Big black and beautiful

So who is the Mi Max 2 meant for? For a start reading ebooks, sketch and paint apps definitely benefit from the size. The large screen is a pleasure to game on and watch movies. VR is another area which enjoys more screen real estate, though a 4k screen would be more apt for VR. So what exactly is this beast meant for left us pondering.

Tablets were supposed to give us that extra dose of productivity and large screen to consume movies and games. Under powered hardware and bulky builds left us dissatisfied most of last year.

The phablet

Mi Max 2 makes a lot of sense as a secondary device, something that you use to read, game and watch movies and leave it in your back pack when at work. This is a device that you can leave on your coffee table to binge on prime movies and netflix. Not to mention Kindle books.

Ok we are sold on the idea, but does it live upto the expectations?

Build

Elegant matte black finish tames the beastly illusion to a more easy on the eyes look. Stereo speakers, 312ppi amoled display, snapdragon 625 at 2Ghz with 4Gb RAM and 64Gb internal storage leave little for asking at that price. The 5300mah battery is supposed to last upto 3 days on moderate use which sounds good given its specs.

A decent rear snapper from Sony the 12 MP Sony IMX386 is included along with a front camera of 5MP. Both of them seem like decent performers in broad daylight, but don’t expect stellar low light performance at these price points.

On the software side Mi Max 2 is the first of their devices to ship with a Android Nougat based MiUI out of the box.

Performance

Nice octa core performance combined with a killer battery source makes it droolworthy. Playing games, watching videos and most every day tasks are a breeze, except for playing graphics intensive games the rest is a cake walk for the Snapdragon 625 and Adreno GPU. Even with moderate use the battery lasts 2 days with a bit to spare.

MIUI 8

Brighter colors and a more animations show of the big display of MiMax 2 nicely. The phone dialler has animated icons and full screen pictures of contacts. Improved and bright notifications shade along with matching fonts make MIUI 8 very elegant on the eyes.

Some minor improvements in the camera and gallery app, now you can doodle on your photos. Stronger power saving mode will now suspend applications and the stock apps like the calculator get some updates.

Overall a beautiful and elegant UI with hardly any glitches.

Conclusion

With the imminent release of Note 8 on the horizon the Mi Max could steal a significant chunk of the audience with its decent specs and palatable price to match.

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