How I wasted my money on a Xiaomi phone!
I had to get an Android phone as a secondary device as I have to keep my iphone tied to India region and the India SIM active in the U.K. Since it was an experiment, I thought of getting a Xiaomi phone. There was a hefty discount on the Xiaomi 13T, plus, I was getting a 67 Watt charger in the box, so I decided to get it for 300 GBP.
In summary, there are only two things I liked about a Xiaomi phone: Their 67W fast charger :D and the IR blaster that comes built-in. The charger can power my laptop as well, so I need not carry its bulky wired brick everywhere. While the IR blaster works to control ACs and TVs when I travel. The other aspects, especially the software is a slow-acting poison that will kill you mentally after some time.
Xiaomi's software is utter crap. I will not recommend this brand, even if they plonk the biggest processors, full sized camera sensors and bullet proof glass on it.
https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_13t-12389.php
Here are some major issues:
- The biggest one: Notifications: Some app notifications do not show up even after changing all settings and permissions. Whatsapp incoming calls do not appear on the phone screen! you have to open the app when you phone starts ringing. Notifications relayed by the phone to the Garmin watch as a bunch of all unopened ones at the same time. This is frustrating, for example. If you have three messages that are unopened since an hour, if you get the fourth one now, the watch will show the first three messages first and the fourth one last!
I would have happily found solutions to these 17 years back when I was in college, now it is just a pain.
- Their background app optimizer is crap. For example: If you pair a Garmin watch with its 'Connect' app, you have to go somewhere deep in the settings to enable it to run in the background, otherwise, your phone will not show updated weather and 'Find my watch' function will not work. Even after enabling it, the app will crash or bluetooth will disconnect and reconnect often.
- Sound : The speakers are ok, but the moment you put some good headphones (I have Sony XM4 cans), the clarity is not up to the mark. It is shrill and you wont enjoy it. The Dolby feature it seems only amplifies the sound and does not improve your listening experience as such. Playing the same on my iphone 13 (same streaming app and all), while iphone has flat bass (which can be increased using Sony's Sound app), sounds extremely clear, distinct and enjoyable. This is despite the fact that it uses LDAC audio codec. The in-built equalizer is a pain to use. The frequency bars cannot be adjusted precisely with your fingers as they are too thin.
- Battery: While it was good initially, it is not as great now after a year of usage. I mean, it still is better than my iphone, but for the capacity, it could have been better. I have to charge it more often these days. It is down to app optimization and how I use the phone. I have seen two notable cases: the Garmin connect app running in the background draining more battery now and Instagram/Microsoft teams app left open. Suppose you open the teams app at night to have a quick chat or scroll some reels and keep the phone bedside, the display will go off after a few seconds (or when locked manually with power key), now when you unlock the phone in the morning, it will have battery drained more than usual. With iphone, the Garmin app would run in the background but it never consumed battery at noticeable levels.
- The worse: Camera: This phone boasts some collaboration with Leica to get the best pictures. Try clicking foliage (trees) photos or grass photos and see how bad it processes them. The wide angle and 2x zoom lenses serve purpose only on bright sunny days. The Leica 'authentic' filter does nothing but adds a vignette, a darker mood to the photos, similar to old cameras. The worst part is, the jpeg/heif image is saved in this setting, you cannot have a copy of the same photo in original colors. It is not that you want to click all photos in Leica authentic mode, landscape photos especially look bad in this mode. Besides, this filter can be applied using basic photo editing softwares.
- The worst: GPS: Yes, for all the money paid, this approx 30,000 Rupees phone just does not lock in quickly and accurately. It might still be ok when navigating while driving, but man, start using this phone for navigation while on foot. Not sure what is wrong, the GPS or the google map app, but there is a deviation of around 10 to 20 feet initially on where you are standing and where it shows you on the map. How does that matter? You call a cab or friend and unable to tell your exact location. You might appear to be close to a landmark, but in reality, you are on the other side of the street. Or you want walk to a bus stop, the stupid phone itself is not able to show which direction you need to start walking unless you start and realize it was pointing in the opposite direction. Never had a problem with my wife's Samsung S20FE or even the cheap M31 I had earlier.
All in all, the Xiaomi phone is a great piece of hardware: great display, good speakers, haptic feedback, but the user experience is ruined in the long term by extremely poor software optimization and image processing capabilities. Anyone who is getting impressed by its godly specifications on youtube reviews, do note that there are some things that are just not right with these phones and they start appearing only after extensive usage. I want to trade in this phone, but not getting good price, mostly this phone is not listed as eligible for trade-in.
I always knew that software optimization is key for all Android phones and I've always kept the high end phones as primary runners (S16 Edge, S20, iphone 13) with secondary ones for navigation/backup (hand-me-downs from my parents' Motorola G series, M31, Samsung A series), but I was surprised that even after so many years, there are manufacturers out there who have not got the basics right yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by batmanRises
(Post 5971092)
i think the most important factor is cycling your battery within 20 to 80%, if you wanna eke most out of the battery. Charging speed/rate comes after that.
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Drawing an inference like that is not so straightforward. There are just too many variables.
For example, my own experience suggests just the opposite, i.e. slow charging is much more beneficial than the 80% cutoff.
My previous Samsung midranger (with an Exynos processor too) didn't have the 80% charging cutoff option built-in. I didn't care, and charged everytime to 100%, and usually discharged down to 10% before recharging. The battery ran just fine for ~6 years before a noticeable drop in capacity. Now, at 8 years, It still gives me ~1 day of moderate use of calls, music, browsing and watching videos (I'm no gamer). The battery used to last ~2 days on a charge when new. I did have to move on to another Samsung (again running on Exynos) because a new battery was no more available.
Oh yes, the phone always ran cool (despite the Exynos), and the battery is still as flat as new. The charging mode? Usually super slow, via a laptop USB port.
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