The Mi A2 is the second Android One phone from Xiaomi and successor to last year’s Mi A1. Needless to say, the Mi A2 comes with several improvements in terms of hardware, camera and performance compared to the Mi A1. Xiaomi India has launched the Mi A2 at a starting price of Rs 16,999 in India for the only 4GB+64GB version. However, the company will also launch the 6GB version very soon. On the other hand, Mi A1 is priced at Rs. 13,999. So, if you are one of Mi A1 users who is planning to upgrade, read this article.
Design
There are significant design changes in the Mi A2. First of all, Xiaomi has placed the dual rear cameras in the vertical setup whereas the Mi A1 comes with horizontal placed dual rear camera. The new Mi A2 is also a bit taller with 158.7mm height compared to the Mi A1 was 155.4 mm tall. Up front, there is another major change in terms of bezels. The new Mi A2 comes with an 18:9 aspect ratio display while Mi A1 has an old 16:9 display.
Display
The Mi A1 sports a 5.5-inch FHD (1080×1920 pixels) display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protection. While the Mi A2 comes with a 5.99-inch full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) IPS LCD display with 18:9 aspect ratio and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
Hardware, Storage
The Xiaomi Mi A1 is powered by a 2.0GHz Octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU. While its successor Mi A2 has an octa-core Snapdragon 660 processor with Adreno 512 GPU under the hood. The Mi A2 comes in three RAM storage options, while in India only 4GB RAM+64GB storage model is out now and another 6GB RAM+128GB storage model is also on its way. On the other hand, the Mi A1 comes only in 4GB RAM+64GB storage variant.
Cameras
Xiaomi Mi A2 comes with a dual rear camera setup consisting a 12MP Sony IMX486 primary sensor with 1.25μm pixels, f/1.75 aperture and 20MP Sony IMX376 secondary sensor with 2.0μm pixels and f/1.75 aperture. Up front, it has a 20MP Sony IMX376 sensor with f/1.75 aperture. The Mi A1 also sports a dual camera setup with two 12-megapixel sensors with one wide-angle f/2.2 lens and another with 1-micron pixel size and f/2.6 aperture. Up front, it has a 5MP sensor with a f/2.0 aperture.
Connectivity options
Both the phones come with usual connectivity options like 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Miracast, an IR blaster, and USB Type-C. The biggest difference here is that Mi A2 doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack which is present in the Mi A1. Also, the Mi A2 offers Bluetooth v 5.0 while the Mi A1 supports Bluetooth v4.2.
Battery
Surprisingly, the Mi A2 comes with a smaller 3,000mAh battery while the Mi A1 has a 3,080mAh battery. The Xiaomi Mi A2’s battery comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support, while the Mi A1 doesn’t have fast charging support.
Conclusion
So, as you can see there are significant changes and improvements in the new iteration of Xiaomi’s Android One smartphone. The Mi A2 comes with a trendy 18:9 display, better dual cameras, better hardware and supports fast charging as well. All these features, with a slight price rise, make Mi A2 a good option. Users who want to upgrade should only go for it if they want better performance and are willing to pay more this time.
