Android One-based phones have been around since 2014, but, their existence or the lack thereof, is subject of much debate. In fact, wel...
Android One-based phones have been around since 2014, but, their existence or the lack thereof, is subject of much debate. In fact, well until September 5, 2017, it was widely speculated -- to the extent that it wasn't even a speculation any more -- that Android One was dead. Only Android One was never dead. You can say that it was on a sabbatical or something like it, but, dead it wasn't. September 5, 2017 will go down in history as the day when Android One was re-launched albeit under a slightly different set of rules and guidelines.
At the helm of Android One's second innings is Xiaomi, a company often called, the Apple of China. And the device in question, at the helm of Android One's second innings, is the Mi A1.
The Xiaomi Mi A1, just like Google's Android One phones of yore, is a cost-effective handset geared towards emerging markets like India with promised timely OS updates right from the global search engine giant. Only it's unlike any Android One phone that you've seen before. The Mi A1 is notably the most premium phone, both in terms of looks and build as well as in terms of hardware specs, to launch under Google's Android One program. This is a stark departure from what Google's Android One stood for, once upon a time. The times they are a-changin'. For the better, hopefully.
Design and build quality
The Mi A1, much like any other Xiaomi phone, looks (and feels) like an expensive phone, but it isn't expensive at all. Boasting of a full-metal body and dual rear cameras, the Mi A1 would -- invariably -- remind you of Apple's iPhone 7 Plus, especially from the behind. The same is true about the phone's front as well. Everything from the 2.5 D curved glass -- which is Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 for your reference -- on the front to the antenna lines placement on the back, screams the iPhone. The only visible difference is seen in the fingerprint scanner placement. As opposed to the iPhone 7 Plus that comes with a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, the Xiaomi Mi A1 sports one on the back. The Mi A1 further comes with physical capacitive keys on the front which are back-lit.
The Mi A1 may look remarkably like the iPhone 7 Plus, but, at least it looks good while at it. Also, it costs peanuts in comparison, so that's that. You'll have to dig a little deeper to understand its design philosophy though. The Mi A1, in fact, borrows heavily from Xiaomi's gentle giant, the Mi Max 2: you can call it a smaller Mi Max 2 if you may.
"It's pretty, the Mi Max 2. Had it been a more mainstream phone with a more mainstream size, the Mi Max 2 could have been the best looking phone at under Rs 20,000," is what I had written about the Mi Max 2's design not long ago, clearly smitten by its single slab of metal design. The Mi A1 was the mainstream phone that I was looking for back in the day and now that it is here, well, let's just give some credit where it's due. The Mi A1 is, without a doubt, the best looking phone at under Rs 20,000 right now. Period.
That's not to say that it's without its flaws though. The Mi A1 that takes great pride in its aesthetically pleasing curves can be tad slippery and unmanageable at times. The fingerprint scanner on the back, although it's mostly fast and accurate, isn't in the same ballpark as the one on-board the Redmi Note 4.
Display
The Mi A1 comes with a 5.5-inch Full-HD LTPS display that amounts to 1080x1920 pixels (403 ppi pixel density) and 450nit brightness. Unlike Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4 and Mi Max 2, the screen of the Mi A1 can get really bright and also because it's not as reflective as the aforementioned phones, the Mi A1 offers better overall outdoor legibility in comparison.
Xiaomi could have done a better job with the screen's colour reproduction though. The Mi A1 can get really bright, but, colours on-board aren't always the most accurate: they seem muted and lacking in contrast. The Redmi Note 4 certainly did a better job at colour reproduction, but then, it wasn't as bright as the Mi A1, so I guess, you win some and you lose some.
Software
Xiaomi's custom ROM, aka MIUI, although it offers a seamless experience across the board, is known for some heavy skinning on top of Android, something that hard-core geeks don't really appreciate. Also, because there's third-party skinning involved -- and because Xiaomi likes to update each and every device in its portfolio more or less on similar lines -- the fact that users have to wait longer for updates, doesn't go down well with many. That besides the fact that the company is known to kill some key Android features just so it can maintain uniformity across its devices is a subject of much debate.
Take the Redmi Note 4 for instance. When Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 4 in India in January, the phone shipped with Android Marshmallow (based MIUI 8). In early August, the phone started receiving the Android 7.0 Nougat update (MIUI 8.5) alongside the July Android security patch. Interestingly, the Redmi Note 4 -- as per a Xiaomi listing -- isn't scheduled to get Android 7.1 although an update to MIUI 9 is expected in the days to come. If Xiaomi's listing is to be gone by, chances are the Redmi Note 4 may be stuck with Android 7.0 for the rest of its life. To expect an Android Oreo upgrade from it, would be wishful thinking for now.
The Mi A1, for your reference, runs stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat out-of-the-box and will be updated to the recently announced Android Oreo by the end of this year, Xiaomi has confirmed. Xiaomi (and Google), in fact, have gone so far as to say that the Mi A1 will also be getting Android P -- or whatever Google decides to call the Android O successor -- when it launches later next year.
Performance and battery life
The Mi A1 is powered by a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clubbed with Adreno 506 GPU, 4 gigs of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which is further expandable by up to 128GB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. The Snapdragon 625, which is also inside the company's much popular budget phone the Redmi Note 4 (as also inside the gigantic Mi Max 2), is notably the first Snapdragon 600-series chipset to be built on the power-efficient 14nm finfet process. The technology essentially allows a processor -- the Snapdragon 625 in this case -- with multiple cores to hit higher clock speeds without overheating and draining the battery quickly. In layman's terms, you're more likely to get (much) better battery life and little (or no) overheating in phones powered by a chipset on the lines of the Snapdragon 625.
Camera
The Mi A1 comes with a dual camera setup on the rear -- 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel -- where one lens is wide-angle while the other is telephoto (or zoom lens). The Mi A1, is in fact, the first Xiaomi phone in India to ship with dual cameras.
In terms of core specifics, the 26mm wide-angle lens on-board the Mi A1 comes with an f/2.2 aperture while the 50mm telephoto lens boasts of an f/2.6 aperture. This dual camera system offers 2X optical zoom and 10X digital zoom (just like the iPhone 7 Plus) and therefore should technically result in clearer distant shots and professional bokeh effects in portraits. The system is further aided with phase detection auto-focus and a dual-LED (dual-tone) flash but there is no optical image stabilisation. On the front, the Mi A1 comes with a 5-megapixel camera.
Dual cameras are fast becoming the industry norm, even in the mainstream segment. A lot of them don't do much though. A lot of this also has to do with the fact that a lot of the phones at under Rs 20,000 with dual cameras don't offer the complete package. Dual cameras exist as mere luxuries and solve no real world purpose. The Mi A1 changes all this. Not only does the Mi A1 offer a complete package with respect to paper specs, it's the closest that you can get as far as realizing them in actual usage is concerned. In fact, it's safe to say that the Mi A1 offers the best dual camera implementation on a mid-level budget phone right now.
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