Xiaomi Mi 6 Unboxing, First Impressions

Xiaomi’s latest flagship has finally reached our headquarters. The Xiaomi Mi 6 offers a number of top features including a Snapdragon 835 chipset and dual 12MP rear cameras, all encased in a beautifully crafted body.

We’re excited to take the Mi 6 for a full spin but before that, here’s our unboxing and initial thoughts of the device.

The retail box of the Mi 6 is nothing out of the ordinary. We were greeted with a simple white box containing the following:

• Xiaomi Mi 6 unit
• USB Type-C cable
• 3.5mm to USB Type-C adapter
• Travel charger (Quick Charge 3.0)
• Soft silicone case
• Quick Start Guide, etc.

All of these are neatly packaged inside. We were surprised with the inclusion of the silicone case but we hoped for something more premium.

Going on to the handset, the Mi 6 is one of the pocketable — for today’s standards — flagship phones available in the market thanks to its 5.15-inch Full HD display. Only a few phones of this size, like the Huawei P10 and Galaxy S8 (due to its Infinity Display design), offer flagship-grade specifications.

Moving on, we have the usuals up front like the 8MP selfie shooter, earpiece, notification light, and a couple of sensors placed above the display. Below are the glass-protected fingerprint scanner and a pair of capacitive buttons. No mention of what kind of scratch-resistant glass is used for the display and the fingerprint scanner.

On to the sides, we have a sleek stainless steel frame that’s certainly cold to the touch and screams premium quality. The plastic antenna bands seamlessly blend to the frame as well. Holding the Mi 6 is pleasant and, again, it’s not as big as other expensive smartphones.

The right-hand side houses the physical buttons for power/lock and volume which are also made of stainless steel. Although, there’s no other way of differentiating the two aside from their length. We do not have any buttons on the left side but here lies the removable SIM card tray that accepts two nano SIMs with no space for a microSD card.

On top, we have a staple Xiaomi feature — an IR blaster. We rarely use it but it’s still there. The secondary noise-cancelling microphone is also positioned on top of the handset.

The bottom houses a pair of antenna bands with the USB Type-C port flanked by symmetrical holes. Hidden inside these holes are the main microphone and the loudspeaker. The Mi 6 has a stereo setup using the earpiece to act as a second channel of audio output.

As you have noticed, the 3.5mm audio port is missing on the Mi 6 as Xiaomi has jumped to the wagon wireless audio or the use of headphones with USB Type-C connectors. No worries as Xiaomi provided a 3.5mm to Type-C adapter.

Like with its predecessor, the Mi 5, it still has a shiny and fragile glass back. The back is smooth but definitely prone to smudges. The glass panel also makes the phone quite slippery for some, especially when you get sweaty.

At the back are the two rear cameras of the Mi 6. Both have 12MP sensors but each of its lenses is unique. One has a 27mm focal length with f/1.8, 4-axis optical image stabilization while the other one is 52mm with f/2.6. Xiaomi opted to give 2x optical zoom to the Mi 6. This gives it a similar setup with likes iPhone 7 Plus and ASUS Zenfone 3 Zoom.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s top chipset today, the Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor with an Adreno 540 to handle graphics. It’s then paired with 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 64GB (UFS) internal storage. This phone will fly through benchmark tests and will be able to handle just about anything. Another notable feat is the inclusion of advanced connectivity like Bluetooth 5.0 and a dual-band Wi-Fi with 2×2 MU-MIMO.

The phone also has 4G LTE with LTE-A support (carrier dependent) in spite of the fact that it’s got no support for the prized Band 28 of local telcos. We’ll have to see how a flagship phone works with other available bands around Metro Manila in our review. Lastly, the phone runs MIUI 8 on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat and has a 3350mAh Li-Po battery inside that supports Quick Charge 3.0.

Xiaomi Mi 6 specs:
5.15-inch IPS LCD @ 1920 x 1080 pixels, 428ppi
2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core CPU
Adreno 540 GPU
6GB LPDDR4x RAM
64GB/128GB UFS internal storage
Dual 12MP (27mm, f/1.8, 4-axis OIS; and 52mm, f/2.6) PDAF rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash
8MP front-facing camera
Dual-SIM (Nano)
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2×2 MU-MIMO)
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS w/ a-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC
IR blaster
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner
Splash-resistant body
Stereo speakers
Gyroscope
3350mAh non-removable Li-Po battery w/ Quick Charge 3.0
Android 7.1.1 Nougat w/ MIUI 8
145.2 x 70.5 x 7.5 mm
168 grams

You can get the Xiaomi Mi 6 from Gearbest for just $540 (see listing here).