So on 21st Feb 2014, Xiaomi launched the very first online sale for this phone in Singapore at 12 noon. According to news, the phone was sold out within 8 minutes. I'm not so sure about that since I actually placed my order on the 22nd Feb, exactly 1 day later. And the phone arrives at my doorstep today. I must applaud the UPS guy who made this possible.
It came in a nice little brown box. On the left is the box containing the phone itself, and the stuff on the right is the 'bundle' which I bought together at the same time. The bundle consists an extra battery, a desktop charger, screen protectors and a silicone case. Xiaomi also bundled 2 pieces of SIM adapters in the whole package. All these for the unbelievable price of $197 Singapore Dollars. That is approximately USD $156.
Here you are with all the stuff taken out from the box. The biggest box in the center is the phone itself and it comes with just the battery and a standard micro-USB cable.
Notice the little silver foil covering the camera lens? I think that's a nice little touch. Despite the name of the phone, the color is grey, not red. However, you can buy additional back covers easily, including the red color one. Next, I need to insert the battery and SIM card. The instructions says I have to pry from the lower left corner of the phone (yes, I read the quick start guide!). There's a little groove on the back case where you can pull the cover off. It came off pretty easily and it does feel a little flimsy. You know, the kind of feeling that everything will fall apart.
A good buddy help me cut my data SIM from the standard form factor down to the nano SIM form factor. And now I have to use the adapter to put it back into this phone. What irony. Due to the way the orientation and the position of the SIM slot, you do require a little effort to get the SIM+adapter securely fitted into it. And then the moment of truth. You press the power button on the right side and waited for the phone to power up for the first time.
It took quite a while and that actually scares me a little. But the result is the setup screen greeting you
It's very straight forward. Pick your language, choose your Wifi (oh it doesn't do 5Ghz 802.11n by the way) and you're almost done. As part of the setup, you have the option of synchronizing the phone to Mi Cloud, as well as the standard Google account. Yes, Google services are available on this one! I setup both. Lastly, I notice my Starhub data SIM is not working. So I have to figure out where the APN settings are and change the APN name to match. And when all's said and done, here's the final home screen.
Not bad for a $169 phone. The bundle cost $28. Total damage $197. I played with it for a while. The build quality is exceptional for a budget phone. It feels... hefty and solid in the hand. The screen looks good and the UI is responsive for what is considered a budget processor from MediaTek. It runs MIUI v5, which is based on Android 4.2. At least I don't have to worry about the WebView bug.
Enough of fiddling. I have to apply the screen protector. It stated on the packaging that there are 2 pieces. Pleasant surprise there, I was only expecting one. When I open up the package, even more surprises.
There are 3 in fact. However, the 3rd piece is termed as 'practice'. You can see it in the picture. For those who don't understand Chinese, I'm sorry. The one on the left is the 'practice' piece while the one on the right is the 'real' piece. I've been buying screen protectors from China all my life and this is the first time I've seen this. Nothing much to say about the protectors, they... just work. I got the clear type, which I don't really like but when I ordered, they ran out of the anti-glare type. I guess something has to give...
I said that prying open the back cover feels a little flimsy. You have to do this if you're going to swap batteries unfortunately. From that single experience, I'm not sure if I really want to swap the batteries now, or just use those portable chargers which are literally everywhere.
Lastly, there's the silicone case. I picked the black color and it looks like this
It fits snugly and barely covers the sides when fitted. So that's it. I have yet to try out the camera and the various multimedia functions. So far, it has performed well surfing the net over Starhub 3G and wifi.
It's amazing Xiaomi can packed so much into this $169 phone. I think this is going to dominate the budget smartphone segment for at least the next couple of months. For those comparing this with the Samsung S5, don't be silly. And those comparing this to the Moto G, you may have a tough choice there.
. This specific model provides 4 bays, and uses up 3 5.25" bays in your tower. This is also known as a 4-in-3 cage. There are also 5-in-4 cages available. You need to plan a little bit further and decide if you want the 4-in-3 or 5-in-4. I personally use a 4-in-3.
. In most cases, you don't want these unless you plan to use the smaller 2.5" form factor drives. For me, I do have some 2.5" drives lying around (as a result of multiple upgradings of laptop drives) so I got one of these. I use the 4-in-1 type which takes in 12mm 2.5" drives. I have personally saw 6-in-1 cages (
) but they can only take 9.5mm drives.
) comes with 6 SATA ports. You need an additional disk controller to provide the extra SATA ports. I purchased an Dell PERC card off eBay. It's really a rebadged LSI Megaraid SAS controller card. This is a somewhat high-end card meant for servers so you might want to go for 'consumer' class controllers, like 
.
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. For Singapore readers, just go SLS and buy it. It's known as Hotway Probox here.
is back at $239. If you missed it the last time round, now is the time. I love mine.
is still $449! Looks like it's going to be a more or less permanent price drop.
, it's $499!
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and it works well. It's more convenient to use than the upper arm type. The size is also more friendly if you ever need to bring it out for travelling.