Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica took a review on Xiaomi Mi4, and he wrote an article says "China’s iPhone killer is unoriginal but amazing". At the end of his article, Ron brought up a few points. We couldn't agree more:
When we decided to order the Mi4, we wanted to learn more about Android in China, but we also expected it to be kind of a laugh. It's easy to look at the pictures and dismiss the Mi4 as a cheap iPhone knockoff, but it is so much better than that.
Take a Galaxy S5, give it more RAM, a bigger battery, up the build quality, and for the final kicker, cut the price in half. Spend just a few minutes with a Mi4 and you'll get an idea of just how much disruptive potential Xiaomi has. It has built a premium, no-nonsense smartphone that nails every important category, which makes it one of the best smartphones of the year.
Xiaomi is a company in need of some self-confidence, though. It has built an amazing device, but it has sullied the Mi4 by cloning the iPhone design. Xiaomi is like an extremely smart student that still cheats off the person next to it because it doesn't trust itself to come up with the right answer. You can do it Xiaomi! Just be a little more original.
Xiaomi's continued derivative design hurts the company in so many ways. It makes it easy for people to dismiss the company as yet another cheap clone maker. It also limits the countries Xiaomi can expand to, because in many places, Apple would sue the company out of existence.
Everything here is top notch: The best specs, fantastic build quality, a beautiful screen, a dirt cheap price, and software that, while different, works both aesthetically and functionally. If only the company came up with its own hardware design. If Xiaomi ever does apply itself with some original designs, look out world, because this company will be going places.