Xiaomi Mi A1 is now official. It is the first Xiaomi phone that offers vanilla Android experience out of the box. The phone is manufactured by Xiaomi and is powered by Google under the Android One program.
Design
The Xiaomi Mi A1 is essentially the Mi 5X running stock Android. The Mi A1 design takes inspiration from the OnePlus 5 in many aspects, mainly the build and the placement of the rear cameras. The phone has a thin profile with dimensions of 155.4 x 75.8 x 7.3mm and a weight of 165gms. The dual camera setup in the rear has a slight bump with the fingerprint scanner sitting below the camera. The phone is made of metal, with the display taking up the front of the phone. It has Xiaomi’s three signature capacitive navigation buttons in the front.
Specifications
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The Xiaomi Mi A1 sports a 5.5 inch 1080p display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM expandable via microSD card. On the back lies the dual camera setup of one 12MP wide angle lens and and 12MP telephoto lens with 2x optical lens. Xiaomi claims that the Mi A1’s dual camera setup can shoot photos on par with the iPhone 7 Plus.
The smartphone is powered by a 3080mAh battery with support for fast charging via the USB type-C port. The Mi A1 retains the 3.5mm jack. It features a dedicated sound amplifier for that extra boost in sound quality.
Pricing and availability
The Mi A1 is available in three colour variants, Black, Rose Gold and Gold. The phone will be available in India starting September 12 through Mi.com and Flipkart and some retail stores too, with a price tag of Rs.14,999. The Xiaomi Mi A1 is expected to be launched in many more countries in the coming days. Watch this space for more!
Malaysia also has been listed as one of the 1st country to have it, apparently. I’ll definitely get my hands on this. Finally, Xiaomi running stock android.
I know right, MIUI is the main reason I don’t buy xiaomi phones anymore. Buggy, poor android version updates, half baked features, ram hogging, constantly sending info to chinese servers. But with stock android this is actually really appealing. Would have been nice to see a pro version with SD653 or something but generally its not too bad for the price considering it should actually get proper updates. My main issue is that I would have liked to have seen more 4G bands, while 800 band is welcome there is really no reason not to include them all as its a world phone. Why they left out NFC too i have no idea, would have added very little to the price. Also surprised to see no EIS on camera, cant expect OIS at the price but at least EIS. Although its is still above most chinese mid rangers due to the clean software / updates and dual cam.
They should go for the upcoming SD660 next cause it’ll be more efficient and it’ll have better graphics. I agree with what you’re saying, It makes no sense to limit the bands, tbh even if it’s not meant for the market that Xiaomi is not in, officially, people travel. It’d be naive to think that I (or many) don’t travel to America or Europe and won’t require the extra bands eventho I reside in Asia. Still, for the price and the steps that they took to have the 1st stock android phone from Xiaomi is not at all bad. I’m sure the predecessor will just get better.