Xiaomi anniversary sale: Here's why Mi 5, Redmi Note 3 and Mi Max make for a good buy

Xiaomi is celebrating its second anniversary in India and that means heavy discounts on the Xiaomi products selling on its Indian website. Mi 5 price has dropped to Rs 22,999 from Rs 24,999; Mi 4 has dropped to Rs 10,999 from Rs 14,999 and more. It is even offering 10 lucky winners products such as the Redmi Note 3 (21 July) and the Mi Max (22 July) for Re 1 and 100 lucky winners its Mi Band (21 July) and Mi Bluetooth Speakers (22 July). We have reviewed all the three phones in the running – the Mi 5, the Redmi Note 3 and the Mi Max. Xiaomi has been known to come out with good products at affordable price points. All the three phones do come with their own set of flaws for sure. For instance, the Mi 5 tends to suppress some features of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS; the Redmi Note 3 does not offer the best low light photography and the Mi Max has an oddly placed fingerprint sensor. But on the whole, at the prices these phones are selling, they easily offer the best value for your money in the segment.  When reviewing the Redmi Note 3 , we observed, “Xiaomi has clearly delivered enough goods with the Redmi Note 3 for us to recommend it. While it comes in two variants – Rs 9,999 (for 2GB RAM/16GB ROM) and Rs 11,999 (for 3GB RAM/32GB ROM) – we would recommend the latter as it gives you more room to do multi-tasking. Of course, you need to keep in mind that this phone does not perform well in the low light photography department.”    The Xiaomi Mi 5 is one really good looking device and comes with top end specs. “At Rs 24,999, the Mi 5, apart from being the first Snapdragon 820 powered phone, is also the most economical at that price point. With the 820, Qualcomm has certainly improved upon the heating issues that were plaguing the Snapdragon 810 chipset. If you want a fast phone, which also looks elegant and has a good camera – go for the Mi 5.”  **Mi Max** which was launched quite recently is Xiaomi’s first foray into large screen smartphones. Xiaomi is taking a bet that this category of large screen phones will pick up. While it is ambitious, we did find the phone to be impressive. “The Xiaomi Mi Max has few competitors in the ‘Max’ category. As we have mentioned in past reviews, it’s not just the battery life that matters but the overall package and Xiaomi seems to have built a solid smartphone with a solid battery life. We were not fans of the software but the camera won us over and the same goes for the overall package.”