Xiaomi Mi Play review: A 2018 budget Mi with a gradient glass back at an aggressive price.
Xiaomi's style-led budget.
Mi Play wrapped Xiaomi's budget hardware in a striking gradient glass body at $160 — the youth pitch in entry-tier form, with bundled mobile data perks in China.
01Display
62/10062/100 — right at the average for budget phones of 2018.
02Camera
54/10054/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for budget phones of 2018.
03Performance
46/10046/100 trails the 50-point cohort average for budget phones of 2018.
04Battery
60/10060/100 is one of the weaker battery results among budget phones of 2018 — 11 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
62/10062/100 puts it above the 60-point average for budget phones of 2018.
06Value
62/10062/100 trails the 65-point cohort average for budget phones of 2018.
- Gradient glass back at $160.
- Notched FHD+ display.
- Light 150 g.
- Bundled cellular data perks in China.
- Helio P35 slow.
- 10 W charging.
- Mono speaker.
- 2 MP depth filler.
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 84-phone cohort of budget devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .