At MWC 16, Xiaomi amazed us with the early presentation of Xiaomi Mi5. But it didn’t come alone, as been accompanied by the last member of the Mi4 range known as Xiaomi Mi 4S. It seems that Xiaomi Mi5 is at the lead with the advanced features it offers. But still we can not deny the presence of Xiaomi Mi 4S, which is an interesting terminal for the 5-inch segment. It is the phone with the latest upgrades in the Xiaomi Mi4 series – premium built and more performance. Let’s see what Xiaomi has to offer in his latest terminal.

Unboxing of Xiaomi Mi 4S

Xiaomi Mi 4S – Metal Touch, MIUI 7 and More…

We can not doubt the fact that Xiaomi Mi 4S is the most comprehensive mid-range phone to date which doesn’t lack anything nor rebukes any defect. We are going to isolate the aspects of this terminal in the following categories:

Design & Appearance:

Talking about the design, we previously said that this phone strike a premium look and we mean it. Unlike the previous Xiaomi smartphones which were composed of plastic reflected a sleazy appearance, but in Xiaomi Mi 4S we see a perfect metal body that gives the phone a premium and elegant touch. Looking at this, the company seems to focus on providing premium phones in the future, such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. In simple words, Mi 4S shines gloriously with metal chassis and glass.

There are drastic improvements in the design of the smartphone, not only in terms of the material but the design is cleaner, minimalist, with a camera on the top left and, as with Mi5, does not protrude from the chassis. It measures 139.26 x 70.76 x 7.80 mm and weighs 133 grams. The thing to be appreciated is the addition of the fingerprint reader on the back but at the center, but to be honest with you, we wanted it to be on the start button just like Meizu Pro 5. Unlike Mi5, the rear is not curved (2.5D) but flat.

On the front, it’s like the previous the terminals. Camera and speaker on the top while buttons on the bottom. A frameless body could be better, further enhancing its grace of Xiaomi Mi 4S. The power buttons and volume are on the right side while the left we have the SIM slot and Micro-SD cards.

Performance:

The previous terminals were equipped with Snapdragon 801 (Octa-Core) but this one is equipped with a Hexa-Core processor Snapdragon 808 (2 * Cortex-A57 + 4 * Cortex-A53 ARM) and accompanied with 3GB of RAM. Even though the no. of cores are more in the previous terminal, but the performance of Hexa-Core processor is far ahead from that of Octa-Core. The GPU is Adreno 418, perfect for gaming. We wished that Xiaomi had included the new Snapdragon 850 processor in it, but we can not demand everything to be best for a competitive price. On Antutu, the device gives a benchmark of nearly 64,000 points which are good for a mid-tier phone.

Display:

The screen of Xiaomi is of 5-inch. On this 5-inch screen, a stupendous Full-HD display (1920 x 1080p) is observed which is same as the previous Mi 4 models but with more contrast, high brightness, and more vivid colors. The pixel density is also the same, 441 ppi ( the maximum achievement for a phone in this resolution). Well, we can not aspect it to be a Quad-HD resolution. For a too low price tag, Full-HD is excellent on the large 5-inch display.

Storage:

In this section, we will talk about the total space of the terminal, it’s writing and reading speed and whether it supports a Micro-SD card or not. Firstly, like previously mentioned the terminal supports a Micro-SD card (up to 128 GB). Secondly, the internal space of Xiaomi Mi 4S classifies it in two versions: 16GB and 64GB. We did a writing and reading benchmark and the results are shown in the picture below:

Camera:

Here we will discuss the two cameras of the terminal – the rear and the front one. Heading to the rear camera first, it’s a 13 Megapixels, Sony Exmor camera with f/2.0, phase detection autofocus and dual-LED (dual tone) flash. It’s the same as the previous descendants, the only difference is that in 4S phase detection has been introduced. The other features which the camera allows is:

Geo-tagging

touch focus

face/smile detection

panorama mode

HDR

Image effects

Here are some samples:

For video recording, it shoots a Full-HD video at 30 fps while 720p at 120 fps. It also supports 4K video recording in HDR mode but at 15 fps, too slow. Meanwhile, the front camera is 5 MP with autofocus, less than the previous terminals (8 MP), which is not that much captivating.

Connectivity:

Like all the other phones in the world, it supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual band, GPS including A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS and WiFi Direct. But the best thing is that it supports the latest version of Bluetooth (v4.1, A2DP) and has it’s own IR port. Moving to the wired connectivity, it has USB Type C with a reversible connection. It also supports Dual SIM (Micro-SIM/Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) with 4G-LTE.

Battery & OS:

In this category, there is a little bit change in the battery of the old one and the new terminal. Xiaomi Mi 4S has a Non-removable Li-Ion 3260 mAh battery. So, we have extra amperes (100 mA) in the 4S. That’s not all, the phone also supports fast charging, enabling you to charge about 40% in 60 minutes (Quick Charge 2.0).

Apart from this, instead of having an old Lollipop version like in the previous models, Xiaomi Mi 4S can be upgraded on the latest Android platform known as Marshmallow (v6.0), under the hood of Xiaomi own UI (MIUI 7.2).

Specification Sheet of Xiaomi Mi 4S:

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Xiaomi Mi 4S vs Xiaomi Mi4:

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Pros & Cons

Pros:

Affordable Price Quick Charge v2.0 Better Performance (than previous models) Bluetooth 4.1 and IR port Metal with double glass design Full-HD 5-inch Display

Cons:

Mediocre Camera (13 MP are less) Limited battery capacity (as compared to the other terminals)

Summary:

If you’re looking for the best 5-inch phone while considering budget, then XiaomiToday recommend you to buy Xiaomi Mi 4S – a perfect all rounder.

Price and Availability:

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Xiaomi Mi 4S is available in four colors (shown below): White, Gold, Pink and Black. You can pre-order it from Gearbest (link is given below) for a price of 287 USD, and will be shipped on 31 March without any cost.