The Xiaomi Mi Note Pro and Mi Note Review
by Joshua Ho on September 11, 2015 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance Cont'd
Now that we've gone over some of the more CPU-bound benchmarks for overall performance, we can look at some of the more GPU-bound benchmarks such as 3DMark, Basemark X, and GFXBench 3. Of course, it's important to note that we're actively in the process of migrating to newer GPU benchmarks so for now these benchmarks are really mostly representative of OpenGL ES 3 performance rather than 3.1.
Interestingly, the GPU benchmark results show a pretty noticeable change relative to what we saw out of the One M9 at the launch of the first Snapdragon 810 phones. It's clear that some sort of driver optimization has been implemented as in every benchmark we see performance improvements well north of 5% that would be seen from purely clock speed gains. This highlights just how volatile GPU performance can be as Adreno 430 is now roughly equivalent to the T760MP8 in GFXBench and 3DMark. However, we still see the Adreno 430 lagging behind in Basemark X, which suggests the architecture of the Adreno 430 is a limiting factor in some workloads.
NAND Performance
While it’s often easy to forget about internal storage outside of capacity, it turns out that good storage performance is critical for a number of general purpose computing tasks. Mobile OSes aren’t necessarily as affected by storage performance as a desktop or laptop that is caching parts of RAM on internal storage, but even so it’s definitely possible to see the problems that result from cutting too deep here. Probably the most well-known example of this sort of cutting was the original Nexus 7 in 2012, which suffered from severe issues due to a lack of TRIM and general poor performance. In order to test mobile devices for this sort of problem, we use our standard benchmarks for testing basic read and write performance of the internal storage solution. In the case of the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, we see a Samsung CGND3R eMMC package, while the Xiaomi Mi Note uses Toshiba’s 016GE2 eMMC solution.
In practice, neither has incredible performance, but performance is far from poor here. For the most part, the user experience effects on storage performance will be somewhat hard to notice as sufficient storage performance means that the bottleneck for any kind of lag or stutter would be elsewhere in most applications.
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hans_ober - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Still no update on the MotoG 2015 charge time using a powerful charger... seriously?wliles3 - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Please Review The Note 5 And Edge Plus.AussieinUS - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Thanks for a detailed review. I have the Note for 6 months now and use it on Tmobile in the US (no LTE) and Vodafone in Italy. It works very well. The review mirrors my experience down to the slippery and now cracked glass back. The advice on a cover came too late. My biggest challenge has not been the battery, the good camera, the video playback, or the google play services. It has been trying to get the change to the Mi Account for the auto sign in. It wants to use my now defunct Italian number and not the new number. It constantly tries to sign in. I have changed the browser based credentials for Mi Account but it cannot be accessed from the mobile. Claims by Xiaomi that they will get back to me within 3 days based on a "lost password" on the device results in nothing. It still works but is constantly trying to signin. This speaks to tech support away from the mothership. Thanks for this review and the constructive comments.eriri-el - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
I have a slight beef here regarding fast charge support. I own the Mi Note (non-Pro) and its charging time is more or less in line with what is shown in this review. But as for it not supporting fast charging, my Mi Note came bundled with the MDY-03-EB charger which is rated for 5V/2A as well as 9V/1.2A. According to the Qualcomm website on Quick Charge, both the charger and the Mi Note is certified for Quick Charge 2.0. given that it "just" supports 9V/1.2A, I think it doesn't charge that fast, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support QC, unless of course Qualcomm is lying to us.eriri-el - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Reference: https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/quick-charge-de...Xiaomi is at the bottom of the list in the pdf file
extide - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
It seems the hardware is definitely there for the support, but they may have disabled it as a way to differentiate between it and the Pro. Kind of an odd thing to do, but oh well.Peichen - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
The best selling Android phones have always been those that look and feels like an iPhone except cheaper and with dual-SIM and SD card. It is no wonder the Biggest and 2nd biggest Android OEMs releases phones that's basically iPhone 6.5As for Mi Note. I like it but feel $470 is getting too expensive for a phone that's not spectacular. $400 for the Pro model would be more app.
babadivad - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
How do you guys get the close ups of the screens like that? I want to try that with my phone. I've always thought that was so cool. It was one of the reasons I stayed around with you guys since the launch of the Note 2. I like the thorough way you do the phone reviews and the close up on screens to check for changes to sub-pixel placement and changes from year to year of the same line. So cool.edwpang - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
This review leaved out a very important area: call quality and data support. I am not keen on LTE. I am fine as long as I can use 3G on my Rogers network.melgross - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Another Chinese government supported company. It would be nice if web sites reviewing these devices from Chinese companies did a bit of research as why their prices are where they are