A year after its launch in 2014, the headlines were bleak for Android One, a low-cost line of devices running the Android operating system. But critics hushed up when Xiaomi’s Mi A1 was unveiled in New Delhi on Tuesday. Here is a phone that has all the pluses Xiaomi is known for — quality, premium design, camera and screen. And taking advantage of these qualities is a software experience designed by Google. Of course, Android One is supposed to deliver stock Android experience (no user interface customisation is possible) but the A1 comes with three Xiaomi apps, including one for camera. t2 was at the launch and we didn’t complain! Simply because the A1 is a great marriage of killer specs and (almost) pure Android experience. The dual camera experience the phone offers at Rs 14,999 is comparable with high-end models.

Jai Mani, product lead, Xiaomi India, took on a few questions.

What is the phone’s biggest feature?

Camera is our deep focus. The camera on the A1 is easy to explain. I was just in the US where my parents live. It’s a good exercise to explain things to your parents because they ask questions that confound you. I simply told them: ‘Look, here’s the Portrait Mode. It’s that easy.’ Then my nephew said it’s awesome. You must have seen parents zoom in while taking photos but the results are terrible because of the digital zoom. Now you can tell them, here’s a zoomed-in photo (with 2x optical zoom) and it’s awesome. The camera is the biggest thing about it.

Why did you go with Android One?

It’s not that complicated. Our primary focus is fans. If you ask our fans, some would say they want a phone that runs stock Android. What does it mean for Xiaomi’s strategy? That’s a question that can be answered in the long term because we need to see how people react.

My personal timeline with the phone is very long. I was at Google where my job was all about data… interpreting them, looking at the ecosystem. It was obvious that we needed to look at places like India. It was required to make a good phone at a lower price. As for this device, it goes back almost two years as we meet with Google kind of regularly. Hugo (Barra, who left the company earlier this year to join Facebook as a vice president of Oculus VR) and I brought it up during our talks and here we are.

But to provide stock Android experience you need not have chosen Android One...

We wanted to extend our partnership with Google because Android One is different from launching just another device running stock Android… there is a bunch of folks around you who have done that. It’s more about the partnership with Google. One of the cool things about Xiaomi is openness to partnerships and our business is built around this concept. Our whole ecosystem business has products made by good companies.

What are the technologies Xiaomi is betting its future on?

Artificial intelligence is important. We have an entire division focused on AI. In terms of hardware, I would say the biggest things are camera and display. Speaking of displays, a big trend was started with Mi MIX (which was designed by the renowned designer Philippe Starck). Every phone you see in the next year or two will take inspiration from that device. We will push displays as hard as we can. Then comes camera. We have spent a lot of time tuning this year. On our upcoming devices you will see a lot of improvements on the hardware. One of the big changes we have made so far is that we have started reusing components, trying to keep modules across devices as similar as possible.

What are some of the premium features we will see trickling down to phones in lower price segments? For example, fingerprint scanner is no longer meant for only high-end phones.

I personally don’t think the cameras are good enough for anybody in this price range. The dual cameras that exist here are bad. That’s why we want to push this device here. I believe this is the best camera in this price range. When you see flagship devices, people talk about big pixel sizes. You will see that trickle down. Then minimising bezels. Face tracking is definitely possible. Not sure how successful it is. How do you explain face unlock to your mom? That’s the thing about flagship devices… it’s a different philosophy. People who go for flagship devices, they want the latest even though the features may not seem practical. For example, I would personally prefer Snapdragon 625 but you can’t chip a flagship device with it. You need to have the latest. In the lower price ranges, you can’t do that unnecessarily. You have to decide when you want to launch a flagship phone. And that has to be thought of at least one year in advance. With flagship devices, timing matters.

Mathures Paul
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