The Xiaomi Mi A3, released in the middle of 2019, is another great value for money, mid-range handset from the Chinese manufacturer. It pairs great specs and a premium look and feel with a sub £200 price to make it a handset well worth considering for those on a budget.
Let’s start with the screen. Firstly, it’s a 6” Super AMOLED with an 82.5% screen to body ratio, and an average 282 PPI. There is a centrally positioned teardrop notch for the selfie.
It’s great getting an AMOLED screen in a handset under £200, but for some reason Xiaomi have gone with a 720-pixel resolution unit, where most phones are 1080 or higher. This may not be an issue for you, but if it, is the blurring on things like icons and text is quite noticeable.
Premium look and feel
The Gorilla glass 5 front is matched by a Gorilla glass 5 back and a plastic frame giving the Mi A3 a premium look and feel. Powered by a fast Snapdragon 665 processor and with 4 or 6GB of RAM and 64 or 128GB of expandable storage. The battery is a 4030 mAh one with 18W fast charging that will give you 45% in 30 mins.
There is a rapid under-screen fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. Also included is a single, downward facing speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an FM radio and an infrared blaster.
Triple cameras
Switching to the cameras, the main array is a triple one with a 48MP f/1.8 wide, 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide and 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor. These take good pictures in both daylight and nighttime (with the Night mode). On the front is a 32MP f/2.0 wide lens, adequate for all your selfies.
The Mi A3 ships with Android 9 and is part of the Android one programme. This means that you will get regular security and OS updates as there is no manufacturer skin on top of it to hold things up.
Budget price
Available in 3 colours – Kind of gray, Not just blue and More than white (I don’t know why these manufacturers need to come up with these names. Everyone else will just call them grey, blue and white!). You can pick up the Mi A3 for less than £200, making it a bargain for those on a budget.
If you are happy with a lower resolution screen, and don’t want to spend more than £200, then this is the phone for you.
