Have started using my phone only since yesterday. My short review of the Xioami 3
Screen - Absolutely wonderful. The IPS display really excels and is soothing to the eye. The colors are rich and not overly saturated. But glass is overly reflective and I personally found it sometimes a bit difficulto use under overhead glare.
UI : Very good to look at and quite good to use it too. I like the richness and the eye candy that the UI has. Looks similar to the iPhone UI that we had prior to iPhone 5S but looks very rich for a phone at this price. I think this is why its called the apple of china. I don't have any complaints on the UI. In fact, I like it over the cheap look of the Samsung UI.
The free themes are an excellent add on if you are bored with the stock look.
Camera : Very good for a 14K phone. Pictures come out a bit dark in normal conditions. Colors are not true and are a bit over satured. . Cream comes out yellowish. There is an option to change the saturation but the results are still not spot on. White balance is not good and I don't see any option to adjust the white balance. Correct me if I am wrong. Overall, one shouldn't mind all these minor issues considering the price. Xioami has packed a feature rich camera module.
Phone : Zero lag, buttery smooth. Call quality is good although the speakerphone volume could be a little louder.
Looks : I like the metal back. Looks better than some of the Flagship phones.
Build quality is good and at this price, I wouldn't complaint.
Negatives :
The biggest drawback I would like to mention is that the phone gets slightly heated up when in use and almost to uncomfortable levels when being charged. I am worried that the phone might brick soon with the amount of heat that is getting generated by the device. I am yet to play any games and check the heat since I am unable to install any app from the playstore.
Standard Old school Sim card. Yes, I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the sim slot. Had to run to my local shop for a sim adapter. Couldn't understand Xioami's choice of going with a standard sim. Might be something to do with their largest customer base which is China.
The updates from the Xiaomi servers are taking ages to download. I don't know if its only me.
Some other quirks : Unable to install any app from the play store. Will have to look for fixes. Sure must be a one off issue.
Love my Xioami Mi3 for what I have seen till now. Will update as I get deeper into the phone.