Released as a follow-up to its Mi A1, this past year’s Xiaomi Mi A2 continued to generate global success for the Chinese company, especially among the mid-tier range of smartphone buyers. The Mi A2 has become the phone of choice for many Android users fatigued by overpriced high-end phones and against Apple iPhones’ exorbitant pricing.
The Mi A2 is an Android One phone, one among but a handful of official Google partners that use the stock Android interface. This means the phone has little bloatware and has the advantage of getting Android updates faster, like the current Pie version used by Google’s Pixel line. Recent news says that the Mi A2 will receive the operating system update in the next couple of months, as Pie is already being released to the Mi A2’s Lite version.
Let’s point out the cons of the phone first. The Mi A2 has a so-so battery life of 3,010mAh, has no headphone jack, and does not have a micro SD slot. Having said that, it does come boxed with a headphone adaptor, has a solid screen size of 5.99-inch offering full HD, and runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset. RAM and storage come in 4 +32/64GB and 6+128GB configurations, which should be enough to compensate for the lack of an extra memory slot.
What makes the Mi A2 a global hit and favorite for mid-tier, budget-phone users, is its amazing camera. It boasts of a Sony-manufactured 12MP + 20MP dual rear camera system plus another 20MP at the front. The dual-rear-camera system allows for blurring and crisp depth of field effects. Selfies look clear as well, and you can take shots in the dark as the A2 has a front flash.
The Mi A2 is the little phone that can, and buyers, especially in South East Asia and India, will quickly insist that it’s the best iteration of the Android One on a budget phone to release so far.
Hello, Kati Volitich here, a computer engineering student at the University of California, Berkeley. I like writing about computers and smartphone technology. For more tech-related reads, check out this blog.
Kati Volitich 