Hands-On Gallery: Up Close With Xiaomi Mi Note And Mi Note Pro

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Hands-On Gallery: Up Close With Xiaomi Mi Note And Mi Note Pro

As expected, Xiaomi has announced a bunch of new devices today. Not all of those devices were smartphones though, but they did steal the spotlight at company’s event though, very much so. Xiaomi has announced their Mi Note and Mi Note Pro handsets, along with the Mi Box Mini and Mi Headphones. We’ve covered all of these devices separately already, at length, but first hands-on images surfaced in China, courtesy of Sina Technology, so we’re here to cover that as well.

If you take a look at the gallery below this article, you’ll notice a lot of Mi Note and Mi Note Pro hands-on images. These two devices look basically the same, so there’s basically only one device to look at as far as the design goes. These handsets both sport a metallic trim around the device, which is easy to spot in these images, that trim actually gives the device a nice look and I bet a rather premium feel. Below the screen, you’ll notice a set of capacitive buttons, which I personally don’t like that much and do think Xiaomi should have implemented the on-screen buttons, but that’s just me, I bet some of you actually like these capacitive buttons considering you get a bigger screen to work with this way.

On the front side of the device you’ll notice the 5.7-inch display, the Mi Note has a 1080p resolution, while the Mi Note Pro offers a 2K resolution screen, they’re the same size though. There’s a Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top of the panel itself, and we’re talking about a 2.5D curved glass screen here. Above the screen you’ll find a 4-megapixel shooter and a set of sensors, of course. That’s pretty much it as far as the front goes. If you flip the device over, and look at its back side, you’ll find a 13-megapixel OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) camera (Sony IMX214 BSI sensor) and a dual-LED flash next to it.

The Mi Note and Mi Note Pro are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 and 810 processor, respectively. The Mi Note offers 3GB of RAM, while the Mi Note Pro comes with 4GB of RAM for your multitasking needs. Both of these devices weight 161 grams and are 6.95mm thick. They will come with Android 4.4 KitKat pre-installed with Xiaomi’s MIUI OS on top of it, which is optimized for this 5.7-inch display and offers the one-handed usability feature. Both of these devices will be available for pre-order on January 20, and will be available for purchase on January 27. The Mi Note comes in 16 and 64GB variants, while the Mi Note Pro will be available in a 64GB variant only. The Mi Note will cost 2,299 Yuan ($371) and 2,799 Yuan ($451) respectively, while the Mi Note Pro will set you back 3,299 Yuan ($532).