Xiaomi Mi Max Review

Xiaomi Mi Max is for all of you out there, who want a smartphone with a big display and an affordable price. Approaching the tablet segment with its 6.44-inch diagonal size, the device's screen is its main selling point, indeed. We will aim in this review to dig a bit more and check whether it has other merits, which make it worth having.

Specifications

We are reviewing the standard edition of the Xiaomi Mi Max, which is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 chipset. The higher edition has a Snapdragon 652 SoC, more RAM and storage. The Snapdragon 650 is a 64-bit chipset based on a 28nm process and includes a hexa-core CPU containing 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 cores and 4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores. It is coupled with an Adreno 510 GPU clocked at 600MHz and 3GB of double-channel, LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 933MHz. The internal memory is 32GB and can be expanded via a microSD card. Mi Max packs a 6.44-inch IPS display with an FHD resolution and a 2.5D curved glass. Its camera department includes a 16-megapixel rear shooter with a 5-element lens, dual-tone LED flash, an f/2.0 aperture and phase detection auto focus. The selfies snapper packs a 5-megapixel sensor coupled with an 85-degree wide-angle lens with an f/2.0 aperture. All this hardware is housed in a 7.5mm thin metal body with a rear-placed fingerprint sensor and a capacitive, backlit navigation bar. The smartphone supports a wide range of network bands, including quad-band 2G GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), 800MHz 2.5G CDMA, dual-band 3G TD-SCDMA (1880-1920 MHz, TD-SCDMA 2010-2025 MHz), quad-band 3G UMTS (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz), tri-band 4G FDD-LTE (1800, 2100, 2600 MHz) and quad-band 4G TDD-LTE (1900, 2300, 2500, 2600 MHz) networks. The device's connectivity options are varied as well and include dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and 802.11n 5GHz with MiMO, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, and Wi-Fi Display along with Bluetooth 4.2, infrared emitter, USB OTG, GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, and BeiDou. A complete list of the Xiaomi Mi Max specifications can be found here.

What's in the box

Xiaomi Mi Max arrives in a simple white cardboard box with the model's name in Chinese on top and some basic specs on the back. Inside you'll find he smartphone on top of a package including some leaflets, a SIM tray pin, a black USB cable and a black 5V/2A fast charger. The fast charger is the US NEMA-1 plug standard, a.k.a the US standard with two flat pins and no grounding area. It can be used in Canada and some Latin American countries as well, but for countries with different AC power plug standards you'll need an adapter.

Design and build

Xaomi Mi Max does impress with its size. The 6.44-inch display puts it closer to a tablet than to a normal smartphone. Yet, the manufacturer has managed to achieve only 7.5 mm of thickness and the back has a very slight curve towards its edges, so the device looks even slimmer. For example, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is 7.25 mm thin. It weighs 203 grams, but does not feel that heavy. Its height and weight are 88.3 and 173.1 mm, respectively, which makes it up to 15 mm wider and up to 23 mm taller than an average 5.5-inch device. It is comfortable to be used with one hand at most times, but people with smaller hands will definitely find it hard. However, there is an option for one-handed mode, which can be switched on from the Settings > Additional settings menu. The smartphone has a metal frame, chassis and back cover, only the antenna areas being made of hard plastic. The body is finely crafted, symmetrical and beautiful to look at. The back and frame are matte, while various accents such as the fingerprint sensor's metal ring, the metal buttons and the chamfered edges of the frame are glossy. The 2.5D curved top glass of the front perfectly meets the frame's edges, creating not only a smooth display operating experience, but also the feeling of holding a finely molded unibody. The Mi Max is solidly built, no doubt about it. However, it does not feel as sturdy as expected from a metal body. Probably this is very subjective due to the very slim profile of the smartphone, still we'd recommend that you use it with a protective case in order to enjoy its good looks longer. The front of the device is white, while the frame and back are available in three colors: champagne gold, silver and white gray. We are reviewing a champagne gold colored unit.

Controls

Xiaomi Mi Max has a classic controls layout. On the top frame from the left to the right are the 3.5 mm jack, the infrared emitter and a microphone. The infrared emitter will need an app of your choice in order to use it. At the bottom frame, the USB 2.0 port is centrally positioned and on both of its sides are placed two speaker grilles. Only the right one houses a speaker. The left frame is where the dual-SIM tray is. It can house either a micro-SIM and a nano-SIM card, or, if you need more storage, you can combine a micro-SIM and a microSD card. The tray has a 'floor', which makes placing the cards and the tray itself easier. On the right hand side are the volume rocker and a power button below it. On the back, the rear camera is positioned at the top left corner of the device, followed by the dual-tone LED flash. Below them, but centrally positioned, is the round fingerprint sensor. On the front, above the display are the light sensor, earpiece, front camera and a LED notification light. The latter can be managed from the Settings > Additional settings > Notification light menu. Below the display is the navigation bar with three backlit, capacitive buttons - menu, home and back (from left to right). From the Settings > Additional settings > Buttons you can choose to remove the backlight, or if it stays - for how long it should be on. You can also switch the places of the menu and back button as well as assign different tasks to all three buttons.

Display

No doubt about it - the display of Mi Max is its best feature. Large, fast and responsive, it is perfect for reading, browsing, texting, work and entertainment. The display has a tablet-like, 6.44-inch diagonal size and an IPS panel with an FHD resolution (1080 x 1920). The top glass layer has 2.5D curved edges, which seamlessly blend with the frame for a smooth touch experience. Now, it is important to state that 2.5D curved glass does not explicitly mean scratch-resistant. This is just a glass with curved edges. Neither the official Xiaomi Mi Max product page, nor the official Mi forums state that there is a Corning Gorilla Glass of any kind. Even more, there is no word of any kind of protection. So in order to be on the safe side, you might want to order a screen protector for your Mi Max. From the Settings > Display menu you can reduce the backlight level to achieve a reading mode that is more comfortable to you as well as tweak the color temperature and contrast. According to the official specifications, the Mi Max display has a static contrast ratio of 1000:1, a typical brightness of 450 cd/sq.m. and covers 72% of the NTSC color space. In fact, the contrast ratio is more than twice as high varying from 2402:1 to 2476:1. This is due not only to the high white luminance values, but also to the low black luminance values, which at 0% brightness equal 0, hence for that level the contrast cannot be measured. Color deviation is within normal limits, however the viewing angles are not that good. Actually, this can be hardly seen with a naked eye and you need many other displays to compare it with, in order to feel this, but it's a fact. This in no way affects interaction with the device. The white point temperature is a little above 8000K, which is within average for screens of mobile devices.

Brightness	White luminance	Black luminance	Contrast	Color temperature
100 %	492.415 cd/m2	0.205 cd/m2	2402 : 1	8023 K
75 %	247.996 cd/m2	0.101 cd/m2	2455 : 1	8025 K
50 %	128.751 cd/m2	0.052 cd/m2	2476 : 1	8088 K
25 %	51.825 cd/m2	0.021 cd/m2	2468 : 1	8138 K
0 %	5.192 cd/m2	0.000 cd/m2	-	8196 K

OS, UI and software

No, it does not run MIUI 8. Xiaomi Mi Max runs MIUI 7 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The latest Xiaomi UI version will arrive soon. On June 1st, the company released a Chinese Alpha ROM of the MIUI 8 and everyone, who wants to test it may download it from the MIUI forum. Still, the official stable version is about to be announced. The MIUI 7 is a deeply customized user interface, which does not resemble the original Android OS, on which it is based, so first-time users will need some time to get used to it. However, the software is user-friendly and visually appealing, so this shouldn't be an issue. As usual, Xiaomi provides several offline wallpapers for the lock and home screen and 5 offline themes to choose from as well as many more wallpapers and themes, which are available for free download. For sure, you will find the ones that you like most and correspond to your own style. In case you want to enjoy most of the beautiful wallpapers, you can switch on the Enable Wallpaper Carousel option from Daily lock screens and the lock screen will display a different wallpaper each time it is on. A short tap on the menu capacitive button from the navigation bar brings up the Widgets and Wallpapers menu. It is quite extensive actually and allows you to rearrange the apps, choose from a large list of useful widgets and beautiful wallpapers, as well as choose the effect with which the different screens appear/disappear. A swipe down from the top of the display opens the Notifications screen and a swipe to the left leads you to the Quick Menu. The latter includes a Silent mode, Screen rotation mode, Lock shortcut, Bluetooth, Mobile Data, Wi-Fi, Mi Drop, Brightness settings, Torch, Airplane mode, Screenshot, Vibrate and a shortcut to the Toggle positions in the Settings menu. Pay attention to the fact that by default, the notification icons are hidden, you can choose to make them visible by switching this option on from Settings > Notifications & status bar. A long press on the menu button opens the Task Manager and as per standard a long press on the power button brings up the Reboot/Power off menu. As usual, the Settings menu starts with the Network options, which besides all standard ones, include a Wireless display feature. The Device set of options is the most extensive one. It starts with the Notifications & status bar settings, which provide you with several tools for customizing the way you operate the device. For starters, you can switch on and off the notifications icons. Secondly, you can toggle the shortcut positions in the Quick Menu. Thirdly, you can choose to show or not the carrier name, network speed, and screenshot notifications. You may also choose whether the notifications should be accessed from the lock screen or not. The Wallpapers, Themes and Text size are self-explanatory. Besides the standard brightness and auto-rotate screen, the Display settings include options for switching to Read More and adjust the color temperature to a warmer one in order to reduce the strain on the eyes. You can also adjust the color saturation and contrast. The Sound & vibration menu does not look like the classic Lollipop one. In a separate section, you can preset the volume of Ringtone & notifications, Alarm, In-call voice, Music and other media, Bluetooth. Indeed, if for example you're in the Music app and you press the volume button, it will display a single circle depicting the Media volume. If you're somewhere in the Settings menu, the same action will bring the Ringer volume, which, again, is a basic UI difference. The DND mode is brought up as a separate set of options. The Lockscreen & password set of options includes the usual Sleep and Prevent pocket dials settings, but here you can also adjust the display's behaviour, if you use Xiaomi's Smartcover, and also add and manage fingerprint IDs. When you set a screen lock and at least one fingerprint ID, you also gain access to Child Mode, which can be also accessed as a separate menu option. It lets you choose, which apps should be available to your child, if it uses your phone too. The Additional settings have some useful features such as Privacy protection with a Guest mode, a One-handed mode, which lets you decrease the size of the displayed content corresponding to a 4.5-, 4-, and 3.5-inch display. From this set of options you can also manage the LED Notification Light, Headphones & audio effects as well as the Navigation bar - switch the positions of the back and menu button, assign functions to all or none of them, switch on and off their backlight and many others. The Additional settings also house the Battery management options, but these are discussed in the Battery section of this review. Finally, you have a set of System options including the management of your Mi and other accounts, Sync options, and Apps management. This includes the Mi Mover, which lets you transfer your data to/from another Xiaomi device. With MIUI 7 you get all the usual apps such as the Dialer, Contacts, Messenger, Calculator, Calendar, Clock, default Browser, Music and Video player, Radio, Sound recorder. There is a separate folder with apps called Tools, which contains the Mi Account app, Mi Store, Bug reporter, Updater, Compass, Barcode Scanner, Notes and others. The device arrives with PlayStore pre-installed along with Gmail. The only other apps are the Themes and Security ones. The latter includes six main features - Cleaner (removes duplicated and unnecessary files to save storage), Virus Scan, Data usage, Block list, Permissions and Battery.

Networks, calls and connectivity

Xiaomi Mi Max has a dual-SIM card tray with hybrid functions. That is, it can work either with a micro-SIM and a nano-SIM card, or with a micro-SIM and a microSD card for additional storage. Both slots support 4G+ Cat. 7 connectivity with VoLTE and a wide range of network bands. More precisely, the model works with quad-band 2G GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), 800MHz 2.5G CDMA, dual-band 3G TD-SCDMA (1880-1920 MHz, TD-SCDMA 2010-2025 MHz), quad-band 3G UMTS (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz), tri-band 4G FDD-LTE (1800, 2100, 2600 MHz) and quad-band 4G TDD-LTE (1900, 2300, 2500, 2600 MHz) networks. During our test period the device had excellent reception and there haven't been any issues with the call quality. In addition, it supports dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and 802.11n 5GHz with MiMO, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, and Wi-Fi Display along with Bluetooth 4.2. Wi-Fi reception has been excellent even in areas with low coverage. In order to use the Wireless Display function and cast content to a larger display, you need to have a Wi-Fi adapter for your TV or monitor. The model provides USB OTG support and has an infrared emitter, which turns the smartphone in a universal remote control for household appliances. The software does not include any kind of management of the IR blaster, so if you want to use it, you can download a separate app. Finally, the Mi Max supports GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, and BeiDou navigation systems. The Androits app managed to detect satellites from all three systems.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi Max we're reviewing is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 chipset. This is a 64-bit SoC with a hexa-core CPU, which includes 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 cores and 4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores. It is coupled with an Adreno 510 GPU clocked at 600MHz and a Hexagon DSP. The chipset provides enough versatility and power, while remaining power efficient. Its AnTuTu score is excellent for a mid-range device and even surpasses with a lot Helio P10-based smartphones. Operating with the Mi Max has been glitch-free at all times. In addition, the model features 3GB of LPDDR3, double-channel RAM clocked at 933MHz, which does help multitasking and working with lots of apps running in the background, so you needn't clean the task manager regularly. The on-board storage measures 32GB. Of them 26.15GB are available to the user. The sequential and random read/write speeds are fast. There are plenty of sensors on board the Mi Max: accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, orientation, compass, rotation vector, step detector and counter, etc. On the back of the device is mounted a fingerprint sensor that is easy to use and unlocks in an instant.

Cameras

Xiaomi has been quite shy in revealing the make of the sensors it uses for the Mi Max cameras. Information is scarce. What the official information states is that the rear camera has a 16-megapixel sensor, a 5-element lens with an f/2.0 aperture, a dual-tone LED flash, and phase detection auto-focus. An interesting feature is that it is capable of making 4K videos. The front-facing camera has a 5-megapixel sensor and an 85° wide-angle lens with an f/2.0 aperture. The camera app contains all standard options you're used to, but looks different. When you open it, you can switch from main camera photo and video modes, and if you choose the front-facing shooter - there you can switch in between photo and video mode. For all four variants, there are camera modes and settings accessible by swiping the bottom part of the screen to the right. Swiping to the left brings a list of 12 pre-set filters.

Primary camera

Secondary camera

Audio

Without bragging about it, Xiaomi has managed to provide the Mi Max with very good audio. At least the results from our audio test, using the RightMark Audio Analyzer software and the TASCAM US-2x2 audio interface, show this. The smartphone excels in frequency response, noise level, dynamic range and IMD + Noise, which is much better than average and even than some audio-centric devices we've tested. The only Average result is in THD + Noise, the rest of the scores are Very Good, which amounts to the same overall result. Moreover, even the loudspeaker is much better than average. There is a single speaker on board, housed behind the right speaker grille on the bottom frame.

Test	Value	RMAA rating
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB	+0.01, -0.09	Excellent
Noise level, dB (A)	-95.7	Excellent
Dynamic range, dB (A)	95.5	Excellent
THD, %	0.0074	Very good
THD + Noise, dB (A)	-79.7	Average
IMD + Noise, %	0.0076	Excellent
Stereo crosstalk, dB	-79.5	Very good
IMD at 10 kHz, %	0.018	Very good
General performance		Very good

Battery

Xiaomi Mi Max is provided with a 4850 mAh Li-Ion, non-removable battery that arrives with a 5V/2A fast charger. With such a large screen it is only logical to place a large battery as usually the screen accounts to 50-60% (sometimes more) of the battery consumption. During our test period the battery managed to charge in full from 0% to 100% for 3 hours and 34 minutes. It took 35 minutes to charge the first 20% with a power output of 1.95-1.98A, which gradually started to decline and at 65% of charge (reached after almost 2 hours from the beginning) was 1.43-1.46A. The output power continued dropping to 1A at 90% and 0.65-0.66A at 95% till the battery was full. The PCMark Work battery life test showed a result of 11 hours and 52 minutes, which is excellent for a device with a huge display and a 4850 mAh battery. As part of the Optimizer tool, which arrives pre-installed, you get a Battery optimizer, which lets you choose from three pre-set battery profiles - Default, Marathon, and Sleep, which you can actually tweak to your own preference. You also get a Battery Saver option, which is flexible and besides setting the capacity percentage at which you'd like it to switch on, you can also manage the battery's profiles according to it. You can schedule the different profiles on and off in order to get the maximum of the battery life as well as schedule power on & off. Furthermore, you can manage the apps you have installed in terms of how they consume power and how the system should behave at the different power saving modes. Of course, there is a graphical indicator, which provides information about the current and future status of the battery.

Final thoughts

Xiaomi Mi Max does not disappoint at all. Its big screen is a pleasure to look at and work with. Having in mind that it is very bright, has very good black luminance values and contrast along with several advanced features for adjusting the screen's blue light emitting, contrast and color temperature, it will definitely appeal to people who spend a lot of time with their smartphones and need a large, quality display. Moreover, the battery shows some serious autonomy, which makes the Mi Max a reliable tool for work and entertainment through the day. The chipset benchmarks also show very good results, which yield only to the high-end SoCs by Qualcomm and MediaTek. Finally, it is hard to find a slim, lightweight, 6.44-inch smartphone for a little above $250, so Mi Max is definitely worth your consideration.