Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 Review

Battery Tests

Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 has a slightly smaller battery pack compared to its predecessors from the second Mi MIX generation. Its 3200 mAh battery Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ but arrives with a 5V/3A~9V/2A~12V/1.5A Quick Charge 3.0 fast charger. The wireless charging feature is upgraded to 10W Qi wireless charging support. We purchased the 8GB+256GB version of Mi MIX 3, therefore our package has the Xiaomi Wireless Charger included. Below you will see two charging tests - one with the QC 3.0 charger and one with Xiaomi's wireless charger. All battery life tests we run on the devices we review are developed by us and performed with the screen of the device being calibrated to 200 cd/m². Battery saving features are disabled. The battery of our review unit charged in full for 1 hour and 27 minutes with the provided USB data cable and charger. The process maintains a fast pace from the start until the battery reaches 80% of its capacity, which happens 48 minutes from the beginning. After that, charging slows down a bit and the battery needs 11 minutes to reach 90% of its capacity. At that point, charging slows down even more and the battery needs another 28 minutes to charge completely. The battery temperature starts at 34°C and reaches its peak of 40°C in 30 minutes. This level is maintained for 15 minutes and after that, the temperature gradually decreases and at the end measures 28°C. With the provided wireless charger, our review unit charged for 2 hours and 8 minutes. The charging speed is quick at the very start when for the first 6 minutes the battery reaches 10% of its capacity. After that, the process slows down a bit and it takes 10 to 13 minutes to charge every next 10% of the capacity until the battery reaches 90%. At that level, charging slows down significantly and the battery needs 28 minutes to reach 100% of its capacity. The battery temperature starts at 28°C and in 17 minutes it reaches 37°C. This level is maintained for 1 hour and 30 minutes with occasional peaks to 38°C. After that, the temperature decreases and at the end measures 33°C. During our intensive browsing test, the battery of our review unit lasted for 8 hours and 11 minutes, which is not bad at all. The discharging process is slow for the first 16 minutes but then gains speed and maintains it almost one and the same until the end. The battery temperature starts at 26°C and in 51 minutes reaches 34°C which is maintained until the end. The video test for battery life uses a 1080p video at 30 fps with a ~20Mbps rate is used. Our review unit's score from this test is 12 hours and 24 minutes. The speed of discharging is relatively one and the same from the start until the end with the exception of the first 24 minutes during which the capacity drops only by 2%. The battery temperature starts at 26°C and in 45 minutes reaches its peak of 31°C maintaining this level until 18 minutes before the end when the temperature goes up to 32°C. As long as it concerns video battery life, it looks like Xiaomi has done a good job with battery optimization as the device's result from this test appears among the results of other smartphones with larger batteries. The 4K video battery life test uses a 2160p video at 30 fps with a ~55 Mbps rate. In this test, the battery of the Mi MIX 3 lasted for 11 hours and 38 minutes, which is a very good result for a 3200 mAh battery. The discharging pattern is more linear - like the one from the 3D test. The battery temperature starts at 26°C, after 34 minutes it goes up to 31°C-32°C and maintains this level until the end. For the 3D Graphics/Gaming test, the YEBIS OpenGL ES 3.0 3D Tech Demo is used. The battery of our review unit lasted for 6 hours and 39 minutes. The discharging process develops with almost one and the same speed from the start until the end. The battery temperature starts at 34°C and in 56 minutes reaches 35°C, which is maintained for 2 hours and 49 minutes, after which, the temperature goes up to 36°C and remains at that level until the end. The result from this test is also good compared to the one of other devices with 3000-3500 mAh batteries. Xiaomi has an excellent history of optimizing batteries for its devices. For example, our top 3D Graphics/Gaming result from the smartphones with 3000-3500 mAh batteries is the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 with 9 hours. The above photos of our sample of Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 are taken with a FLIR thermal camera. The left photo shows the device's temperature during charging. The hottest area of the smartphone is the left part of the upper - that's the left frame and the spot right next to it with a temperature of 35.3°C-35.4°C. The second photo depicts the device's temperature during our 3D battery life test. In this case, the device gets hot in the upper half of its body, where the peak temperature spots are left and right from the centre and measure 32.6°C and 32.7°C respectively. The temperature in the centre of the chin measures 32.2°C. We have also taken thermal photos of the smartphone and the wireless charger approximately 1 hour from the start of charging. The hottest area of the smartphone is the centre of the left frame with a temperature of 36.4°C. The second hottest area is the top left corner with a temperature of 36.3°C. The second photo depicts the device's temperature during our 3D battery life test. In this case, the device gets hot in its centre with a temperature of 38.6°C.

Battery Software

Original MIUI-based Xiaomi devices arrive with Xiaomi's proprietary Security application, which has a special section dedicated to Battery management. The Mi MIX 3 is no exception. From the Battery manager, you can check out the current status of the battery, analyze its usage and search for optimization suggestions. It contains a Battery Saver, which you can further customize and schedule, and an App Battery Saver which gives you a more granular control over battery draining by managing each app individually in terms of power usage. You can also get battery usage data according to apps, hardware and over time. There are two Automated Tasks as usual. A new feature found on MIUI 10 is the addition of the Extreme Battery Saver. It stops all background activities, NFC and synchronizing. You can lock up to 4 apps that are allowed to run in the background when this mode is on. It automatically switches off when the battery is charged at 30% or more. From the Battery manager settings, you can also use a number of power saving settings such as battery drain and heating notifications, toggles for clearing cache and turning off mobile data when the device is locked. It also includes a Schedule power on & off menu and Battery indicator settings. The Battery menu from the System Settings actually leads to the power manager of the Security application, adding only one feature - the Smart Scenes. In MIUI 10, this includes only the Sleep Mode while the Non-Interactive Mode is removed. If the Sleep Mode is on, MIUI will know that you're sleeping and will not light up the screen for notifications, will restrict Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data and GPS usage, and will close all background apps.