A lot of rumours point towards the Xiaomi Mi 6X becoming the successor to the Mi A1, a smartphone that took many by surprise last year. It was Xiaomi’s first Android One certified stock Android phone in India and as if to whet our appetite for it, the Mi A1 was a phenomenal success here with over a million units sold over the year. The Mi 5X became the Mi A1 last year, so it’s no surprise the rumour mill is spinning hard at presuming the Mi 6X to be its successor. However, Xiaomi did deny the existence of a Mi A2 to us a month back, but that doesn’t mean the company won’t make another attempt at a stock Android phone. I mean, why not?
So when I found the Mi 6X lying idle at the Mi Store in Shanghai, I couldn’t help myself from getting a feel for the device. The Mi 6X is a powerful phone, and if it indeed launches as the Mi A2 globally, especially at the price point the Mi A1 was given to consumers, it will be setting new performance benchmarks. The Mi 6X is slim and ergonomic, has a brushed aluminum finish and dual cameras at the back. More than that, most will probably appreciate the phone not having a notch up front. It does have a taller 5.99-inch display with the latest 18:9 aspect ratio and Full HD+ resolution. Frankly, it does look a lot like the Y2 with its bulging edges, slim profile and the bezelled panel. Yet another indication of the Mi 6X becoming the Mi A2 are the antenna lines which looks exactly like the ones on the Mi A1.
The slim profile of the phone seems like a worthy upgrade from the otherwise bulky structure of the Mi A1. But more than that, it’s the hardware underneath. Last year, the Snapdragon 625 was the processor of choice for mid-range phones. It’s 14nm FinFET technology helped improve battery life that was one of the biggest pain points of mid-range phones. However, the Snapdragon 625 was a downgrade from its predecessor in terms of pure performance. The Mi 6X is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC that is also manufactured on the same 14nm process, but has a faster clock speed of 2.2GHz along with Qualcomm’s custom Kryo cores. That essentially bridges that performance gap that was there on the Mi A1 last year. Furthermore, the chipset is coupled with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. It’s something we have seen the Redmi Note 5 Pro come with and redefine the mid-range expectations. Not surprising that the Mi 6X (or the Mi A2) matches up to it.
The Mi 6X also had impressive imaging prowess. It packs a 12-megapixel + 20-megapixel dual camera setup at the back which is aligned vertically in the corner with the flash in the middle. I used the camera to take a few shots and it looked almost as good as the Redmi Note 5 Pro, if not better. But this is no place to issue a verdict and we will reserve it for when Xiaomi actually launches the device here. You get the portrait mode at the back and on the front. The front has a 20-megapixel camera for selfies with beautification features that include skin smoothing, adjusting the eye size and more. The selfie camera seemed more or less at par with the Redmi Note 5 Pro which isn’t a bad thing at all.
The Mi 6X that I had in my hands was running on MIUI 9.5. If this indeed launches as the Mi A2, then it will be running on stock Android Oreo and will be updated with regular security patches and version upgrades for the next two years. The Mi 6X has a 3010mAh battery which is more or less same as that on the Mi A1. The new chipset being more powerful, despite being based on the same manufacturing process might mean the battery life on the Mi 6X could be lesser than the Mi A1, but only time will tell how well Xiaomi optimises the performance to eke out the maximum juice out of the battery.
To conclude, the Mi 6X seems to be mighty impressive. With a slim profile, taller display, impressive camera and the hopefully the promise of stock Android, the Mi 6X could be a worthy successor to the Mi A1.