Xiaomi Mi 4i Is Slim, Colorful and Just $200

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Xiaomi's new Mi 4i smartphone offers impressive specs and a slim, colorful design for just $205.

Xiaomi's new Mi 4i smartphone is officially a real phone, and it's looking pretty snazzy. Launching this month for roughly $205 unlocked, the super-affordable Mi 4i packs a 64-bit processor and a 13-MP camera into its slim and colorful body.

While the Mi 4i serves as a more wallet-friendly little sibling to the company's Mi 4 flagship, its design and specs are still compelling on their own. Xiaomi seems to have taken some inspiration from the iPhone 5c's vibrant color options. The 7.8-millimeter-thin Mi 4i comes in pink, baby blue and yellow, in addition to white and black. The handset is covered in a matte, anti-grease coating for better grip and fewer fingerprints.

MORE: Best Smartphones on the Market Now

On the inside, the Mi 4i is powered by a 64-bit, octa-core Snapdragon 615 CPU with 2GB of RAM, and touts an Adreno 405 GPU for intensive mobile gaming. The phone's 5-inch, 1080p display promises a 95-percent color gamut. Its 3,120-mAh battery is built to provide 11 hours of HD playback, and a whopping 59 hours of music playback. 

The Mi 4i utilizes a 13-MP Sony/Samsung camera for photos, complete with two-tone flash for natural colors in low light. There's also a 5-MP selfie cam that offers a tool called Beautify, which offers 36 profiles for sprucing up your photos. The new handset runs Xiaomi's MIUI software, which adds a slick, iOS-inspired layer of gloss over the phone's Android 5 Lollipop backbone.

The Mi 4i is shaping up to be one of Xiaomi's most attractive and affordable handsets yet, and could resonate with smartphone shoppers who want powerful Android device dressed-up as an iPhone. The handset launches April 30 in India, though there's no word yet on global availability.

Mike Andronico is an associate editor at Tom's Guide. Follow Mike @MikeAndronico and on Google+. Follow us @TomsGuide, on Facebook and on Google+

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Michael Andronico
Michael Andronico

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.

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12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pimpin Lincoln
    And slowly Smaller companies like this will triump over companies like Samsung, and Apple because they focus on packing great components into a phone with the intention of making it great for the consumer! I've seen so many underdog companies make phones with specs of the s5, s6 and iphone 6 for like 300-400 less! Just wait until these companies takeover!!!
    Reply
  • rmse17
    Their problem is the supply chain. I was looking for the m1 phone, and could not find it for sale until next get phones came out. Another phone that looked promising was the OnePlus One, which also was impossible to get without jumping through hoops of making videos until next get of phones came out.
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    Their problem is the supply chain. I was looking for the m1 phone, and could not find it for sale until next get phones came out. Another phone that looked promising was the OnePlus One, which also was impossible to get without jumping through hoops of making videos until next get of phones came out.
    The One Plus phone is a borderline scam. Market a high-end phone at an exceptional price, but don't sell it until a year later, except for a few promotional devices to get publicity. The reason brands like Xiaomi isn't selling much outside China has probably more to do with that they're prioritising winning that market. It is after all the fastest growing market in the world.
    Reply
  • Quixit
    Phones like this are so close to high-end that I doubt anyone would complain if something like this was the most powerful phone you could possibly buy. Just over $200 is a real steal.
    Reply
  • edwd2
    overpriced trash, im surprised westerners think this is a steal for $200. ???????????

    Phones like this are so close to high-end that I doubt anyone would complain if something like this was the most powerful phone you could possibly buy. Just over $200 is a real steal.

    high end lol? the 615 is worse than the cheaper 6752, and arguably even worse than the 600.
    Reply
  • Daristor
    Their problem is the supply chain. I was looking for the m1 phone, and could not find it for sale until next get phones came out. Another phone that looked promising was the OnePlus One, which also was impossible to get without jumping through hoops of making videos until next get of phones came out.
    The One Plus phone is a borderline scam. Market a high-end phone at an exceptional price, but don't sell it until a year later, except for a few promotional devices to get publicity. The reason brands like Xiaomi isn't selling much outside China has probably more to do with that they're prioritising winning that market. It is after all the fastest growing market in the world.
    Their problem is the supply chain. I was looking for the m1 phone, and could not find it for sale until next get phones came out. Another phone that looked promising was the OnePlus One, which also was impossible to get without jumping through hoops of making videos until next get of phones came out.
    The One Plus phone is a borderline scam. Market a high-end phone at an exceptional price, but don't sell it until a year later, except for a few promotional devices to get publicity. The reason brands like Xiaomi isn't selling much outside China has probably more to do with that they're prioritising winning that market. It is after all the fastest growing market in the world.
    Their problem is the supply chain. I was looking for the m1 phone, and could not find it for sale until next get phones came out. Another phone that looked promising was the OnePlus One, which also was impossible to get without jumping through hoops of making videos until next get of phones came out.
    The One Plus phone is a borderline scam. Market a high-end phone at an exceptional price, but don't sell it until a year later, except for a few promotional devices to get publicity. The reason brands like Xiaomi isn't selling much outside China has probably more to do with that they're prioritising winning that market. It is after all the fastest growing market in the world.

    have you even check if you can get a oneplus one because as far as i know u can now get it without an invite
    Reply
  • hp79
    Looks very nice with good specs! As long as they can keep the phone updated for at least 1 years, then I would totally buy one of these.
    Reply
  • kooldj
    problem is companies like these cant reach the quality and service the giant companies offer...i have checked them alot, but their display/cam quality is shit compared to galaxy s series and iphones. display & cam is a number 2 feature after the performance users look for and no better u can find than the galaxy s series in display / cam quality department, they just blow away other competitors in this segment, let alone these chinese companies. than comes their service issue, apart from these chinese companies packing low quality risky chips, than their warr service is also horrible to claim. in software department although xiaomi claims to be super efficient but there are problems much more than the big giants..the big giants like samsung gives u a completely A1 device, although appearance and body department is a bit low but that too is for the customers value for money, and with Galaxy S6 one can opt for a complete A1 package of a smartphone which simply edges out every department, quite far from chinese companies.
    Reply
  • mkreku
    "Xiaomi seems to have taken some inspiration from the iPhone 5c's vibrant color options."

    God, this is annoying. NO, XIAOMI DID NOT TAKE INSPIRATION FROM APPLE!!! Could you please stop regurgitating this BS?!

    Xiaomi MI2 was released in August, 2012:
    http://drop.ndtv.com/TECH/product_database/images/410201451438PM_635_xiaomi_mI_2.jpeg

    The iPhone 5C was released in October, 2013, more than a year later!

    Xiaomi has ALWAYS released colourful phones, but as soon as Apple releases a colourful phone, crap journalists everywhere believe every other brand is copying Apple. It's so tiresome.
    Reply
  • mkreku
    15739681 said:
    problem is companies like these cant reach the quality and service the giant companies offer...i have checked them alot, but their display/cam quality is shit compared to galaxy s series and iphones. display & cam is a number 2 feature after the performance users look for and no better u can find than the galaxy s series in display / cam quality department, they just blow away other competitors in this segment, let alone these chinese companies. than comes their service issue, apart from these chinese companies packing low quality risky chips, than their warr service is also horrible to claim. in software department although xiaomi claims to be super efficient but there are problems much more than the big giants..the big giants like samsung gives u a completely A1 device, although appearance and body department is a bit low but that too is for the customers value for money, and with Galaxy S6 one can opt for a complete A1 package of a smartphone which simply edges out every department, quite far from chinese companies.

    What you write just isn't true.

    Xiaomi are known for supplying information about all the parts that make up their phones (unlike some other, bigger brands). The screens are absolutely excellent, made by Sharp and protected by Dragonglass or Gorilla Glass. They are always top-of-the-line. This is Xiaomi's main selling point: building excellent quality phones out of well-known brand parts and packaging it with their own excellent Android branch, MIUI.

    The camera in Xiaomi phones is made by Sony. They are not shit, trust me. Not the absolute best, but certainly not the worst.

    The "chips" you talk about are Qualcomm and Nvidia. Not exactly "low quality risky chips". Xiaomi released the first Tegra K1 equipped pad with the Mi Pad and one of the first Snapdragon 810 equipped phones with the Mi Note Pro. In fact, they use the exact same chips as Samsung (except the Exynos).

    It is true that the warranties of Xiaomi are untested. But they have not yet launched outside of Asia, so I'm pretty sure you've never been in touch with their customer service. I've personally imported every phone I've owned from Xiaomi and I'm fully aware that customer service will be worse off because of it. Luckily for me, there have not yet been any problems with any of the phones I've been in contact with (MI2S, MI3 and Mi Pad).

    Reply