Xiaomi Mi 4c review: MiForce

Performance

The rather affordable Xiaomi Mi 4c is powered by the top-tier Snapdragon 808 chip, which packs a six-core processor, Adreno 418 GPU and 2 or 3 GB of RAM, depending on the chosen storage option (16 or 32 GB).

The processor of the S808 chip has two powerful Cortex-A57 cores ticking at 1.82GHz, and four energy-efficient Cortex-A53 blocks running at 1.44GHz. This is the same configuration we've already met in the LG G4 flagship.

GeekBench 3 gauges the multi-core performance and the Mi 4c is close to its Mi 4 siblings and the LG G4, but the raw performance, quite expectedly, is behind the octa-core devices.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu MX5
  5110
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  4589
• Lenovo K3 Note
  4067
• Meizu m1 note
  3988
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  3554
• LG G4 (final)
  3522
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  3321
• HTC One (E8)
  3229
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  3175
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2336

AnTuTu 5 takes in consideration processor, GPU and memory performance and the Xiaomi Mi 4c aced the test. Devices scoring above 50k are often considered as flagships, and the Mi 4c indeed offers top-notch performance.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  50875
• Meizu MX5
  48915
• LG G4 (final)
  48693
• HTC One (E8)
  46857
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  46307
• Lenovo K3 Note
  46283
• Meizu m1 note
  39224
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  38786
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  34491

The compound BaseMark OS II 2.0 app is another useful benchmark for measuring an overall score of a device. It addition to the CPU, GPU and memory, the BaseMark OS II 2.0 also tests web and system performance. The Mi 4c almost climbed on top of the chart, but it was bested by the Meizu MX5.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Meizu MX5
  1252
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  1233
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  1063
• Lenovo K3 Note
  984
• Meizu m1 note
  880
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  860
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  296

The single-core performance is better than any other device in the chart below, because the Cortex-A57 core is faster and more powerful than any Cortex-A53.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  5739
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  3434
• Meizu MX5
  3262
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  3008
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2990
• Meizu m1 note
  2617
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  2065

The multi-core score is unimpressive though, as 8 cores is still greater than 6 cores.

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Lenovo K3 Note
  24538
• Meizu MX5
  22976
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  21516
• Meizu m1 note
  14565
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  14276
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  13521
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7891

The Adreno 418 GPU was designed to handle Quad HD displays easily, but the Xiaomi Mi 4c puts it in charge of a 1080p screen. That's the reason it came on top of any other GPU in our chart - it's just more powerful than the Adreno 405 or similar equivalents on other chips.

The offscreen tests puts the Adreno 418 inside the Mi 4c on par with the same GPU within the LG G4.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  35
• LG G4 (final)
  34
• HTC One (E8)
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  27.6
• Meizu MX5
  27
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  23
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  23
• Lenovo K3 Note
  15
• Meizu m1 note
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  14

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• LG G4 (final)
  15
• HTC One (E8)
  12.3
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  11.6
• Meizu MX5
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  8.5
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.4
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  10
• LG G4 (final)
  9.9
• Meizu MX5
  4.8
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  4
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2.9

And quite expectedly the Mi 4c aces the onscreen benchmarks and beats even the LG G4 with Quad HD screen, because of its 1080p native resolution.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  35
• HTC One (E8)
  29.9
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  28.2
• Meizu MX5
  27
• LG G4 (final)
  25
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  23
• Meizu m1 note
  16
• Lenovo K3 Note
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  14

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• HTC One (E8)
  12.9
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  11.3
• Meizu MX5
  9.5
• LG G4 (final)
  9.4
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.7
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  7.9
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  6.2
• Lenovo K3 Note
  6.1
• Meizu m1 note
  5.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  9.7
• LG G4 (final)
  5.6
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  4.9
• Meizu MX5
  4.7
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  3.9
• Lenovo K3 Note
  2.9

BaseMark X is another GPU intensive test where the Xiaomi Mi 4c does great.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  12096
• Meizu MX5
  10403
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  8518
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7780
• Lenovo K3 Note
  5656
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  4875
• Meizu m1 note
  4617
• HTC One (E8)
  3063

And here is surprise for you - the Mi 4c did awesome on the web browser tests. The Mi Browser aced both the JavaScript Kraken benchmark and the compound BrowserMark test. Nice job!

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  4506
• LG G4 (final)
  4639
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  6137
• HTC One (E8)
  6460
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  9504
• Lenovo K3 Note
  10712
• Meizu MX5
  11414
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  11439
• Meizu m1 note
  15055
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  25088

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2113
• LG G4 (final)
  1992
• Lenovo K3 Note
  1554
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  1505
• Meizu MX5
  1471
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  1396
• HTC One (E8)
  1362
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  1203
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  744
• Meizu m1 note
  536

Xiaomi Mi 4c is the most powerful mid-ranger you can get right now. The Snapdragon 808 chip turned out an excellent performer when powering the flagship LG G4 with a Quad HD screen, but putting it in charge of the 1080p Mi 4c turned it into a real beast. There is literally no department where the Mi 4c is lacking in terms of performance and with the optimized MIUI 7 it's one of the hottest deals on the market right now.