Xiaomi doesn’t have a long history, but in less than 10 years it went through several major milestones, which we described in the story of the brand. As a smartphone maker, it brings a range of flagships under the Xiaomi Mi name.
Xiaomi will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, and that’s why we decided to look back at every significant product and model from this series.
Each of them brought major innovations, and for Xiaomi it was a step forward. In today’s article, we’ll look back at their original offering, the Xiaomi Mi 1.
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Unveiled more than eight years ago
Exactly on August 16 / August 2011, the first model in today’s successful flagship series, the Xiaomi Mi 1, was introduced. The new product reached distribution two months later, and its retail price was 1999 Chinese yuan, which is approximately 258 € / 6 543 kč.
In its first 34 hours, the device received more than 300,000 pre-orders.
For comparison, at the time Samsung offered its first Galaxy S series model, the i9000, with similar specifications for approximately 500 € / 12 680 kč.
Small, lightweight, and colorful
The Xiaomi Mi 1 measured 125 x 63 x 11.9 mm and weighed only 149 g. The first Xiaomi model had just one slot for a mini SIM card. Seeing this smartphone today will probably make you smile, but at the time of its launch, it was obviously a top-tier device.
The front was made by a touchscreen covering 56 % of the front area. For comparison, today’s smartphones typically cover 80 % of the front side.
At the top there is a panel with the “Mi” logo, where the headset speaker is located, along with the front camera and the proximity sensor (a sensor that detects when you hold the smartphone up to your ear, turning off the display during a call). Under the display, there’s also enough space for three capacitive buttons – discount: Menu, Home and Back.
The back of the Xiaomi Mi 1 featured a removable plastic cover that came in as many as eight different color variants. In the upper part of the back, in the middle, there was a module with the rear camera and an LED flash; in the lower right, there’s an opening for the rear speaker.
The smartphone’s sides had hardware control elements. At the top, there was the power button and an opening for a 3,5 mm audio jack. On the right side, you had the volume buttons and a multifunction button that could also serve as a camera shutter. On the left side, in the frame, there was an opening for the micro USB connector.
The entire Xiaomi Mi 1 smartphone felt compact, and thanks to its matte plastic back and rounded shape, it fit nicely in your hand and didn’t slip out.
Xiaomi also sold these colored covers for the Mi 1:
The display was 4 inches and the operating memory was 1 GB
The capacitive touchscreen TFT LCD had a 4-inch diagonal and offered a 480 x 854 pixels resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Pixel density was 245 ppi.
The smartphone was equipped with a dual-core processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260, clocked at 1.5 GHz, along with the Adreno 220 graphics chip. The RAM capacity was 1 GB, and storage was 4 GB. This could be expanded with a microSD memory card up to 32 GB.
The multimedia setup included a front 2 MP camera and a rear camera with a resolution of 8 MP. It had an aperture of f/2.4 and autofocus. The Xiaomi Mi 1 could record video in 1080 x 1920 pixels at 30 frames per second.
As for wireless connectivity, the smartphone supported 3G HSPA mobile network technology, with data downloads at speeds up to 14.4 Mbps and data uploads at up to 5.76 Mbps. In addition, it had a single-band WiFi in the 802.11 b/g/n standard and a Bluetooth 2.1 interface. Location services were handled by GPS as well as assisted GPS (A-GPS).
For the rest of the equipment, the Xiaomi Mi 1 features a 2.0 micro USB connector, a 3.5 mm audio jack, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, and a compass. The removable Li-ion battery had a capacity of 1 930 mAh. After its launch, the Xiaomi Mi 1 ran Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the MIUI 2.3 software overlay.
Upgraded version: Xiaomi Mi 1S
After a certain period, the smartphone was a success for the manufacturer and was slightly improved to the Xiaomi Mi 1S model. Compared to its predecessor, it brought a more powerful processor, the Snapdragon S3 Scorpion clocked at 1.7 GHz.
The rear camera was also improved: with the same resolution, it had a smaller aperture, f/2.2. The upgraded smartphone arrived with a preinstalled system—Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Xiaomi Mi 1, often also called the Xiaomi Phone, was the first and immediately very successful smartphone from Xiaomi. At the time, the company had a vision of low margins, which helped it achieve record sales. We’ll gradually catch up on all Mi-series smartphones, and maybe—over time—on other successful devices as well.
Xiaomi released this video for the Mi 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjkNaqFS0gw&feature=emb_title
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