Xiaomi Mi Max 2 Tries To Justify Its Rs.16,999 Price Tag With Bigger Battery and Display

Since the beginning of this year we have been seeing a flurry of Redmi phones in the market. First it was the Redmi Note 4, followed by the Redmi 4A and the Redmi 4. This was Xiaomi’s attempt to make every other smartphone in the sub Rs. 10K price bracket seem inadequate. While they may be skipping on things like Corning Gorilla Glass covering or latest Android Nougat operating system, they overcame these foibles by opting for newer Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets and fingerprint sensors. When Motorola tried to regain some online sales with its Moto E4 Plus and Moto C it was met with lukewarm response. So as Xiaomi launches its new Mi Max 2 in India on the occasion of its 3rd anniversary we try to find out whether the Mi Max 2 is worth the money or not.


The Mi Max 2 immediately grabs your attention with its 6.44inch display. This abnormally large display forces us to classify the Mi Max 2 as a phablet instead of a smartphone. If you like large displays its perfectly fine to go with the Mi Max 2 but we would like to point out two flaws of the display. First, it’s a Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution display and has a pixel density of 342ppi. You have to remember that most flagships have 2K or QuadHD resolution for much smaller display. The second problem is the lack of branded protective glass covering. This seems to be a oversight has the Mi Max had Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It is not just the display where the Mi Max fails in comparison with its predecessor.


The now obsolete Mi Max was sold in two variants the regular Mi Max with Rs. 14,999 price tag which had a Snapdragon 650 chipset, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory and the Mi Max Prime which cost you Rs.19,999 and had a Snapdragon 652 chipset with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal memory. The Mi Max 2 however has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset which can also be found on the cheaper Redmi Note 4, The Mi Max 2 has to make do with a octa-core setup of ARM Cortex A53 CPUs instead of the hexa-core 2 x ARM Cortex A72 and 4 x ARM Cortex A53 CPU setup on the Snapdgraon 650 found on the Mi Max. Here is a simple explanation why the older chipset was superior, you see in Snapdragon you have A72 CPU as the primary CPUs that fire always to give better performance and other CPUs kick in when heavier tasks are thrown in. If you are not lusting after the big display then you can comfortably go for the high-end Redmi Note 4 that costs Rs. 12,999 and has the same chipset (Snapdragon 625), same RAM (4GB) and same internal memory (64GB).


When it comes to cameras on the Mi Max 2, you have a 12MP Sony IMX 386 sensor on the rear with dual tone flash and PDAF. On the front you get the standard 5MP sensor. The second biggest highlight of the Mi Max 2 is its 5300mAh battery that is complimented with Quick Charge 3.0 for faster charging. This means you can power the Mi Max 2 comfortably for two days on average use. The biggest improvement that we can see on the Mi Max 2 is that it runs MIUI 8 which is Xiaomi’s take on Android Nougat. The Mi Max 2 has a USB Type C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack along with Xiaomi favourite IR blaster and for the first time stereo speakers. A fingerprint sensor has been duly included on the rear.


The Mi Max 2 will go on sale during the 3rd Mi anniversary sale on July 20 and July 21 from 10am on Mi website and Mi Home store. The Mi Max 2 shall make its way to retailer from July 27th both online and offline. The Mi Max 2 has been priced at Rs. 16,999 which makes it a better buy as compared to the Nokia 6 which arrives in August.

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