Xiaomi Mi 1 review: Xiaomi's 2011 debut — flagship specs at a disruptive price, sold online only.
The phone that launched Xiaomi.
Mi 1 was Xiaomi's opening shot — Snapdragon S3 flagship performance at a disruptive price, sold flash-sale style online and running the new MIUI. It birthed a business model and a software identity that reshaped the budget-flagship market.
01Display
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2011 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
52/10052/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2011.
03Performance
50/10050/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2011.
04Battery
56/10056/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2011.
05Build
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2011 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
70/100At 70/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among flagship phones of 2011 — 24 points above the cohort average.
- Flagship dual-core specs at half the price.
- Launched MIUI as a product.
- Online-only sales model was revolutionary.
- Removable battery + microSD.
- Thick 11.9 mm plastic body.
- FWVGA resolution.
- China-first availability.
- Mono speaker.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 70-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .