Xiaomi launched the Mi A2 in India today and we've been playing around with the phone ever since it was announced in Madrid. The key feature on the Mi A1 was the Android One operating system, however, the Chinese company has turned up a notch with its successor. 

© Akshay Bhalla

The Mi A2 has a vertical dual camera setup and has a refreshed design for the newly launched phone. The smartphone will compete with the Honor Play and other mid-tier smartphones that offer a similar experience. Having said that, let's see how it fared during the course of our review:

Xiaomi phones are always aesthetically pleasing and the Mi A2 is no exception. It has the same prominent “Android One” branding on the back where the antenna lines are barely visible on the black colour variant. 

It has a vertical dual camera module on the top left corner which protrudes and a fingerprint sensor right below it (at the centre). You will definitely end up using the supplied cover in order to protect the camera lens.

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In terms of ergonomics, the Mi A2 is less bulky than its predecessor and fits well in the palm of your hands. It slimmer than the A1 albeit a gram heavier. The thinner, heavier and better-designed smartphone definitely works in its favour as it sits extremely well in your pocket.

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The other thing you will notice is that the headphone jack has been removed, which does not make sense to us. Xiaomi says the headphone jack has been removed to accommodate a thinner design, however, we are unable to fathom this explanation since smartphones like OnePlus 6 and Galaxy S9, smartphones with a thinner body are capable of having the 3.5 mm jack. 

Anyway, if you want to listen to music, you will either have to use a wireless headphone, as the phone supports Bluetooth 5.0, or carry the supplied dongle with you everywhere. 

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The Mi A2 has a 5.99-inch FHD+ LCD display that has an aspect ratio of 18:9 and a resolution of 2160 X 1080. There are noticeable bezels on the top and bottom which is far less than its predecessor. The display was able to portray accurate and vivid colours while the sharpness was also on point considering this is an LCD Display. We also appreciate the fact that Xiaomi did not adopt a display with a “notch”, because it is simply annoying to see another iPhone X clone. 

The Mi A2 is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 processor and is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. For the GPU, Xiaomi opted to include the Adreno 512 chipset which is more than enough for casual gaming. If you are looking to play PUBG on this phone, we would suggest you have a look at the Honor Play for a better experience. The Mi A2 scored a respectable 1639 in the single-core test while it managed to rake in 4824 for the multi-core test. 

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The overall performance of the smartphone felt snappy and fluid when it came to multi-tasking and casual gaming. Even though the SD 660 chipset is known for better battery life, we found the Xiaomi Mi A2 lacking in this department. We would have liked to see the smartphone last longer, as it would require charging at least twice a day. The Mi A2 is outfitted with a 3,000 mAh battery and as a USB Type-C port. The good news is that this time it supports Quick Charging 4 even though the supplied charger can only support QC 3. You will have to buy a charger that supports QC 4 at a later stage to reap full benefits. 

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Xiaomi has now improved the camera on the Mi A2 drastically, as it has a 12-megapixel (Sony IMX486) + 20-megapixel (IMX 376) primary cameras with both lenses having an aperture of f/1.75. The f/1.75 aperture enables the smartphone to let in more light which effectively results in better photos and low-light pictures. 

The secondary sensor can also be fired up individually, in case you need to use the 4-in-1 2μm Super Pixel feature. Overall, we managed to click some amazing images with the Mi A2, especially when it came to portrait shots. The selfie camera is also quite impressive as it can take AI enabled shots via its 20-megapixel sensor. Here are a few sample shots for your reference: 

Some spectacular shots using the #MiA2 which is set to launch in India soon. 2 days to be precise. #technology #smartphones #xiaomi

A post shared by Akshay Bhalla / Høax (@editorinchief) on Aug 6, 2018 at 8:48am PDT

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The Mi A2 is a mid-budget smartphone that blows the competition out of the water. It performs well thanks to the stock Android experience. The smartphone costs Rs 17,499 and it has easily become one of our favourite budget smartphone of 2018. The camera does a great job and is definitely a step up from its predecessor and performs well for daily use. We would have loved to see it last longer than it does, as we feel Xiaomi should have included a bigger battery. Xiaomi launched the Mi A2 in India today and we've been playing around with the phone ever since it was announced in Madrid. The key feature on the Mi A1 was the Android One operating system, however, the Chinese company has turned up a notch with its successor.