Several years ago, the Chinese brand Xiaomi introduced its new brainchild - the Xiaomi Mi2S smartphone. The device received a nimble proprietary platform and a fairly high-quality assembly. But the model was distinguished by one critical minus - official sales were carried out only in the Celestial Empire. With rare exceptions, it was possible to purchase Xiaomi Mi2S in Moscow in the offline store of the brand's distributor, but these were one-time promotions and only to get acquainted with the device. In all other cases, I had to turn to Ali, EBay and other similar Internet sites to resolve this issue.
So the success of the device was fueled not only by the attractive characteristics of Xiaomi Mi2S along with low cost, but also by its obvious shortage. In addition, the model performs in a rather rare class - a high-performance platform with HD resolution and a small screen. Therefore, there is something to deal with here.
So, the hero of today's review is Xiaomi Mi2S - a device from China. Consider the main characteristics of the gadget, its advantages and disadvantages, expert opinion and user reviews, as well as the feasibility of buying.
Package
The gadget is packed in an unremarkable, but very high-quality box made of thick and durable cardboard. On the front side, you can see only the brand logo, and on the reverse side, a sticker with brief characteristics of Xiaomi Mi2S in the form of a small specification.
Interior decoration is well-organized and accessories do not interfere with each other, each neatly arranged in its place.
Scope of delivery:
- Xiaomi Mi2S itself;
- characteristics, instructions and other information on booklets;
- 5V AC charger (1A);
- battery (BM30);
- plug adapter from "American" to "European";
- micro-USB cable for charging and PC synchronization;
- case (optional);
- screen film;
- napkin.
The equipment is standard, the phone can be used "out of the box". Users in their reviews of Xiaomi Mi2S especially warmly responded to the high-quality matte case made of rubber-like material. It is pleasant to the touch and completely envelops the gadget, preventing it from slipping.
The charger, along with the cable, looks very decent, and it’s hard to call them another Chinese consumer goods. In their reviews, users separately thank the manufacturer for the adapter from the American plug to the European one. True, some consumers complain that Xiaomi Mi2S does not charge from this adapter. But these are only isolated cases, and here the fault is most likely the adapter, and not the memory itself. Although not often, but the marriage of the brand still seeps.
The standard battery for Xiaomi Mi2S has a capacity of 2000 mAh, and the one in the kit has a capacity of 3000 mAh, so the appendage is very good. There is no headset, but these are already nit-picking, so this cannot be attributed to minuses.
Appearance
The body of the Xiaomi Mi2S phone is made of plastic, the form factor itself can be called classic: 126 x 62 x 10 mm. The front part is covered with protective glass, and it is of very high quality, therefore it is resistant to scratches and other minor physical impacts. In addition, along the entire perimeter of the front part, you can feel a small rim, which also adds protection to the gadget when it is “face down”.
The Xiaomi Redmi Mi2S comes in white or black. In the first case, the front panel remains pure black, and only the gamut of the back cover and ends changes. In the second, we have a one-color performance of all parts of the smartphone.
The display of Xiaomi Mi2S is glossy, while the back cover is made of high-quality matte soft-touch plastic. The phone does not tend to slip out of hands and does not collect fingerprints with dust like a vacuum cleaner, at least the rear part does this to a much lesser extent than the front.
Users speak rather warmly about the appearance of the device. Yes, such a prim design is a little fed up, but versatility is always normally perceived, and here we have a solid average: nothing bad, as well as especially good to say about the appearancecan't.
Assembly
Judging by the feedback from users, they have no complaints about the design characteristics of Xiaomi Mi2S. Despite the abundance of plastic, all parts are very tightly fitted to each other, and there are no backlashes or gaps on the case itself, and there are no creaks even during active use. With a sufficiently strong finger pressure on the Xiaomi Mi2S touchscreen, color streaks or crackling are also not observed.
All mechanical interface elements sit well in their places and do not crawl. Pressing the buttons is clear and responsive, but not too easy, so accidental operation somewhere in a jeans pocket or purse is almost impossible.
Interfaces
The display of Xiaomi Mi2S, and the entire front part looks very strict, and only one brand logo stands out on it. From above, the sensors, the peephole of the front camera and the speaker grille are barely distinguishable. Below you can see the LED event indicator and three touch buttons with a silver coating. The latter are devoid of backlighting, which users have complained about this more than once in their reviews.
The rear part also did not distinguish itself with at least some frills: a camera eye with a flash, a main speaker grille, a microphone and another Xiaomi logo. Separately, it is worth noting the presence of a protrusion at the main speaker, which practically eliminates sound blocking if the device is lying on a hard surface.
The upper edge is reserved for a classic 3.5 mm minijack for a headset and nothing more. On the right side of Xiaomi Mi Mi2Sthere is a volume rocker and a power button. On the bottom there is a hole for a microphone and a micro-USB interface for recharging the device and synchronizing with a personal computer.
Users in their reviews note one interesting feature of the USB port. When connecting the cable, it does not fully enter the connector, which causes some bewilderment. In fact, it should be so, and it’s not worth it to carry Xiaomi Mi2S for repair because of this. Here, apparently, either a flaw in the engineers, or some kind of original "trick", but this is definitely not a marriage.
Under the Xiaomi Mi2S batteries is a slot for the operator's SIM card. The standard is rather outdated - mini-SIM, but this is not critical. The bad thing is that the smartphone does not support external drives at all, so you have to limit yourself to what you have.
Screen
Smartphone Xiaomi Mi2S received a fairly high-quality IPS-matrix. For a diagonal of 4.3 inches, a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels is more than enough, especially since pixelation (342 ppi) is invisible here, even if you look closely. A good half of devices with this form factor have a lower resolution, so you don’t have to be particularly picky.
Xiaomi Mi2S touchscreen supports up to 10 simultaneous taps. The owners on this occasion leave mixed reviews. On the one hand, the abundance of modes pleases, but on the other hand, using them on a 4.3-inch gadget is not very convenient. So the variety of touches is implemented here mostly for show, because how to use morefour simultaneous taps is quite problematic.
The screen is resistant to light scratches, but it is better to refuse proximity to keys or hairpins in the pocket of jeans or trousers. Judging by the reviews, many users strongly recommend sticking a sensible protective film, since there are a lot of them in salons for this form factor. Xiaomi Mi2S repair and glass replacement in particular can cost a pretty penny due to a shortage of spare parts, so it's better to play it safe.
Screen features
The outer part of the screen is equipped with an oleophobic (grease-repellent) and anti-reflective coating. In the first case, fingerprints are not collected so actively, but can be easily removed if desired. And the anti-reflective coating allows you to work more or less tolerably with the phone on a sunny day.
Pleased with the supply of contrast and brightness. The maximum value fluctuates within 440 cd/m2, and the minimum is around 11 points. Such characteristics allow you to safely use your smartphone on a bright sunny day. However, under direct sunlight, the screen fades a little and you have to cover it with your palm, but the main information (caller's name, track list, etc.) is distinguishable even without it.
Also worth noting is the competent automatic brightness adjustment. It works surprisingly well and does not blind at night, just as it does not disappear during daylight hours. If someone is used to customizing gadgets for themselves, then at your service is a rich selection of versatile presets and brightness and contrast controls.
As for viewing angles, with this smartphonealso no problems. Even with a strong horizontal tilt, the picture does not lose saturation and does not become whitish. With vertical layout, things are a little worse, nevertheless, noticeably better than a good half of competing analogues. So you can safely watch photo or video content in the company of one or two like-minded people.
In general, judging by the reviews, users are satisfied with the visual component of the smartphone. It is even better than similarly priced gadgets from well-known brands. So the screen is one of the strongest points of a smartphone.
Sound
In comparison with the previous generation, the sound has not changed much. The main speaker produces a good volume and is quite legible in frequencies. At the maximum level, the tracks do not break into cacophony and do not whistle "into the pipe", provided that the sound is recorded with high quality and at a high bitrate.
It is also worth noting that the overall sound is less dependent on which side the smartphone is on: a well-executed design does not block access to the speaker. Naturally, the phone lacks low frequencies, so either headphones or speakers with a subwoofer save.
By the way, the smartphone is not picky about the headset, so it will work great with both Sony and Apple headphones. Judging by the feedback from users, the same can be said about the wireless headset: it is detected as it should and there are no problems with it.
Some owners complained about the microphone, where the person on the other end of the wire hears a little "muffled" sound of your voice, but herethere is nothing critical. There are no complaints about the conversational dynamics: everything is heard distinctly and clearly.
Cameras
The smartphone is equipped with a 13 megapixel camera from the venerable Sony - Sony Exmor BSI f / 2, 0. So you can immediately say that lovers of taking high-quality photos on the phone have room to turn around. The output is an excellent picture with a resolution of 4208 by 3120 pixels. There is also a backlight and auto focus.
The front camera of 2 MP also shows a decent result and is quite suitable for good "outcasts". In working with video messengers, she showed herself very well and the interlocutor will see you perfectly.
The camera control interface in Xiaomi's proprietary shell - MIUI is very convenient. The menus and tools are intuitive and simple. On the main screen, you can see all the necessary controls and shortcut icons.
The interface supports full panorama work, HDR mode, various color effects, shutter speed selection, white balance adjustment, geotagging recording, and exposure compensation. In the standard presets, the simplest shooting and rendering mode is selected, where there are a minimum of controls on the screen, which does not interfere with taking simple and snapshots. If you turn on advanced functionality, the display will show a noticeably expanded version of the interface with exposure metering, focus adjustment and other professional surroundings.
Judging by the feedback from users, the main camera fully copes with the settasks, and in any weather and at any time of the day, so that the output is high-quality photos.
Video
Both cameras record footage in MP4 format with AVC and AAC codec. The bitrate, of course, is not the most outstanding - only 96 Kbps, but we are still dealing with a smartphone, not a camcorder. As for the FPS, there is some kind of incomprehensible situation here.
The main camera writes a series in 1080p at 22 frames per second, although the manufacturer indicates 30 FPS. While the frontal matrix calmly masters 25 or even the indicated 30 frames. The company does not give any comments on this, but experts believe that it's all about the finicky matrix, which depends on the number of megapixels, without regard to the maximum resolution, that is, the more of them, the less frames per second. There are no problems with the layout in 480p.
The video interface is also rich in all kinds of functionality and all sorts of useful "chips". There is interval shooting, accelerated, real-time effects, stretching / narrowing the frame and much more interesting. So the gap in the photo and video settings can be for a very long time.
Platform
The MIUI proprietary shell is used as a stock firmware. It is good in almost everything, but it has one critical, especially for a domestic user, minus - the presence of exclusively English and Chinese localization.
The problem can be partly solved by installing a Russian-language keyboard or more thorough - flashing. The latter can be found on amateur forums, like the same w3bsit3-dns.com. For some reason, the device is being flashed reluctantly, therefore, in order to avoid problems, it is best to contact any service center for the repair of mobile equipment. There, albeit for an additional fee, they will resolve this issue as soon as possible.
As for the usability of the platform itself, that's all right. The main screen, as well as the main menu, are familiar from the latest versions of Android, so it will not be difficult to figure everything out. The firmware has its own anti-virus with anti-spam, an application startup manager, a utility for saving and protecting user data, a browser, a file manager, a player, radio and other programs.
Judging by the reviews, the owners are quite satisfied with the MIUI platform and the fear of switching from the Android platform disappears after a couple of hours of use. Especially when it comes to firmware localized into Russian.
Performance
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 series processor is responsible for performance. The well-proven Adreno 320 series video chip is responsible for the graphics. The tandem is helped by 2 GB of RAM.
Separately worth noting is the built-in option to change the operating modes of the processor. This is mainly reflected in the allocated clock frequency. The first, the most powerful, fully reveals the set of chipsets, but at the same time consumes power well and generates more heat. The simplest - the third one, makes the processor work at a frequency of 800 MHz and is considered the most economical. Medium is a universal option forthose who have enough regular and undemanding third-party software.
In all three modes, the platform together with the interface work like clockwork. Tables scroll smoothly, icons and apps are responsive, and audio and video playback is seamless.
Things are not bad with "heavy" programs. The set of chipsets allows you to run almost any modern gaming application and shows quite adequate FPS. In some serious cases, you have to reset the settings to medium, or even minimum values. But for the most part, the fault is not the chipset itself, but the so-called optimization.
The latter is carried out for the smooth operation of some especially attractive gaming applications only on powerful modern processors (and even only some brands). Such a move is needed by manufacturers to sell new smartphones with a new "stuffing". In fact, Xiaomi's capabilities are quite enough to run such "optimized" games, but, alas, special scripts and code prevent this.
Users have 32 GB of internal storage for storing files. Of which, approximately 28 GB is available, and the rest is reserved for the needs of the system. On sale you can find a cheaper modification - Xiaomi Mi2S 16Gb, but in this case, there will obviously be little memory, especially for those who are fond of watching, as well as storing high-definition videos.
Autonomy
As mentioned above, the device is equipped withordinary 2000 mAh battery. The extended version of the delivery set provides an additional and more capacious 3000 mAh battery. To install the latter, there is a special cover, which is also included.
Standard mains charger one-ampere device fully charges the battery in just over two hours. A battery with a larger capacity will need an extra hour. Users in their reviews note that there is practically no benefit from using more powerful chargers (2 A). The fact is that smartphone circuits are designed for a maximum of one ampere and buying an expensive charger is not justified. The charging process itself is quite accurately controlled by a multi-color indicator on the front panel of the device.
Like the previous generation of Xiaomi, this gadget also has built-in power management tools. In general, for a smartphone on a quad-core processor, such a “chip” is simply required. The practicality of the utility lies in the fact that it resets the chipset frequencies and slows it down, thereby saving precious energy. That is, here we have in fact the same tool as described in the "Performance" section.
If you properly load the phone with a regular 2000 mAh battery with toys, high-definition video and the Wi-Fi module turned on, then in normal mode the battery will run out in about an hour and a half. An economical option with a similar load will add about 40-50 minutes of time. A 3000 mAh battery adds exactly one hour to all these indicators.
In mixed mode withthe included Internet, listening to music and frequent calls, charging is quietly enough from morning to evening. With a more capacious battery, even until lunch the next day. If you use the gadget only as a phone and write SMS, or as a device for reading books, then the battery life can be stretched for two or even three days. The 3000 mAh battery will last all five days.
In general, and judging by user reviews, the battery life of the gadget can be called more than acceptable. In addition, the platform offers several power saving modes, so that everyone can customize the gadget personally to their needs and requests.
Summing up
A smartphone cannot be found in Yandex. Market, which is familiar to many, but only on third-party resources, such as Ali, EBay and other analogues that work closely with companies from the Middle Kingdom. Sellers come across motley, so it is quite difficult to determine the exact cost of the model. There are options for 10 thousand rubles, and for 15. The price also largely depends on the amount of internal memory and the completeness of the delivery set. So you need to choose very carefully and do not hesitate to call / correspond with the seller or the store.
In general, the smartphone was a success. If you look at what the same Samsung offers us with its J series, then this is heaven and earth. Xiaomi has all the necessary characteristics and qualities to become an excellent assistant and the same entertainment center. As such, the phone simply has no critical shortcomings, especially if we take into account the technical side.
The only spoonin the ointment, which makes you break your head and open your wallet again - this is a firmware that is needed, in fact, only to install Russian-language localization.
