Xiaomi unveils Mi 4 high-end phone with 8MP front camera

Chinese device manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Mi 4, today. With a metal frame and a distinctly iPhone-esque design the Mi 4 looks like a proper premium product and when looking at the spec sheet the interior components confirm this initial impression. 

Under the hood a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC and 3GB RAM should ensure that Android 4.4.2 and all apps run smoothly and without delay. Buyers can choose between versions with 16 or 64GB of storage and if you tend to shoot a lot of images and video on your phone the latter might be the better option as there is no microSD-card slot on the Mi 4.

Xiaomi says the 5-inch 1080p IPS screen offers 84 percent of NTSC color support, which takes it close to the Adobe RGB standard. The screen also features a fingerprint-resistant coating and can be used with gloves which should make taking pictures in cold climates a lot easier. 

With a 13MP rear camera the Mi 4 does not offer anything too exciting in terms of camera hardware. We have no detailed specs yet but we are almost certainly looking at a 1/3-inch CMOS sensor here, as we've seen it in a number of recent Android devices. The front camera features an unusually high 8MP resolution which should be helpful when capturing the occasional self-portrait.

There are a couple of interesting camera modes, too. Smart Flash captures two images of the same scene in quick succession, one with and one without flash, and  merges them for a better exposure. There is a subject tracking feature that allows you to lock the AF onto moving subjects and like most recent high-end phones the Mi 4 also offers a selective focus feature. The mode takes a series pf pictures of a scene at different focus settings and merges them. You can then select your preferred focus point after the pictures's been taken. 

At CNY1,999 (approximately US$322) the Mi 4 offers high-end specs at a mid-level price. We'll have to wait and see when it will becomes available outside China but with Chinese manufacturers such as Oppo, OnePlus and now Xiaomi clearly competing on price the more established manufacturers are probably hoping this won't happen too soon. 

Key-specifications:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core 2.5 GHz SoC
• 5-inch 1080p IPS display (441 ppi)
• Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• 13MP main camera
• dual-LED flash
• 4K video capture
• 8MP front camera
• 3GB RAM
• 16/64GB storage
• 3,080 mAh battery