coming to the cameras, the Xiaomi Mi 6 packs a dual camera setup offering a better flagship camera performance. The main camera setup consists of a 12MP wide-angle lens + 12MP telephoto lens. Now, this is a bit different than traditional Android dual camera setup which utilizes one Black and White and one Color sensor. Xiaomi explains that the Mi 6’s camera uses a similar dual camera setup as the iPhone 7 Plus to produce an amazing depth of field effect.
Further, the phone comes with 2x optical lossless zoom ensuring clear shots, even at a distance. You also get 10x digital zoom. The Mi 5’s 4-axis OIS will be carried forward on the Xiaomi Mi 6 as well.
Xiaomi Mi 6 Price & Availability
The Xiaomi Mi 6 price starts at 2499 Yuan ($363) for the 6GB + 64GB model while the 6GB + 128GB version costs 2899 Yuan ($421). The special 6GB + 128GB ceramic edition which is available only in black is priced at 2999 yuan ($435). The Mi 6 will go up for sale in China on April 28 at 10 AM (GMT +8).
