Xiaomi Mi 4i review: great build quality and performance for $200, but KitKat-based MIUI skin feels dated, lacks many Lollipop features
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
The Mi 4i extends Xiaomi's budget-flagship playbook after the Mi Note showed refined hardware held back outside Asia by LTE limits: strong build and performance at a price incumbents don't match. The catch this time is software — MIUI sits on KitKat even as Google's own rollout numbers show Lollipop on under 0.1% of devices and KitKat still near 40%, so Xiaomi is shipping yesterday's Android to buyers who won't see today's features.
The software critique isn't a one-off. The same MIUI-quirks complaint resurfaces years later in the Mi 8 and Mi 8 Pro review, suggesting it is structural to how Xiaomi differentiates rather than an artifact of the 4i's age.
First-order effects
- At $200, buyers get near-flagship build quality and performance, but they are locked into a KitKat-based MIUI missing most Lollipop features — paying for hardware ahead of software.
Second-order effects
- Rivals running heavily customized Android face the same trap: Huawei's P9 gets dinged for an Emotion UI that hinders usability, meaning skin quality becomes a real competitive axis alongside price.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Chinese value leaders like Xiaomi win the hardware-per-dollar race while their skins lag stock Android for years — reviewers keep flagging MIUI quirks through the Mi 8 era, making software polish the durable gap between cheap flagships and the premium tier.
The trend: Chinese phone makers are commoditizing flagship hardware at midrange prices while proprietary Android skins, not silicon or build cost, become the persistent differentiator reviewers penalize.