The Mi Max 3 really does stretch the definition of what can technically be considered a handset. Even with its extremely loose definition, the "phablet" category just barely seems to accommodate the massive 6.9-inch panel.
Whether or not you consider the Mi Max 3 a tablet or a phone, if you are looking into it, you have already subscribed to the particular footprint. If that isn't the case, we advise you to go and check it out in person first.
But size is far from the only thing the Mi Max 3 display has going for it. For one, we appreciate that Xiaomi didn't cheap out and went for FullHD+ resolution. Frankly, anything less would have looked blurry at this size.
Display test
100% brightness
Black, cd/m2
White, cd/m2
Contrast ratio
Motorola Moto G6 Plus (Max Auto)
0.564
776
1376
Motorola Moto G6 Plus
0.418
610
1459
Motorola Moto Z2 Force (Max Auto)
0
559
∞
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
0.548
555
1013
Xiaomi Mi Max 2
0.401
519
1294
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus (Standard)
0.355
508
1431
Huawei Honor View 10 (Max Auto)
0.311
507
1629
Xiaomi Mi Max 3
0.339
496
1462
Huawei P20 Lite
0.27
482
1785
Huawei Mate 10 Lite
0.257
476
1852
Xiaomi Mi 8
0
458
∞
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
0
455
∞
Huawei Honor View 10
0.278
453
1629
Xiaomi Mi Max
0.46
424
922
Motorola Moto Z2 Force
0
376
∞
The panel gets decently bright, which, as you can imagine, is a harder feat, as size goes up. It keeps light bleed at 0% in check fairly well, making for respectable, if not chart-topping contrast levels. The only real omission we came across is the lack of a max auto mode.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Apple iPhone X 5.013
OnePlus 5T 4.789
Samsung Galaxy S8 4.768
Samsung Galaxy S8+ 4.658
Samsung Galaxy S9 4.63
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ 4.615
Samsung Galaxy S9+ 4.537
Samsung Galaxy Note9 4.531
Motorola Moto Z2 Play 4.459
Oppo R11 4.454
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge 4.439
OnePlus 3 4.424
Samsung Galaxy S7 4.376
OnePlus 6 4.321
HTC One A9 4.274
Oppo R15 Pro 4.251
Samsung Galaxy Note7 4.247
Samsung Galaxy A3 4.241
Nokia 8 4.239
Google Pixel 2 XL (pre-update) 4.234
OnePlus 3T 4.232
Google Pixel XL 4.164
ZTE Axon 7 4.154
Samsung Galaxy Note8 4.148
Meizu Pro 7 Plus 4.147
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 4.124
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) 4.124
Huawei Mate 10 Pro (normal) 4.096
Samsung Galaxy Note5 4.09
Huawei P20 Pro 4.087
Xiaomi Mi 8 4.086
Meizu 15 4.082
Nokia 6 (2018) 4.052
Google Pixel 2 (pre-update) 4.023
LG V30 4.022
Huawei Nexus 6P 4.019
vivo NEX S 4.012
Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro 3.998
OnePlus X 3.983
Vivo Xplay5 Elite 3.983
LG G7 ThinQ (outdoor) 3.978
Oppo R7s 3.964
Apple iPhone 7 3.964
Apple iPhone 8 (True Tone) 3.957
Huawei P9 Plus 3.956
Oppo Find X 3.954
Meizu Pro 6 Plus 3.935
Lenovo Moto Z 3.931
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) 3.918
OnePlus 5 3.914
Samsung Galaxy C5 3.911
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE 3.901
Samsung Galaxy C7 3.896
Samsung Galaxy A5 3.895
Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor 3.879
Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor 3.873
Motorola Moto G6 Plus 3.865
Samsung Galaxy A8 3.859
Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) 3.842
Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018) 3.834
Sony Xperia XZs 3.818
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) 3.817
Motorola Moto X (2014) 3.816
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) 3.812
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) 3.804
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode 3.802
Xiaomi Redmi Pro 3.798
LG V20 Max auto 3.798
Sony Xperia XZ 3.795
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) 3.789
Apple iPhone 6s 3.783
Meizu Pro 5 3.781
Microsoft Lumia 650 3.772
Xiaomi Mi 6 3.767
Sony Xperia XZ1 3.765
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) 3.756
Nokia 8 Sirocco 3.745
Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact 3.729
Apple iPhone 8 Plus (True Tone) 3.725
Oppo F1 Plus 3.709
Vivo X5Pro 3.706
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) 3.688
Huawei P20 3.683
Apple iPhone SE 3.681
Huawei Mate 9 3.68
Samsung Galaxy A7 3.679
Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact 3.675
Meizu PRO 6 3.659
BlackBerry Priv 3.645
Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra 3.597
Apple iPhone 7 Plus 3.588
Sony Xperia XZ2 3.58
LG G6 3.556
Apple iPhone 6s Plus 3.53
Motorola Moto Z Play 3.526
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) 3.523
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode 3.523
Acer Jade Primo 3.521
Microsoft Lumia 950 3.512
Oppo R7 Plus 3.499
Nokia 7 plus 3.479
nubia Z11 3.466
Huawei P10 Plus 3.456
HTC U Ultra 3.453
Motorola Moto G6 3.448
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra 3.445
Samsung Galaxy J7 3.422
Motorola Moto G6 Play 3.419
Meizu MX5 3.416
LG V20 3.402
Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018) 3.397
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera 3.393
LG G7 ThinQ 3.39
Huawei P10 3.379
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) 3.378
Oppo R9s 3.352
Honor 8 Pro 3.341
Oppo F7 3.333
Oppo R7 3.32
Lenovo P2 3.316
Archos Diamond Omega 3.305
Honor 9 3.289
Xiaomi Mi 5s 3.276
Nokia 5 3.261
Nokia 6 (Chinese version) 3.244
Xiaomi Mi 5 3.24
Nokia 6 (Global version) 3.238
Samsung Galaxy J2 3.235
Sony Xperia X Performance 3.234
Xiaomi Mi Note 2 3.228
Motorola Moto X Play 3.222
Oppo F3 Plus 3.218
BlackBerry KEY2 3.212
Huawei Mate 9 Pro 3.206
Huawei P9 3.195
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 3.19
ZTE Nubia Z17 3.159
Oppo R11s 3.153
Lenovo Vibe Shot 3.113
HTC U11 Life 3.108
Motorola Moto X Force 3.105
LG Nexus 5X 3.092
HTC U11 3.089
Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite 3.087
HTC U12+ 3.085
Xiaomi Redmi S2 (Y2) 3.077
Huawei Mate S 3.073
Microsoft Lumia 640 XL 3.065
Xiaomi Mi Max 3 3.061
Xiaomi Pocophone F1 3.059
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 3.023
Asus Zenfone 4 ZE554KL 3.019
Sony Xperia XA1 3.012
Motorola Moto X4 3.012
Sony Xperia L1 2.994
Sony Xperia X 2.989
LG Q6 2.987
Huawei P10 Lite 2.974
Samsung Galaxy Note 2.97
Huawei P20 Lite 2.952
Xiaomi Redmi 5 2.951
Huawei Mate 8 2.949
Sony Xperia XA2 2.938
Oppo Realme 1 2.932
Xiaomi Redmi 4 2.92
Xiaomi Redmi 3S 2.913
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 2.913
Sony Xperia XA Ultra 2.906
LG G5 2.905
Huawei Honor View 10 2.896
Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime 2.893
Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus 2.884
Sony Xperia XZ Premium (sRGB) 2.877
Sony Xperia XZ Premium 2.877
Sony Xperia Z5 2.876
Nokia 3 2.871
Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium 2.867
Microsoft Lumia 550 2.851
Nokia 3.1 2.837
Lenovo Moto M 2.813
Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro 2.803
Sony Xperia Z5 compact 2.784
Honor 10 (Vivid) 2.757
Nokia 2 2.752
Meizu MX6 2.751
LG V10 2.744
Huawei Mate 10 (normal) 2.742
Motorola Moto G5S Plus 2.737
Xiaomi Redmi 3 2.735
Huawei Honor 7X 2.734
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625) 2.714
Meizu M5 2.71
Xiaomi Mi A2 2.696
Sony Xperia M5 2.69
Xiaomi Mi A1 2.689
Huawei P9 Lite 2.679
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime 2.679
vivo V7+ 2.671
Vivo V3Max 2.659
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2.658
Huawei Mate 10 Lite 2.654
Oppo F5 2.653
Doogee Mix 2.642
Xiaomi Mi 4i 2.641
Xiaomi Redmi 4a 2.635
Xiaomi Mi 5X (Standard) 2.616
Sony Xperia XA 2.609
Motorola Moto G4 Plus 2.582
Motorola Moto G4 Plus (max auto) 2.582
Meizu M5s 2.58
Xiaomi Mi 4c 2.574
LeEco Le Max 2 2.567
Microsoft Lumia 640 2.563
Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL 2.563
Huawei P Smart 2.563
Xiaomi Mi Max 2 2.561
HTC U11+ 2.556
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A (Y1) 2.556
Lenovo Moto G4 2.544
Lenovo K6 Note 2.544
Oppo F1 2.528
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 2.525
Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c 2.506
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua 2.503
BlackBerry Motion 2.494
Oppo F1s 2.481
Motorola Moto G 2.477
Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus 2.473
Huawei G8 2.471
Huawei nova 2.467
Sony Xperia Z 2.462
Lenovo Vibe K5 2.459
Meizu m3 max 2.447
Xiaomi Mi 5X (Auto) 2.417
HTC 10 evo 2.407
Huawei Honor 7 2.406
Vivo V7 2.404
Sony Xperia E5 2.386
ZUK Z1 by Lenovo 2.382
HTC 10 2.378
Oppo F3 2.376
vivo V5 Plus 2.371
Meizu m1 note 2.362
Huawei nova plus 2.329
Razer Phone 2.328
HTC One E9+ 2.305
Alcatel One Touch Hero 2.272
Sony Xperia L2 2.266
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note 2.254
Sony Xperia C5 Ultra 2.253
HTC U11+ (EU) 2.253
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek) 2.249
Sony Xperia C4 Dual 2.235
Xiaomi Mi Note 2.234
Motorola Moto G (2014) 2.233
LG Nexus 5 2.228
Huawei P8 2.196
Meizu M5 Note 2.189
Huawei Honor 6 2.169
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 2.166
OnePlus Two 2.165
HTC One X 2.158
LG Aka 2.145
Sony Xperia L 1.351
Xiaomi Redmi 2 1.311
HTC Desire C 1.3
Nokia X 1.291
Meizu MX 1.221
Sony Xperia E 1.215
Even so, the Mi Max 3 is quite usable outdoors.
But color accuracy has to be the most impressively unexpected bit about the Mi Max 3. In its default "Adaptive contrast" mode, it managed to score a decently low average deltaE of 4.6 and a maximum of 9.2, in the white. A general blue hue was present all throughout the UI - pretty standard nowadays, even for some flagship phones.
Increased contrast mode does remove some of the cold blue tint, bringing the average deltaE down to 4.4 and a maximum of 9. Pretty good, but we can probably do better, with some fiddling with the manual white point controls, Xiaomi so graciously provides.
Luckily, before we started messing with those, we gave the "Standard contrast" mode a try and it left us truly amazed. An average deltaE of 1 and a maximum of 2.1. Those are values even most flagships struggle with. Especially out of the box. Xiaomi deserves plenty of praise in the color accuracy category.
Battery life
One of the potential perks of a massive footprint is an equally massive battery pack. The "potential" bit is important to note here, though, since space alone is no guarantee. We applaud Xiaomi for going as high as 5,500 mAh in the Mi Max 3.
But, a huge battery can still be wasted away by powerful or sub-optimal hardware, as well as software. MIUI has a pretty solid track record in this respect leaving few points of concern when it comes to pure Android battery optimization.
As for the hardware bit, the Snapdragon 636 might not be the fastest chipset around, not by a long shot, but it is a modern one, based on an efficient 14nm process. The Kryo 260 Gold and Kryo 260 Silver cores also feature quite a few improvements over their vanilla Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 counterparts.
Putting all this together, we get a real endurance beast of a phone, with a total rating of 115 hours in our proprietary test. That definitely cracks the all-time top 10 in our endurance chart, but we still felt like this particular hardware setup should be capable of a bit more.
Call us greedy, but the Mi Max 2 managed a better overall endurance from a smaller 5,300 mAh battery. Then again, it does also have a smaller display and an older, less powerful Snapdragon 625 chipset. Our best guess for where the variance stems from, however, is the different LTE modem. Both phones manage a consistent 3G talk time of around 30 hours, which, in itself, indicates that the newer X12 LTE modem is drawing a bit more juice from the larger battery pack. That extra strain, naturally carries over to standby, as well, which came in at around 380 hours, on the Mi Max 3. Our initial expectation were a bit higher.
Enough with the complaining. At the end of the day, the Mi Max 3 is a true marathon runner in smartphone terms. It definitely won't let you down.
Our endurance rating denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Xiaomi Mi Max 3 for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Loudspeaker
The Mi Max 3 has a single bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. Or, at least, that's what all the official specs see, to quote. Interestingly enough, the phone does also utilize its earpiece as a second channel, during playback. It's not nearly as loud or clear, but still manages to improve the experience a bit, mainly because the main speaker is not firing in the same direction. If it was forward-facing, as well, the lack of balance between the pair would definitely be annoying.
Speakerphone test
Voice, dB
Pink noise/ Music, dB
Ringing phone, dB
Overall score
Xiaomi Mi Max
67.1
66.2
68.1
Average
Huawei Honor View 10
68.6
69.9
77.8
Good
Huawei P20 Lite
66.3
71.5
84.9
Very Good
Huawei Mate 10 Lite
67.8
71.0
84.5
Very Good
Xiaomi Mi Max 3
68.5
71.6
83.6
Very Good
Lenovo Moto Z2 Force
68.2
70.2
86.1
Very Good
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera
68.4
71.6
84.8
Very Good
Xiaomi Mi Max 2
78.4
71.7
79.2
Excellent
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
70.5
74.1
85.2
Excellent
Motorola Moto G6 Plus
82.2
76.1
86.8
Excellent
Anyway, we'll leave it up to you to decide whether to brag to your friends that your Mi Max 3 is stereo or not. In terms of loudness, the phone managed a "Very Good" score, making it perfectly decent for casual use. The same can be said about the loudspeaker quality - decent, but not impressive.
Audio quality
The Xiaomi Mi Max 3 had faultless output with an active external amplifier. Nicely high loudness and perfectly clear - the phablet ticked the boxes with ease.
Better yet, degradation with headphones was minimal to non-existent - even the stereo quality was barely affected. Certainly one of the better performers out there, this one.
Test
Frequency response
Noise level
Dynamic range
THD
IMD + Noise
Stereo crosstalk
Xiaomi Mi Max 3
+0.02, -0.06
-93.7
93.8
0.0014
0.0069
-94.0
Xiaomi Mi Max 3 (headphones)
+0.06, -0.02
-93.8
93.7
0.0014
0.041
-79.3
Xiaomi Mi A2
+0.02, -0.06
-91.6
91.6
0.0018
0.014
-95.3
Xiaomi Mi A2 (headphones)
+0.08, -0.12
-92.6
92.6
0.0028
0.120
-69.0
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
+0.06, -0.02
-96.0
96.0
3.266
0.980
-95.9
Xiaomi Mi 8 SE (headphones)
+0.30, -0.32
-95.4
95.3
0.016
0.473
-56.4
Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018)
+0.07, -0.03
-89.7
89.9
0.0060
0.201
-91.7
Samsung Galaxy A6+ (2018) (headphones)
+0.22, -0.21
-91.6
91.0
0.016
0.305
-56.2
Oppo F7
+0.01, -0.10
-92.5
92.7
0.0019
0.0077
-91.2
Oppo F7 (headphones)
+0.50, -0.20
-91.4
91.8
0.0079
0.402
-51.5
Honor View 10 (headphones)
+0.17, -0.03
-92.0
92.1
0.0023
0.092
-52.8
Nokia 7 Plus
+0.02, -0.31
-38.8
81.7
0.0013
4.690
-95.9
Nokia 7 Plus (headphones)
+0.25, -0.23
-93.3
90.4
0.0045
0.227
-53.9
Xiaomi Mi Max 3 frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
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