The very first edition of the Mi Product Review Series, I like to thank all the admins espcially @candicesu for making this possible, to @FKSGS2 for pushing me to my limits, to all my friends in the Device Team for all your never ending support, its hard to mention everyone here and you know who you are.
At exactly more than a year in the making, the Mi Max 2 has arrived, making its debut on June 1 2017. The Mi Max was launched last May 16 2016 and it took off pretty well for Xiaomi Company. At first glance the unit is still as big as its predecessor, and it sure is. But on the other hand you can see the big changes in the thickness of the phone plus the edges change as well. Xiaomi sure is paving way for its latest phablet, making it as nice as possible for user in the all new redesigned Mi Max 2.
Introductory Video:
Whats in the Box:
Unboxing Video:
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 Specs Sheet
· Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 Octa-core processor 2.0 Ghz / Adreno 506 650Mhz
· 4GB of RAM
· 6.44-inch full IPS display, 400 nit brightness, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 342 PPI, 72% NTSC Color Gamut
· Gold
· 64GB/128GB of storage
· 12-megapixel rear camera, Phase Detection AF, 2.2 Aperture, Dark Light Quality Enhancement, Sony IMX386
· 5-megapixel front camera, 2.0 Aperture
· Dual SIM (Sim 2 Micro sim size, Sim 1 nano sim or micro sd card ** expandable up to 128GB)
· 3G, LTE, LTE-A, VoLTE
· Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint Scanner, MU-MIMO
· 5300mAh battery
· Android Nougat, MIUI 8
· USB C port
Design:
The Mi Max 2 has the same screen size at 6.44 inch with its predecessor the Mi Max, now on its second generation the Mi Max 2 definitely is better and more powerful this time around without the bulk. Yes, you heard it right, without the bulk, the thickness of the Mi Max is the major turnoff for me, as well as its edgy corners. One thing that did not interest me is that the Mi Max 2 will only come in Gold color only, this is not attractive to male users like me since I prefer dark colored phones than fancy gold colored smartphones.
Above the frame we have the Infrared port together with the 3.5mm audio jack and the noise cancellation mic, which did not change from Mi Max. Well at least it did not followed Mi 6 in removing the 3.5mm audio jack, otherwise all my pistons headset collection will be put to waste.
On the right side we have the volume rocker and the power button, pretty common for Xiaomi phones to have this setup on the right side of the phone.
On the left side we have the sim tray which supports 2 sim cards wherein Sim 1 is Micro Sim and Sim 2 could either be a sd card which supports up to 128 GB or a nano sim card. There are those enthusiast who were able to fuse the Nano sim to the body of the Micro SD card and made sim 2 and expansion storage work at the same time, but there is a risk of stuck up upon ejecting the sim tray. There is also an option to buy a Sim Card + SD Card Extension Cable.
USB C is becoming the standard in charging for Xiaomi phones and Mi Max 2 had this upgrade over the Mi Max which still uses the old micro USB Slot to charge the phone. The loudspeaker holes can be found beside the USB C port, and one good upgrade is that this unit already has the surround loudspeaker, similar to that of the Mi 6.
In the front we have the 3 capacitive buttons which lights up when pressed, there also we can find the 5MP Selfie Cam and we have the fingerprint sensor at the back of the phone together with the 12-MP Camera. The LED is now changed to White and it is not interchangeable to other colors anymore sad to say. Now for tempered glass protection, Mi Max and Mi Max 2 can share the same screen guard tempered glass, and the protective case, is almost the same, except that it will cover a fraction of the dual tone led flash.
Display:
The Mi Max 2 comes with a full IPS, 6.44-inch display coupled with a 2.5D curved glass and brushed aluminum unibody. One of the top reason why Mi Max did not have a QHD (2K) display similar to the Mi Note Pro is because it drains the battery too fast as witnessed by those who have the later unit described. Plus having a 2K display on a mobile is a bit practically useless as everyone gears towards better battery performance for the phone and not much importance on the rendered display. Imagine Mi Max 2 with 2k display, your battery will be gone pretty soon because it eats up battery furiously.
We tried using the Mi Max 2 under the heat of the roaring sun; we are glad we were able to read the messages sent to us via Facebook Messenger. We can also view photos on the screen while standing under the sun; however, the image seems to be a little faded due to extreme sunlight at noon time. We did try to take some photos under the heat of the sun, we did not have a hard time staring at the screen, instead our eyes had a hard time as sweat drips down our eyes with the temperature soaring at 36 Celcius ths time of the year.
Snapdragon 625
After the highly successful launch of Mi 6, Xiaomi immediately kicked in the Mi Max 2 a month later, which exactly 1 year after the launch of Mi Max. The Snapdragon 625 is present inside the Redmi Note 4X, which is also a performer in the midrange class. Multitasking was a breeze in this unit and we didnt have problem while playing our favorite game, NBA2k17.
Storage:
Mi Max has a 53.5 GB free out of 64 GB ready storage out of the box. It also comes in 128GB Storage as well, it can pretty much be expanded with a micro SD card up to 128GB.
Connectivity
The Xiaomi Mi Max 2 supports 15 different LTE bands as well as VoLTE, its easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings but once your do the second sim will be running on GSM connectivity only. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. LTE-A or 4G+ is also present in this phone, should your network support it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 4.2,GPS, MU-MIMO and GLONASS are all present.
Here are the supported bandwidth by the Mi Max 2:
2G:GSM 2/3/5/8
2G:CDMA BC0
3G:CDMA EVDO BC0
3G:WCDMA 1/2/5/8
3G:TD-SCDMA 34/39
4G:TDD-LTE 38/39/40/41
4G:FDD-LTE 1/3/5/7/8
Audio and Video
The Mi Max 2 sports a pretty good speaker, loud and crisp, especially now its equipped with a surround sound similar to Mi 6, it makes viewing movie a pleasure using the loud speaker. We did tried to pit the Mi Max and Mi Max 2 watching the same movie at maximum volume, and well the runaway winner was no doubt Mi Max 2.
Support H.265 / HEVC (Main profile), H.264 (Baseline / Main / High profile), MPEG4 (Simple profile / ASP),
VC-1 (Simple / Main / Advanced profile) and other video formats, support PCM, AAC / AAC + / eAAC +, MP3, AMR-NB / WB,
FLAC, WAV and other audio formats
Camera
The 12MP camera present in the Mi Max 2 is equipped with the Sony IMX 386 Camera Sensor. This is similar to the sensor also being used inside the Mi 6. All I can say the camera sure did left the Mi Max in the dust in terms of clarity and crisp of the photo taken. For me it performed well under bright light as well as taking good shots under dim light condition. The front facing camera is also very clear in taking selfies and group selfies as well, I found no problem with it.
Unedited Photos:
Outdoor
Indoor
Selfie
Battery, and Benchmark
While packing in 5300mAh inside a thin unibody is really no easy task at all, the Mi Max 2 has scored a pretty good battery life, it lasted for 16 hours and 20 minutes with our stress test using PC Mark Test. The Mi Max 2 supports Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0 and it takes in 3.04 Amperes based on our testing using the supplied Quick Charge 3.0 charger out of the box.
Our rating with AnTuTu gave us a score of 63403 Points, but this score is way lower than that of the Mi Max at around 74k points. Its just benchmark points, whats important is still the user experience.
Bootloader
Yes Yes we know your gonna ask that, the Mi Max 2 is bootloader locked. Therefore you need to request unlock code from en.miui.com/unlock/ and you will receive the unlock code in a few days or so.
More Photos of Mi Max 2
Mi Max VS Mi Max 2: Side by Side Comparison
Mi Max 2, Slimmer, Sexier version of the Mi Max
When we first held the Mi Max in our hands, we feel its quite edgy and heavy. But when we first held Mi Max 2 on our hands, I told myself, Wow! This is a huge improvement over its predecessor. Im not really a fan of Hulk size phones to begin with, except that Im personally using the Mi MIX due to its screen size without the buldge.
After playing with the Mi Max 2 for several days, Im pretty much amazed with the sexiness of the phone, its easy to use plus its not thick on the hands coz I always use one hand to type. Should you have a bag or messenger bag, the phone will fit easily inside the storage, but should you plan to put it on the back pocket, let me warn you that its pretty much big and your back pocket can probably hide 60% of the phone, leaving the 40% exposed. I do highly recommend this phone and I can say the Mi Max 2 is an awesome phone to watch movies especially taking photos.
Mi Max 2 4GB 64GB - RMB 1699
Mi Max 2 4GB 128GB - RMB 1999
Mi Max 2
