Phone Review: Xiaomi MI A1

Jul 15, 2018 reviews phone xiaomi
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Back in August of last year, my contract was up, and my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S5) was pretty long in the tooth.

My daily device is now a Xiaomi MI A1. It runs AndroidOne which basically means stock (Android 8.0 as of this writing). Ars did a review of it not too far back.

Pros:

  • Was inexpensive, shipped free/quick on Amazon.ca (Prime)
  • No bloat, normal Android OS (quickly upgraded to 8.0)
  • Good amount of space (64GB)

Cons:

  • Doesn't have the LTE band of Bell in Canada. Not a huge loss, as I get both 4G and 3G depending on city/rural travel. And my heavy data usage normally occurs on WiFi
  • Processor (Snap 625) can be a hair slow, in heavy games. Normal app performance is excellent.

Overall a fantastic value for the money (~$320 CAD), and I didn't have to sign a new contract or anything.