Xiaomi Mi 3 review: The way of the dragon

Performance

Xiaomi Mi 3 runs on the popular and powerful Snapdragon 800 chipset with a quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The Mi 3 comes with a 1080p display, which means the smartphone should be on par with the 2013 flagships featuring the same combo - Samsung Galaxy Note 3, LG G2, Sony Xperia Z1, plus the recently launched Oppo Find 7a.

Our first tests explores the raw CPU power, but for some reason Xiaomi Mi 3 fails to impress here. We did the test a couple of times, but either the app or the software optimizations are incompatible with the GeekBench 3 CPU benchmark.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  3093
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  2937
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• LG G2
  2243
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1895
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  1869
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  1837

Things immediately got better when we ran the AnTuTu compound tests, which in addition to the CPU calculations, throws in GPU and RAM routines, too. The Xiaomi Mi 3 gets an excellent mark here.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• LG G2
  35444
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  34972
• Oppo Find 7a
  33344
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  31109
• Sony Xperia Z1
  30850
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  27613
• Huawei Ascend P7
  25812

We've tested both regular and anti-cheat version of the popular Basemark OS II benchmark and we found the Xiaomi Mi 3 doesn't use any tricks to boost the scores. It does excellent on all three test we keep track of, so you shouldn’t worry about any performance hiccups.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 3
  1289
• Oppo Find 7
  1212
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  2580
• Galaxy S5 (S801)
  2415
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  2400
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253
• LG G3
  1787

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  10256
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  10063
• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  9007
• LG G3
  8337

The Adreno 330 is a wide-spread GPU core and we already knew what to expect. The Xiaomi Mi 3 is on par with the Oppo Find 7a and beating the rest of the competition in both the on-screen and off-screen tests.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  28.4
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  27.4
• LG G3
  27.6
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.3
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• LG G2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S4 S600
  17.1
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.3

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  28.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  28.2
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  28.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.7
• LG G2
  23.1
• LG G3
  20.6
• Oppo Find 7
  19.9
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.4

The Open GL ES3.0 Manhattan test puts the Xiaomi Mi 3 among the best devices we've tested o far.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 3
  11.6
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• LG G3
  11.9
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  11.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  9.9
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  11.7
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  11.5
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  10
• LG G3
  7.4
• Oppo Find 7
  6.7

The BrowserMark 2.1 tests HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. The Xiaomi Mi 3 did great on Kraken, but somewhat average on the compound BrowserMark test.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Mi 3
  6586
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• Snapdragon Galaxy S5 (S801)
  6043
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG G3
  7610
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  15885

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1452
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (S801)
  1398
• Oppo Find 7a
  1327
• LG G3
  1254
• Samsung Galaxy S5 mini
  861
• Xiaomi Mi 3
  706
• Gionee Elife S5.5
  432

Xiaomi Mi 3 and its Snapdragon 800 chipsets deliver excellent raw performance and provide hiccup-free gaming and blazing-fast Android + MIUI performance. There is nothing the Xiaomi Mi 3 can't do and it will have no one disappointed.