Xiaomi Mi 3 review: The 2013 phone that turned Xiaomi into a global name.
The phone that made Xiaomi a global player.
The Mi 3 brought flagship power to a low price and pushed Xiaomi beyond China. A pivotal device for the brand — now a vintage entry.
01Display
52/10052/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2013 — 16 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
38/10038/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2013 — 23 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
24/10024/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2013 — 32 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2013 — 12 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2013 — 14 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
62/100At 62/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among flagship phones of 2013 — 11 points above the cohort average.
- Flagship Snapdragon 800 at a disruptive $330.
- Sharp FHD display; capable camera for 2013.
- The device that took Xiaomi international.
- Large battery for its size.
- No LTE; no microSD.
- microUSB; weak 2 MP selfie camera.
- Software ended at Android 6.
- Discontinued — a vintage device.
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 87-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .