As we speak Xiaomi introduced the Xiaomi Mi A3, the newest cellphone in its “A” line. Prior to now, Xiaomi’s A line has been guess when you’re on the lookout for a midrange smartphone. This newest mannequin is available in at €249 (~$280) and is launching in Europe on July 24. Respectable telephones within the sub-$300 worth vary are powerful to return by, so any critical machine priced this low is value being attentive to. Simply wanting on the spec sheet, although, we do have some considerations.

As you’d guess, the A3 is a third-generation Xiaomi A cellphone, and in some ways, these symbolize the least “Xiaomi” telephones Xiaomi makes. As an alternative of Xiaomi’s iOS-inspired “MIUI” Android pores and skin, these telephones are in Google’s “Android One” program, which implies they arrive with inventory Android and get two years of OS updates. The telephones often get a wider distribution than your typical Xiaomi telephones (be careful for the LTE bands, although), so even when you’re not in Europe, they’re often straightforward to choose up on a web site like Amazon.

Xiaomi goes with a notched entrance design for the Mi A3. There is a tiny teardrop notch on the high of the cellphone, a medium-sized backside bezel, and rounded show corners. The back and front of the cellphone is manufactured from Gorilla Glass 5. On the again, you will discover a triple digicam setup, and on the entrance is an optical fingerprint reader within the show. Xiaomi is taking a web page out of Google’s playbook with wacky shade names. There are three colours: “Greater than White,” “Form of Grey,” and “Not simply Blue.” Xiaomi says there is a “nano-level holographic sample” on the blue and white fashions.

The Xiaomi Mi A3 is powered by the brand new Snapdragon 665 SoC that was introduced in April. This SoC makes use of eight of Qualcomm’s customized “Kryo 260” cores (primarily based on the Cortex-A73 design) at 2GHz, together with a Adreno 610 GPU, all constructed on a 11nm manufacturing course of. The cellphone has 4GB of RAM, a 4030mAh battery, a USB-C port, an IR blaster, and a MicroSD slot. The €249 (~$280) model will get you 64GB storage, whereas a €279 (~$313) model could have 128GB of storage. The rear triple digicam setup makes use of a 48MP major digicam, an 8MP ultrawide digicam, and a 2MP depth digicam. The entrance digicam is 32MP.

A giant deal is the return of the three.5mm headphone jack, which existed on the A1 however was faraway from the A2. After numerous complaining from clients, it looks as if Xiaomi truly listened and introduced again the audio jack for the Mi A3. Good job, Xiaomi.

The main concern I see on the Xiaomi Mi A3 spec sheet is within the show part. The 6.1-inch, 1560×720 OLED show (282ppi) doesn’t sound nice, and for this worth I might have preferred to see a 1080p-class decision. Heck, the Xiaomi Mi A1 and A2 each shipped with 1080p shows, so why the sudden downgrade? Xiaomi may argue that the A1 and A2 used LCDs and this cellphone is an OLED, however I am unsure that is well worth the trade-off.

LTE compatibility on the Xiaomi A line is often fairly restricted. On this case, your LTE bands are 1, 2, three, four, 5, 7, eight, 20, 28, 38, and 40. That isn’t totally suitable with any US service, however you may have the ability to get OK T-Cell service with it.

For now, the cellphone is launching in Spain, however it’s going to slowly be shifting throughout Europe over the approaching weeks.

Itemizing picture by Xiaomi