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Xiaomi Mi3: 5 things you need to know before buying the smartphone

Xiaomi Mi3 is, without a doubt, the best value for money purchase in smartphones today.

What You Need To Know Before Buying The Xiaomi Mi3

The Xiaomi Mi3 is, without a doubt, the best value for money purchase in smartphones today. At Rs. 13,999, it gives you an experience that phones twice its price don?t offer. That said, it?s not without its problems, and you should know a few things before you plonk down your cash for it.

The Many Problems to Buy it

The phone is available only through online retailer Flipkart. And Flipkart and Xiaomi have come up with a system that would require buyers to pre-register for a short sales window, after which they have to stay online a couple of hours before the sale starts. The sale itself has about 10,000-20,000 units available, and far more people are interested in buying it, so you need a huge amount of luck to get it. It?s not a good buying experience.

No Expandable Storage

The 13.3GB of user available memory is all you get, you can?t expand that with a microSD card. Given the phone?s high-end specs, you might want to load it up with great games or FullHD movies or take a lot of photos; but that?s going to quickly fill up your storage. If you buy the phone, you?ll need cloud storage to get over the memory problem.

Barebones Box

All you get with the Xiaomi Mi3 is a USB cable and the plug point. With a phone like this, you want a good set of earphones, and that?s going to cost you at least Rs. 1,000. You might also want to safeguard it with a case or a screen protector; chalk up another Rs. 1,500 for that. At the moment, Xiaomi hasn?t released its own accessories for the Mi3, so you?ll be reliant on third-party Chinese manufacturers. Not only do these products take the sheen off your brand new Mi3, they also lack in quality.

After-sales Service

Like with any new entrant into the market, after-sales service is an important consideration. Xiaomi has launched two Mi3 exclusive service centers (Bangalore and New Delhi) and a few more service centers in the following cities: Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Thane, Thiruvananthapuram, Noida, Bhubaneswar, Surat, Faridabad, Nagpur, and Indore. You can see a full list here. Like we?ve said before, after-sales is an untested, unquantifiable element and it?s a matter of luck whether your experience is good or not. The one good news about after-sales? Xiaomi has said it will honor international warranty, and even rooted phones.

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First published on: 04-08-2014 at 10:45 IST
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