After exactly almost 11 months since the release of the Mi Note 2, and we are glad it did not took another 21 months interval for Xiaomi to finally release the Mi Note 3. And to my surprise, the design of Mi Note 3 is copied from non other than the latest flagship Mi 6. There were rumors that there would be a Mi 6 Plus and hence, this is the answer to all those leasked image we seen surface on Weibo. We kinda missed the Mi Note 2 design, the curved glass on the side made it look so classy but it has no function unlike the Samsung counterpart. One common problem with the release of both Mi Note 2 and Mi Note 3 is that it was launched side by side with the widely popular concept phone the Mi MIX and the Mi MIX 2. It was overshadowed too much, wish that Xiaomi could have launched it on another day to give it more spotlight on its own since its a flagship level phone.




Introduction Video


What's In the Box








Its safe to say that Xiaomi has given the black box standard to both Mi Note 3 and Mi MIX 2 this time, it signifies that Xiaomi has acknowledged that these unit are deserved to be classified as the best of the best. Mi Note PRO was the latest note series to have the black box (actually it was the first one), Mi Note 2 did not get the chance to have the black box. Inside the box we have the unit, QC 3.0 Charger, USB C Cable, Sim Ejector Pin, Manual, Smoked Black Jelly Case. The box is compact and small, just like any Xiaomi phone boxes.

Unboxing Video




Xiaomi Mi Note 3 Specs:

·
· Adreno 512 GPU 650MHz
· 6GB of RAM LPDDR4 1866MHz
· 5.5-inch IPS LCD display ultra bright, energy saving display, (~73.8% screen-to-body ratio), 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density)
· 94.4% color gamut of the NTSC
· Polished Brushed Aluminum Metal Back Finish
· 64GB / 128GB of storage eMMC 5.1
· 12MP Dual Lens Sony IMX 386 Camera Sensor, 2X Zoom, 4 Axis OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
· 16 MP front camera, f/2.0, autofocus
· Finger print scanner, face detection
· Dual SIM (nano sim size)
· 3G, LTE, 4G+, VoLTE
· Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS, NFC, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
· 3500mAh battery
· Android Nougat, MIUI 8
· USB-C port
· Black, Blue

Design

The Mi Note 3 basically is the bigger Mi 6, simple. In short, it could have became Mi 6 Plus, but Xiaomi wants to ride the success of Mi 6 and incorporate it into their Note series to create some hype. I have placed the Mi Note 3 and the Mi 6 side by side and found out the aesthetics are all the same. The curved glass at the back made it feels so elegant and the screen on front is made of high grade protection glass.








The curved screen from the Mi Note 2 is no longer present in the Mi Note 3 and its something that I probably will miss from the older edition. Now its back to the a bit edgy sides in front, but its not really an issue. The screen also got a downgrade from AMOLDED display to IPS, which I believe was a bit of an injustice for the Note series caliber phones.




Above the frame we have the the IR Blaster and the noise cancellation Mic. We have to say goodbye to the 3.5mm audio jack as it seemed to be the standard in Xiaomi flagships to take it off (such a shame that all my pistons collection will go to waste).



On the right side we have the volume rocker and the power button.



On the left side we have the sim tray which supports 2 Nano sim cards and sadly it’s not the same as Redmi Note 5A which supports 2 sims and 1 SD Card. But all Xiaomi flagship never had a micro sd card expansion slot anyway. If you need additional storage, we will suggest that you buy the 128GB version in case you need more storage or buy an USB-C OTG Plug to use your thumbdrive / flashdrive anytime for added storage on the go.



Under the phone we can see the USB-C charging port as well as the loudspeakers, which pretty much copied the design of Mi 6.



Display

The Mi Note 3 comes with an IPS LCD, 5.5-inch display coupled with a 2.5D curved glass and probably a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 equivalent protection for maximum resistance against scratches. We loved the display on the Mi Note 3, tho the Mi MIX 2 displayed it better on my opinion which is very sharp and clear. We watched several movies on this unit and we pretty much loved it, was able to finished the whole Spiderman Homecoming movie on this phone in just one seating.




Snapdragon 660

One of my dissapointment in this unit is the Snapdragon 660, Xiaomi is advertising this as their flagship in the Note categorty, but they failed in the SoC section. Many will argue that the Mi Note 3 could have inherited the specs inside the Mi 6, probably to keep cost low, they still managed to pull the Snapdragon 660 into this unit. I was able to play Marvel Contest of Champions and NBA 2K17 on this unit and didnt seem to notice lags during games play. Good graphics and good support from the Mi HQ in beijing, we will try our best to send her to school. There is a chance that Xiaomi in order to cut cost, cannot deploy the Snapdragon 835 on this baby since its almost priced the same as the Mi 6 with a bigger screen.



Connectivity
The Xiaomi Mi Note 3 supports 20 different LTE bands for Full Netcom 4.0 Edition and I havent seen in their official website should they release a Global Ready edition like the Mi Note 2. Its pretty 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. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of 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, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present as Xiaomi gears toward Mi Pay and Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Mi Mover was a breeze in transferring files from a older Xiaomi Phone to the newer one.




Full Netcom Edition
FDD-LTE (bands Bl, B3, B5, B7, B8)
TDD-LTE (band B34, B38, B39, B40, B41)
TD- SCDMA (band B34, B39)
WCDMA (band B1, B2, B5, B8)
GSM (band B2, B3, B5, B8)
CDMA1X / EVDO (band BC0)

Audio and Video

The Mi Note 3 sports a pretty good speaker below the phone, loud and clear. We have compared the output audio of Mi Note 3 to the Mi 6 and we proved that the loudspeaker of the Mi Note 3 plays the music equally the same as that of the Mi 6, there is a chance that they are of the same components. Mi Note 3 supports a wide range of video format like MKV, MP4, M4V, AVI, XVID and more. I can even support 4k H265 videos in the process. While watching Spiderman Homecoming, we can conclude that Mi Note 3 has a good display but it could have been better, but well sometimes its hard to distinguish with the naked eye. We were able to see the phone clearly under bright sunlight as well for this unit.

Supported Audio Formats:

• MP4
  
• M4V
  
• MKV
  
• XVID
  
• WAV
  
• AAC
  
• MP3
  
• AMR
  
• FLAC
  
  

Support H.265 / HEVC (Main profile), H.264 (Baseline / Main / High profile), MPEG4 (Simple profile / ASP), \ VC-1 (Simple / Main / Advanced profile) video formats,

support for PCM, AAC / AAC + / eAAC +, MP3, AMR-NB / WB, FLAC, APE, DSD, WAV and other audio formats

Camera

The main focus of Xiaomi in Mi Note 3 is primarily in its 12MP Sony IMX 386 Dual Rear Camera. We believe that this feature is one of the main highlight of the phone as Xiaomi finally releases a note series that has a flagship camera attached to it. Mi Note 2 sported a Omnivision Camera Lens back then. The ISO is 3200 for manual mode and there is 32s exposure time for this unit as well. More beautification mode can be seen inside the settings of the front camera.




Rear Camera Specs

12MP wide-angle lens, equivalent focal length 27mm, 4-axis optical image stabilization, f / 1.8
12MP telephoto lens, equivalent focal length 52mm, portrait lens, f / 2.6.

• portrait mode, background blur
  
• 2x optical zoom
  
• four-axis optical image stabilization, excellent dark light performance
  
• support PDAF phase focus
  
• dark light enhancement technology
  
• high dynamic range adjustment technology
  
• panorama mode
  
• continuous shooting mode
  
• facial recognition function
  

And the specs of the front camera as well

16-megapixel auto-focus front camera

• Beauty 4.0226 bones RBI, 3D face-lift
  artificial intelligence beauty, supple whitening
  hundreds of scene optimization
  
  Self-timer function
  countdown self-timer
  mirror function
  photo selection
  
  
  

Face Recognition Technology In Action:



Actual Photos:

Low Light































Good Lighting























Portrait Shots:



Selfie Camera:



Battery and Benchmark

While packing in 3500mAh inside a thin unibody is not in anyway easy to do, the Mi Note 3 has a pretty good battery life for a Note level smartphone. The Mi Note 3 supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 3.0 and it takes in 3.3 Amperes based on our testing, this was attained using the default charger provided by Xiaomi. We were able to charge from 12% to 25% in less than 5 minutes out the box as that’s the only factory charge they gave us together with the unit. We were able to complete charging the phone in 1 hour and 30 minutes. We recorded a 10 hour 23 minutes endurance test Mi Note 3 64B version and 11 hours 57 minutes for the 128GB Variant under the PC Mark battery stress test.




The benchmark of the Mi Note 2 6GB RAM 64GB ROM in AnTuTu benchmark is 112,626 Points while the 128GB achieved more at 114,811 Points. This was a drop from 131,000 Points during our review of Mi Note 2. But like I said, its just a benchmark points, nothing to worry about.





More Benchmarks:

64GB






128GB




CIT Mode

Mi Note 3 and Mi 6 Side by Side Comparison

























Mi Note 2 64GB and 128GB Side by Side



















Mi Note 3, Mi 6 Flagship Caliber with lesser Firepower

Mi Note 3 basically for me is just a supersized Mi 6 with a lesser firepower since it deployed SD 660 instead of 835. Now should they release it with SD 835, its another pricing for the said smartphone and probably people would not budge to buy it since it will be pretty expensive already to have it, might switch to Mi MIX 2 then. Overall experience Im pretty satisfied with the unit, there is no lags and delays or whatsoever after 1 whole week as my daily driver. Now, if you are in the market hunting for a good camera from the 5.5 display screen, this one is pretty much your bet. But if you are okay with a smaller screen, you can always opt to get the Mi 6, especially when you crave for more processing powers. Experience level for Mi Note 3 is 8.5/10.

The 64GB variant retails for 2499 RMB and the 128GB variant retails at 2899 RMB.

Mi Note 3