Mi A1 Hands On + Mi Home SG First Anniversary
Today marks the 1st anniversary of Mi Home @ Suntec City, which was the first Mi Home in Singapore and South-East Asia. Exactly 365 days ago, I was here to witness the grand opening and today, I am back! Happy birthday Mi Home @ Suntec City!
Just like last year's grand opening, Mi Singapore is celebrating this milestone with the launch of a new product, the Mi A1 (S$349). This is Xiaomi’s first Android One device, running pure Android. There are only four Xiaomi apps preinstalled, including the camera and remote app.
On the front sits a 5.5” display, decently bright but the colours do not look very appealing. The device is really light and thin compared to the Redmi Note 4, due to a smaller 3080mAh battery. This makes it really comfortable to grip. Oh, the headphone jack is still here.
The Mi A1 looks a little inspired by costlier metal phones from the back, but the build quality is only comparable to its Redmi siblings. For a S$349 phone, this is probably as good as it can get, but it is nowhere near as "premium" as the OPPO R11 or iPhone 7.
See the dual rear camera? It allows for 2x optical zoom.The images below are taken with the Mi A1’s rear cameras, with (L) and without 2x optical zoom (R). Zooming in on both pictures, we can see that the words are much sharper on the image taken with 2x optical zoom.
Should you get the Mi A1 or the Redmi Note 4? Since the Mi A1 comes in the 4/64GB storage configuration, it would only be fair to compare it to the 4/64GB Redmi Note 4 (S$309). From the short time I had with the Mi A1, here are my thoughts:
Playing with the display set, I am not very impressed. Android One is nice, but I would not pay more to get it. The device is lighter and thinner than the Redmi Note 4, but loses out on the Redmi Note 4's key feature, the huge battery.
That leaves us with the dual rear camera. Without testing it thoroughly, we cannot tell if it is any better than the Redmi Note 4's average performing rear camera. But at only S$40 higher, how much better can the Mi A1's camera get?
Enough with the Mi A1. What else is there to do at the Mi Home @ Suntec City's 1st Anniversary celebration? Free cotton candy and popcorn for everyone! On top of that, Mi Singapore is having a promotion on certain items, including the Mi Smart Scale at only S$18.
There are great deals for phones and Bluetooth speaker as well. Promotions are also available on Lazada Mi Store and at Mi Home @ Causeway Point until tomorrow. But if you get them at Mi Home @ Suntec City, you get to operate the Gacha machine and get free stuff
