Xiaomi Mi 4c review: MiForce

A 13MP snapper with a true-tone dual-LED flash

Xiaomi Mi 4c features a 13MP camera, equipped with a dual-LED dual-tone flash. The setup is absolutely the same as on the Mi 4i, which offered great photos by the way, so we hope Xiaomi will be keeping the same or even better level of processing.

The camera interface is fairly simple and features toggles for the HDR mode, the flash and the video camera.

It has three panes - the default one shows the viewfinder with a virtual shutter, flash trigger and front camera key. A pull down from the top of the screen gets you a choice of 12 filters with live previews. A slide from the bottom displays the advanced modes such as Panorama, Virtual Horizon, Beautify, Timer, Tilt Shift, Fisheye, and Manual as well as the camera settings.

Camera UI

The Manual Mode offers you manual settings for white balance and ISO. The Face Detection switch is within the additional settings.

The Xiaomi Mi 4c, just like we've hoped for, resolves amazing amount of detail and the noise levels are kept reasonably low. The white balance accurate, and we like the lively color rendition. The dynamic range is high, which is another plus in the overwhelmingly positive list of impressions. Overall the processing is really mature and we consider those samples among the best 13MP ones we've seen so far.

Xiaomi Mi 4c camera samples

The HDR mode is conservative enough and rescues both the highlights and shadows without making a flat contrastless mess out of the image. Those aren't the best HDR photos we've seen, as they lose some of the sharpness, but they certainly are among the better ones, especially if you are going to downscale them.

HDR off (top row) • HDR on (bottom row)

Panorama shots are available too. You can capture both landscape and portrait panoramic photos with a 180 degree field of view. Shooting is easy, the resolution has been increased over the Mi 4i and the stitching takes less time to complete. The end result is unimpressive, but better than the 4i - the resolution is about 4000x1240px (or 4000x680 in landscape) and the image quality is slightly above average - there is enough detail, no awful stiches and accurate enough colors. The dynamic range could have been better though.

Xiaomi Mi 4c panorama samples - portrait mode (top) and landscape shooting (bottom)

Xiaomi Mi 4c features a 5MP front-facing camera for high-res selfies. The images come out soft with average detail, but will do for Facebook or similar social networks.

5MP camera samples taken with the front camera

The Xiaomi Mi 4c is more than capable of pulling its own weight in our Photo Comparison tool. You can see it puts up an excellent fight against the other snappers we've tested and comes on top even against some far pricier options.

Xiaomi Mi 4c in our photo quality comparison tool

1080p video recording

Xiaomi Mi 4c camcorder has the same UI as the still camera. It supports slow-mo (the result is a 720p@30fps video) and time-lapse videos with customizable snapping interval.

Camcorder UI

The Xiaomi Mi 4c is capable or recording up to 1080p@30fps. The bitrate of the video recordings is poor at about 15 Mbps, while audio is captured at 96 Kbps with 2 channels (stereo).

The resolved detail in the videos is modest at best. The colors and contrast are good and the framerate is smooth and consistent at 30fps. The dynamic range is above average.

And here is a 1080p video we've uploaded on YouTube.

You can also download the 1080p video sample taken straight off the Xiaomi Mi 4c.

Here the Xiaomi Mi 4c enters our video comparison tool. There are plenty of 1080p camcorders you can compare it with. It resolves an average level of detail, but contrast and colors are good.

Xiaomi Mi 4c in our Video quality comparison