The 5-inch Mi 4i is compact, feels solid in your hand, and its rear camera delivers great shots, but what stands out is its Sunlight Display: under harsh lighting, the Mi 4i brightens image details and improves contrast, automatically, so you can clearly see the pictures you’ve taken and even read your text messages so you can text back.

No more heavy squinting or cupping a hand to shade your phone’s screen to see what’s there. (Scroll down to watch the demo video below.)

Mi 4i

This impressive pixel contrast adjustment happens on the hardware level. Prior to this, only Super AMOLED displays boasted of having the best outdoor contrast. And yet the P9,799.00 Mi 4i “only” has an IPS display. Bravo, Xiaomi. Let me show you how Spartan the Mi 4i is.

The Mi 4i is a bit thinner and lighter than the Mi 4 but shares the same Spartan profile and camera prowess as Xiaomi’s other phones, including their budget ones.

To simulate harsh lighting, a flashlight is shone on the Mi 4i’s ambient light sensor found near the front camera. Notice how the image of the display is adjusted to reveal details in the parts darkened by harsh light. According to Xiaomi Philippines, this does not significantly eat up resources.

MI 4i Specs

5″ screen, 1920×1080, 441 PPI, Sunlight Display
Fully laminated Corning® Concore™ glass
2nd Gen Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit processor
16GB storage, no microSD card slot, 2GB RAM
3120mAh non-removable battery, 1.5 days of normal usage
Can charge 40% in 1 hour, full in 3 hours
13MP F2.0 rear camera, with two-tone flash, real time HDR, manual mode
5MP F1.8 front camera, 80-degree wide angle lens, beautify feature
4G dual micro SIM, dual standby
MIUI 6 on Android 5.0
P9,799.00

 

Mi 4i

Here’s the superb Mi 4i camera in action. Dim yellowish lighting of the scene is “corrected” and brightened up in real time prior to taking the shot. 

The Mi 4i seems to bridge the gap between the higher end Mi 4 and the budget-friendly Redmi 2.

The Mi 4i will be available on Lazada.com.ph on July 29, 2015 and at any of 200-plus authorized retail stores nationwide on August 1, 2015. SMART will be Xiaomi Philippines’ exclusive telco partner; pre-registration starts on July 24, 2015.

Mi 4i

The first 50 subscribers to avail through the Smart Online Store will get a FREE 10400 mAh Mi Power Bank. You can pre-register here: link.

 

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[ The previous title of this post contained a wrong price – P7,999. It has been corrected. I apologize for this oversight. Thank you to everyone for pointing this out. ]

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