Xiaomi Mi A3

The Mi A3 is the third Android One powered smartphone to release as part of Xiaomi’s A-series lineup. This phone also gets a significant upgrade in its specs, with the most prominent of these being the move to an AMOLED screen that even supports an in-screen fingerprint scanner. Both the front and rear of the handset are covered with Gorilla Glass 5. The display measures 6-inches and sports a U-shaped notch up top. It also boasts a contrast ratio of 60000:1 and is rated for a 102.7 percent coverage of the NTSC color space. The only drawback here is that Xiaomi cut down the resolution to 1560 x 720 pixels presumably to keep the handset’s overall price down.

Imaging is another aspect that sees a significant improvement over last Year’s Mi A2 (review). There are three cameras on the back, with a 48MP Sony IMX568 camera with an f/1.79 aperture leading the charge. This is a ½-inch sensor that uses 4-in-1 pixel binning to capture more details in both bright and dark scenes. Next up is an 8MP ultrawide angle sensor that offers a 108-degree field of view. Xiaomi has included a distortion correction feature as well to eliminate the fish-eye effect that tends to show up around the edges of the picture. Lastly, we have a 2MP depth sensor that helps capture necessary data for natural bokeh effects. This rear camera offers AI scene detection that automatically adjusts exposure and saturation settings depending on 27 different scenes. For video capture, this setup makes use of EIS to record up to 4K resolution videos with up to 30 FPS. Meanwhile, 1080p videos can be captured at either 30 or 60 fps. Finally, we have a 32MP f/2.0 aperture sensor at the front that offers features such as AI face unlock and panorama selfie. This sensor is also capable of 4-in-1 pixel binning technique that allows more detail to be captured. Further, this camera can detect up to 12 different scenes and automatically adjust settings appropriately. Video recording here is limited to 1080p at 30 fps.

The Snapdragon 655 is a relatively new chipset that has been manufactured on the 11nm process. It offers eight Kryo 260 CPU cores that clock as high as 2.0GHz. An Adreno 610 GPU handles graphical tasks. To ensure smooth sailing, the phone comes equipped with 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB/128GB of fast UFS 2.1 storage. A hybrid card slot allows for an additional 256GB of storage to be added on top. Being an Android One smartphone, the MI A3 offers a pretty bare-bones Android 9 Pie experience. This allows the phone to receive OS updates and security patches faster than other Xiaomi phones that run MIUI. The phone also comes with Google’s Digital Wellbeing dashboard that can help users more efficiently manage the time they spend on the smartphone.

Keeping the lights on is a rather large 4030mAh battery. This cell charges over a USB Type-C port and supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. All of this coupled with the energy-efficient CPU and built-in battery saving techniques should allow the handset to last close two days on a single charge. As mentioned earlier, the phone comes with a hybrid dual SIM card tray that allows two 4G networks to work simultaneously. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and dual-band Wi-Fi. For audio, you get a bottom-firing loudspeaker. With the Mi A3, Xiaomi has brought back the 3.5mm headphone jack which was missing on the Mi A2. And as is typical with Xiaomi smartphones, the Mi A3 also comes with an IR emitter that lets you use the phone as a remote control.