Xiaomi Mi Note camera review: a useful snapper on a mi-ghty phone

“Superb optics and an easy-to-use application adds a whole lot of fun to photography using the new Mi Note”

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It’s common to see bulging cameras on slim smartphones these days, a practice followed to accommodate bigger image sensors without spoiling the design or adding unwanted bulk to the devices. But with the new Mi Note (first impressions), Xiaomi has chosen not to bulk-up the device. But what does that mean? Is the camera inferior in any way possible? To check that out and more things related to the camera and its quality, we have put the new Mi Note to the test and captured a number of images in different scenarios and lighting conditions. Let’s check them out.

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Long Shot

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

Although the weather here in Delhi-NCR has started to improve, the fog still lingers on and the Mi Note manages to capture a good amount of detail in long shots. However, there is a slight under-exposed look with colour tones taking a subtle dark hue. However, as you zoom in into the image, you can clearly see that the level of detail captured is very high and pixelation only becomes visible after a lot of zooming in.

Close Up

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

As for the selective focus, close-up photography comes naturally with the device, you can simply point towards the object and the camera captures it in detail, from the closest possible distance of 4-feet. The camera captures colour variation reasonably well, however the display is slightly over-saturated and misleads the user into thinking that the colour capture is brilliant. In reality, the colour saturation turns out to be a tad pale.

Close Up (zoomed In)

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review- Close up zoomed

Zooming in to the image however, brings happier results as the images do not pixelate or lose out on detail and clarity. The images offer neutral tones while the detail offered is very good. The colour of the flower is quite close to the real thing with just a slight bias towards a brighter image.

HDR Off

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

The overall image quality overall offered by the snapper on the Mi Note is impressive, and colour capture and focus are kept in tight control. At the same time, the optical image stabilisation offers sharp-looking images. However we personally feel that the contrast levels are little bit off, at least for the distant objects.

HDR On

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

The HDR or High Dynamic Range mode brings a whole new look to the images and it is most certainly among one of the best ones we have seen yet. The image capture speed does slow down a bit, and OIS definitely makes the image capture easy by offering sharper images.

Low Light

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

In low-light photography minus the use of the provided flash, images are reasonably dark and miss out on detail. To be used only in emergency situations only.

Low Light With Flash

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

The device offers impressive results when the flash is turned on and the true-tone flash wins over the snapper’s fear of the dark by offering neutral tone illumination for the object. The objects look full of detail and the flash module is great for all-round usage. However, it is not recommended for objects beyond 9-feet range.

Front Camera

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

With the front camera, the device captures brilliant and life-like images as well. The captured sample offers a great deal of detail and colour variance while the contrast levels are also good.

Night shot

Xiaomi Mi Note camera review

Despite not being failing miserably in the low-light camera test, the shooter does try to offer good quality and detail during the night shots. the contrast offers good amount of variance and the colour capture is also good. The level of detail captured is average while again thanks to the OIS, images are sharp and clear.

Overall, the shooter on the Xiaomi Mi Note offers a good images while keeping the quality and sharpness in check. The fast-focus mechanism  increases the utility of the camera and combined with the optical image stabilisation offered, it turns out to be all the more fun. So the bottom-line is that Xiaomi has managed to offer a brilliant snapper with the new Mi Note, which is most certainly going to increase the utility of this device.