The latest instalment in the Mi Max series picks up an 18:9 panel and dual rear cameras.
When Xiaomi launched the first Mi Max back in 2016, it was venturing into untested waters. With a screen size of 6.44 inches, the Mi Max became the manufacturer’s largest phone, and the 4850mAh battery meant it easily lasted two days on a full charge. The phone turned out to be a surprise hit in markets like India, where the large display and the enormous battery made it the ideal device for consuming multimedia on the go.
Last year, Xiaomi doubled down with the Mi Max 2, offering an even larger 5300mAh battery, a more polished design, and Quick Charge 3.0 over USB-C. Exactly a year later, Xiaomi has unveiled the Mi Max 3 in China, with the device featuring a tablet-sized 6.9-inch display and a gargantuan 5500mAh battery.
Like the rest of Xiaomi’s 2018 lineup, the Mi Max 3 offers an 18:9 IPS LCD panel with an FHD+ (2160 x 1080) resolution. Round the back, the phone has antenna lines at the top and bottom, but the key addition is the dual camera setup that shares the same sensor as the Redmi Note 5 Pro — a 12MP camera with 1.4um pixels joined by a secondary 5MP shooter with 1.25um pixels. You get an 8MP camera up front, and the phone has Xiaomi’s AI-assisted camera features that allow you to take better selfies.
The Mi Max 3 is also powered by the same Snapdragon 636 chipset featured in the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and the octa-core 1.8GHz platform is more than able to handle everyday tasks with ease. Other specs include Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, 3.5mm jack, USB-C, and dual VoLTE, and the phone comes in at 221g, and has dimensions of 176.15 x 87.4 x 7.99 mm. On the software front, it is running Android 8.1 Oreo based on MIUI 9.5, but should pick up the update to MIUI 10 shortly after launch.
The Mi Max 3 will be available in three color options — Black, Champagne Gold, and Blue — and two variants: a base model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage that retails for the equivalent of ¥1,699 ($250), and a version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for ¥1,999 ($300). For now, the Mi Max 3 is limited to China, but given that the series has seen a decent amount of success in India, Xiaomi will be looking to bring the device to the country shortly.
What do you guys make of the Mi Max 3?
