Xiaomi Mi Note 3 goes official, with dual camera, Snapdragon 660

Xiaomi Mi Note 3 was unveiled earlier today – as expected- during Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 2 event and people were a bit confused by it – truth be told. The device is no longer a… flagship model, as it now sits slightly above the Mi 5X (or Mi A1) with a Snapdragon 660 chipset (not the expected 835) but has plenty of RAM and storage – 6GB and either 64GB or 128GB.

It comes with a dual camera on its back, with two 12MP sensors (a regular and a 2x telephoto one). It boasts impressive imaging specs, like Portrait Mode and Auto Beautify, while the 16MP front snapper has Adaptable AI Beautify which smooths skin and can even change the shape of a face!

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The Mi Note 3 – that comes with a 5.5-inch FHD display – packs a 3500 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 technology, runs on Android 7.1.2 with MIUI 9 but will soon be upgraded to Android 8 Oreo.

Xiaomi Mi Note 3 pricing

The new mid-range device is available in 3 configurations:

6GB + 64GB in Black costs RMB 2,499 (€320)
6GB + 128GB in Black costs RMB 2,899 (€370)
and there’s a Blue colored 6GB + 128GB Mi Note 3 that can be purchased for RMB 2,999 (€380).

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Nick Papanikolopoulos
With some little over 20 years of experience in the Mobile Technology sector Nick is the EIC of Gizchina.com. He has a Masters’ degree in Wireless & Wired Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering and Computer Informatics and a PhD in Mobility QoS Measuring Techniques.
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- LifelessNewt
  September 11, 2017
  - tonio93
    September 11, 2017
Nishikanta
September 11, 2017
Killed the phine with SD 660. Supposed to be a premium business device as last year it case with sd821
Marius Cirsta
September 11, 2017
So disappointing for the given price. Battery is under 4000 mAh, SOC is nothing to write home about ( although certainly decent ) and overall I’d rather get the Mi5s Plus than this one …. and Mi Note 2 looks like good competition for it too.
- Lex
  September 11, 2017
  I do not think it’s disappointing considering what the SD660 is packed with – 8 core Kyro 260 up to 2.2GHz, Andreno 512, Hexagon 680 DSP with – Hexagon Vector eXtensions, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware, Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK for AI, Caff e/Caff e2 and support for Tensorflow (an open-source machine learning library), X12 LTE with 600Mbps/150Mbps download/up speed, Quick Charge 4.0, support for Quad HD2560×1600+WQXGA+up to 4K display support, USB Type-C support, all on a 14nm FinFET processing technology. I think the question should be what are the Qualcomm licenses Xiaomi has obtained for use by this device?

Riccardo Benzoni
September 11, 2017
well, they reduced the price accordingly, but it’s a shame, since Mi Note 2 was their best device ever, now they went all-in with the Mix 2 and don’t want internal competition, it seems.
They will maybe release a “true” note 3 (pro?) after some months the Mix 2 will be sold, who knows.
Shizola
September 11, 2017
- Riccardo Benzoni
  September 11, 2017
  - Muhammad Yasir
    September 11, 2017
    - Riccardo Benzoni
      September 11, 2017
      it isn’t, it’s a slightly upgraded 625, which was already pretty good and made the RN4 the best seller it became.
      - Kim Lundquist
        September 11, 2017
        About 10% better cpu performance, better gpu, support for faster storage, support for higher res screens and cameras etc compared to sd625 that’s already an excellent midrange chip. So no, probably not a shit cpu
      - Muhammad Yasir
        September 11, 2017

Kim Lundquist
September 11, 2017
What’s with all the whining? Sure it’s maybe not top of the line in terms of cpu but a sd660 is more than enough for 99% of users not playing the most demanding games.
Almost on par with last years flagship sd820 in day to day performance but with much lower power consumption.
This is basically an oppo r11 with (maybe) slightly worse camera but with oleophobic coating, usb c, nfc, better software and 500mah bigger battery. For $100 less…
Just got a redmi note 4x because I couldn’t wait for the redmi pro 2 ( rumored to have these specs) but I’m still tempted to upgrade.
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  It’s decent but I was expecting better. At least they could have put in a 4000 mAh battery for instance.
  And you can’t really compare Xiaomi with Oppo, Oppo always have a premium for their phones.
  It’s just that I was expecting these specs for the Redmi Note 5 and a $200 price for it …. Now I think we’re going to see that damn SD 625 or SD 630 in the Redmi Note 5.
  I was expecting something good to update my Redmi Note 4 but I think I’ll just skip Xiaomi for now … Maybe somebody else can launch something with a Helio X30 or something but the X30 seems to be really MIA….
  - Kim Lundquist
    September 11, 2017
    There are almost no other sd660 phones to compare it with, I’m well aware of the “oppo premium” you can’t go a hundred meters here in Thailand without seeing their advertising:)
    Just saying it’s a much better phone than the similarly specced r11 for a much lower price, expecting the price to drop even further after a couple of months.
    Guess Xiaomi thought it was enough with 2 sd835 phones, one small and one with larger screen, totally understandable imo.
    Wouldn’t have minded a larger battery but at least it has qc 3 so would probably be ok with it, should get pretty good battery life anyway.
    Xiaomi have painted themselves into a corner with regards to the cpu on the RN5, has to be the sd630 now, which will probably be fine, expecting other upgrades like better camera (dual maybe? ) usb c, full metal build etc to make up for the slight bump in performance.
    - Riccardo Benzoni
      September 11, 2017
      I never expected RN5 to use SD660, that rumor sounded weird to me, It will be SD630 for sure.
      I agree, they will probably focus more on upgrading the rest rather than the CPU, which is perfectly fine for me, since we are talking about a phone with an average 150$ price, and CPU was never an issue on RN4.
    - Marius Cirsta
      September 11, 2017
      Well for me SD630 not acceptable given that my current Helio X20 kicks its ass on the CPU side and I don’t care much about the GPU.
      Sure it’s more power efficient but I can’t go back in terms of CPU performance so I’m kinda pissed about it. One year later and a weaker CPU ? No thanks.
- Muhammad Yasir
  September 11, 2017
  doesn’t deserve a $400 price tag !
  should be closer to $300 !
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  Let me make another comparison though.
  For $400 you can get a Nubia Z17 … compare that phone to this one and it’s ridiculous. Add another $70 and you can get the OnePlus 5 so really no, this is an under $300 phone.
Ionut Johnny
September 11, 2017
Great phone, cheap price, stereo speakers, better photo quality, bigger battery than the Mi6 and I read facial recognition.
- Muhammad Yasir
  September 11, 2017
  nah … if it fell down in the category taxonomy (from flagship to higher midrange), price should be closer to $300 !
  i don’t like the $400 price !
  - Marius Cirsta
    September 11, 2017
    You mean for $400 you’d rather get a Nubia Z17 instead of this one ? Shame on you :))
    - Muhammad Yasir
      September 11, 2017
  - Kim Lundquist
    September 11, 2017
    The price will probably drop towards the $300 mark pretty quickly, give it a couple of months and see.
    I don’t have a horse in this race so I don’t really care, the only thing I’m missing is water resistance really, the rest is ok with me (closer to $300)
    That Nubia z17 is pretty sweet though.
    - Muhammad Yasir
      September 11, 2017
      Z17 is a pretty great phone and i’d buy one if i could afford one !
      too bad they don’t allow SD card slots in them, else wise they’d be the perfect phones !
    - Ionut Johnny
      September 11, 2017
      - Marius Cirsta
        September 12, 2017
  - Marius Cirsta
    September 11, 2017
    Also for $400 you could get the Huawei Honor V9 with 6 GB of RAM which is quite the beast and has a 5.7 2K screen so yeah this needs to come done in price to under $300.

vijay sud
September 11, 2017
- LifelessNewt
  September 11, 2017
  It was the only thing that matters to me…
- tonio93
  September 11, 2017
Nishikanta
September 11, 2017
Killed the phine with SD 660. Supposed to be a premium business device as last year it case with sd821
Marius Cirsta
September 11, 2017
So disappointing for the given price. Battery is under 4000 mAh, SOC is nothing to write home about ( although certainly decent ) and overall I’d rather get the Mi5s Plus than this one …. and Mi Note 2 looks like good competition for it too.
- Lex
  September 11, 2017
  I do not think it’s disappointing considering that the SD660 is packed with almost all the features of the SD820 with further updated features like BT 5. Consider the 8 core Kyro 260 which may be clocked up to 2.2GHz, Andreno 512, Hexagon 680 DSP (with Hexagon Vector eXtensions, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware, Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK for AI, Caff e/Caff e2 and support for Tensorflow (an open-source machine learning library), X12 LTE tech with 600Mbps/150Mbps download/up speed, Quick Charge 4.0, support for Quad HD2560×1600+WQXGA+up to 4K display support, USB Type-C support, all on a 14nm FinFET processing technology. I think the question should be what are the Qualcomm licenses Xiaomi has obtained licenses for use by this device?

Riccardo Benzoni
September 11, 2017
well, they reduced the price accordingly, but it’s a shame, since Mi Note 2 was their best device ever, now they went all-in with the Mix 2 and don’t want internal competition, it seems.
They will maybe release a “true” note 3 (pro?) after some months the Mix 2 will be sold, who knows.

Marius Cirsta
September 11, 2017
OK so let me make this short. Given the SOC ( mid range ) and the screen ( 5.5 fullHD ) this is really the Redmi Note 5 … cameras are also nothing to write home about and yes maybe build quality will be a bit better ( hopefully ).
The price however is about double so yeah , not a good deal.
- Ionut Johnny
  September 11, 2017
Shizola
September 11, 2017
- Riccardo Benzoni
  September 11, 2017
  nothing.
  Except it won’t have SD660, but that was pretty much predictable.
- Guest
  September 11, 2017
  sd 630 at most … i wonder if that’s a shit cpu
- Riccardo Benzoni
  September 11, 2017
  it isn’t, it’s a slightly upgraded 625, which was already pretty good and made the RN4 the best seller it became.
- Kim Lundquist
  September 11, 2017
  About 10% better cpu performance, better gpu, support for faster storage, support for higher res screens and cameras etc compared to sd625 that’s already an excellent midrange chip. So no, probably not a shit cpu
- Guest
  September 11, 2017

Kim Lundquist
September 11, 2017
What’s with all the whining? Sure it’s maybe not top of the line in terms of cpu but a sd660 is more than enough for 99% of users not playing the most demanding games.
Almost on par with last years flagship sd820 in day to day performance but with much lower power consumption.
This is basically an oppo r11 with (maybe) slightly worse camera but with oleophobic coating, usb c, nfc, stereo speakers, better software and 500mah bigger battery. For $100 less…
Just got a redmi note 4x because I couldn’t wait for the redmi pro 2 ( rumored to have these specs) but I’m still tempted to upgrade.
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  It’s decent but I was expecting better. At least they could have put in a 4000 mAh battery for instance.
  And you can’t really compare Xiaomi with Oppo, Oppo always have a premium for their phones.
  It’s just that I was expecting these specs for the Redmi Note 5 and a $200 price for it …. Now I think we’re going to see that damn SD 625 or SD 630 in the Redmi Note 5.
  I was expecting something good to update my Redmi Note 4 but I think I’ll just skip Xiaomi for now … Maybe somebody else can launch something with a Helio X30 or something but the X30 seems to be really MIA….
- Kim Lundquist
  September 11, 2017
  There are almost no other sd660 phones to compare it with, I’m well aware of the “oppo premium” you can’t go a hundred meters here in Thailand without seeing their advertising:)
  Just saying it’s a much better phone than the similarly specced r11 for a much lower price, expecting the price to drop even further after a couple of months.
  Guess Xiaomi thought it was enough with 2 sd835 phones, one small and one with larger screen, totally understandable imo.
  Wouldn’t have minded a larger battery but at least it has qc 3 so would probably be ok with it, should get pretty good battery life anyway.
  Xiaomi have painted themselves into a corner with regards to the cpu on the RN5, has to be the sd630 now, which will probably be fine, expecting other upgrades like better camera (dual maybe? ) usb c, full metal build etc to make up for the slight bump in performance.
- Riccardo Benzoni
  September 11, 2017
  I never expected RN5 to use SD660, that rumor sounded weird to me, It will be SD630 for sure.
  I agree, they will probably focus more on upgrading the rest rather than the CPU, which is perfectly fine for me, since we are talking about a phone with an average 150$ price, and CPU was never an issue on RN4.
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  Well for me SD630 not acceptable given that my current Helio X20 kicks its ass on the CPU side and I don’t care much about the GPU.
  Sure it’s more power efficient but I can’t go back in terms of CPU performance so I’m kinda pissed about it. One year later and a weaker CPU ? No thanks.
- Guest
  September 11, 2017
  doesn’t deserve a $400 price tag !
  should be closer to $300 !
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  Let me make another comparison though.
  For $400 you can get a Nubia Z17 … compare that phone to this one and it’s ridiculous. Add another $70 and you can get the OnePlus 5 so really no, this is an under $300 phone.

Ionut Johnny
September 11, 2017
Great phone, cheap price, stereo speakers, better photo quality, bigger battery than the Mi6 and I read facial recognition.
- Guest
  September 11, 2017
  nah … if it fell down in the category taxonomy (from flagship to higher midrange), price should be closer to $300 !
  i don’t like the $400 price !
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  You mean for $400 you’d rather get a Nubia Z17 instead of this one ? Shame on you :))
- Kim Lundquist
  September 11, 2017
  The price will probably drop towards the $300 mark pretty quickly, give it a couple of months and see.
  I don’t have a horse in this race so I don’t really care, the only thing I’m missing is water resistance really, the rest is ok with me (closer to $300)
  That Nubia z17 is pretty sweet though.
- Guest
  September 11, 2017
  Z17 is a pretty great phone and i’d buy one if i could afford one !
  too bad they don’t allow SD card slots in them, else wise they’d be the perfect phones !
- Guest
  September 11, 2017
  haha
- Marius Cirsta
  September 11, 2017
  Also for $400 you could get the Huawei Honor V9 with 6 GB of RAM which is quite the beast and has a 5.7 2K screen so yeah this needs to come done in price to under $300.
- Ionut Johnny
  September 11, 2017
  The cheapest Z17 I could find it was $459.
- Marius Cirsta
  September 12, 2017
  Look on kimovil and fastcardtech.
Angry Mobile Nerd
September 11, 2017
Wow people still use this site. 😛
Marius Cirsta
September 11, 2017
OK so let me make this short. Given the SOC ( mid range ) and the screen ( 5.5 fullHD ) this is really the Redmi Note 5 … cameras are also nothing to write home about and yes maybe build quality will be a bit better ( hopefully ).
The price however is about double so yeah , not a good deal.
For $400 I can get a Nubia Z17 which can’t even be compared to this one.
- Ionut Johnny
  September 11, 2017
Angry Mobile Nerd
September 11, 2017

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Xiaomi Mi Note 3 pricing

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