After a long wait, which I think extends to a few years, Xiaomi has finally unveiled a smartphone worthy of taking on the premium competitors in the market right now. The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 is finally official and with it, we have got a flagship which we can directly compare with the likes of the Galaxy S7 Edge and the P9 series.

So, let’s take a look at what the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 brings to the table.

DESIGN

Design wise, Xiaomi has used the popular dual curved design, similar to what we saw on the Note 7. But with the phablet out of the picture due to its battery woes, the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 can shine with its familiar design.

The phone comes with 3D glass on both the front as well as the back. This means holding the phone is more comfortable due to its curved design. Further, for the frame, the company has used Aerospace grade 7 series aluminum, which gives it a smooth yet solid look.

There are two color options, Glacier Silver and Bright Black.

DISPLAY

The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 is the company’s first dual curved display smartphone. The company explains that it’s not easy to use 3D glass with an LCD display. Hence, the Mi Note 2 is using an innovative flexible OLED display which not only blends together with the curved glass up front, but the display also extends to the side. This is similar to what we see on other curved display phones.

The phone comes with a 5.7-inch curved display with 77.2% screen to body ratio, better than iPhone 7 Plus’ 67.7%. The panel further boasts of 110% NTSC color gamut and 100,000:1 contrast ratio.

In case you are wondering, Lei Jun also mentioned that this advanced flexible screen costs as much as six times a regular 5.5-inch FHD LCD panel.

HARDWARE

Like expected, Xiaomi has ensured the Mi Note 2 has the best hardware in the market right now. It comes with the Snapdragon 821 chipset clocked at 2.35GHz. As for memory, you have 6GB RAM of LPDDR4 dual channel RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.0 storage. Recent Xiaomi smartphones are known for its long battery life and the same continues with the Mi Note 2. The phone comes with a large 4070mAh battery and with Quick Charge 3.0, battery life is going to be its plus point. Other features of the flagship include AQSTIC HD Audio processor with Hi-Fi sound quality and low distortion (24 bit / 192KHz), NFC with fingerprint payments and improved SAP assisted GPS.

As for the camera, the Mi Note 2 comes with the powerful 22.56MP IMX318 EXMOR RS sensor at the back. While there is no OIS on board, the module does have 3-axis gyroscope and EIS (Electronic Image stabilization). The camera also supports 4K video image stabilization at the hardware level. Other features include f/2.0 aperture and PDAF.

Up front, there is an 8MP IMX268 EXMOR RS shooter with f/2.0 aperture and beauty 3.0 software which promises to bring more accurate and natural colors. Another interesting feature of the front camera is the built-in autofocus, which means you will get clear selfies at any distance.

One of the biggest highlights of the Mi Note 2 is the supports 37 LTE global bands! As for the software, the phone is running MIUI 8 out of the box.

PRICING

Expecting the price to be high? Xiaomi has surprised us once again by making the Mi Note 2 quite affordable. The pricing is as follows:

4GB + 64GB 2799 Yuan ($413)

6GB + 128GB 3299 Yuan ($487)

6GB + 128GB Special Global Edition 3499 Yuan ($516)

Note that the 3499 Yuan is the model with 37 Global LTE support, so that’s the model international users should be interested in.

The phone will go on sale on November 1.

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