The Mi A1 comes with a 5.5-inch touchscreen display with Full HD 1080p resolution, powered by a 3080 mAh battery. It measures 155.40 mm × 75.80 mm × 7.30 mm (height × width × thickness) and weighs 165.00 grams. The phone is powered by a 2.0 GHz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with the 14 nm FinFET process with Adreno 506 650 MHz GPU, and comes with 4 GB of RAM. It 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage, and unique for the series, microSD card slot (hybrid slot) supporting up to 128 GB cards. The rear camera on the Mi A1 is 12 MP 1.25 μm f/2.2 + 12 MP 1.0 μm, f/2.6 shooters with autofocus and 2× optical lossless zoom, two-tone flash and a 5-piece lens. It is capable of recording HD and 4k videos. The phone also has a 5 MP 1.12 μm, f/2 front camera. Sensors on the phone include: compass magnetometer, proximity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, fingerprint sensor, infrared, and Hall Sensor.[4]
Software
The Xiaomi Mi A1 initially runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat and is updatable to Android 9 Pie. Besides the Google's suite of applications, the device is preloaded with Xiaomi's applications such as Camera, Feedback, Mi Community and Mi Remote. The Mi A1 receives OS upgrades for a minimum of two years. The Android Oreo update does not bring a project Treble functionality for device-independent system updates.[5] The device's kernel sources were released in January 2018, 4 months after its release.[6][7][8]
Mi 5X
The Mi 5X is the Chinese market version of the Mi A1, running MIUI over Android. The 5X only differs in its software, having identical hardware to the A1.[9]
Release
The Xiaomi Mi A1 was unveiled on 5 September 2017 and was available in all of Xiaomi's markets at the time,[10] with the exception of the People's Republic of China, where the MIUI based variant, Mi 5X, was released earlier that year.
Sam Byford of The Verge described Mi A1's most distinct feature is its software that runs on stock Android and not on Xiaomi's MIUI layer.[12] Sahil Gupta of TechRadar wrote that Mi A1's Android One certified experience along with tried and tested hardware, and dual camera capability gives you the premium feel under a budget.[13]
The phone is described as 'giving a resurgence' to the Android One program,[14] being the first Android One phone to be sold worldwide, and the first Android One phone made by a top-5 best-selling smartphone brand.[15][16] It was also the first mid-range priced phone to feature a dual rear camera setup with a zoom lens.[17]
At the end of 2017, Android Oreo was released and created major battery draining issues on some devices.
[18]
Another issue of Android Oreo was the instability of Wi-Fi connections.[19]
References
^"Mi A1 launched". Android Authority. 5 September 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2017-09-05.