#fullreviews

Me, on my Pulsar 200NS and my friend Suraj on his Ninja 300, set out for Pondicherry on the 7th of December at 5:20am. Our luggage is usually small bag(s) tied to the bike using bungee cords, but this time round we had a ViaTerra Claw on Suraj’s Ninja, and a Claw mini/Fly GT tank bag on my NS. I’ve never used a tank bag in my life before, so I was a little sceptical at first. But as it turned out, a tank bag can really be a handy addition. We had planned to stay overnight at Tumkur, 810km from Pune, on day 1 after which we could continue the ride to Pondy the following day. Which meant I could afford to not bother to open the Claw mini which had everything that I would need at Pondy, and simply use the Fly GT for storage of a pair of shorts, toothbrush, etc.

Pricing

I’m no material expert, so can’t really speak on how well/poorly the bags are constructed… what I can tell though is that the bags justify the price to the last rupee when you think of the thought that’s gone into making them, and the sheer (INSANE) utility. For me, 99% of the worth comes from the utility which these guys bring - for a motorbike tourer, it’s literally priceless. Pricing wise, I think the Claw mini is simply a no-brainer at 2.5k INR, there’s virtually nothing in competition for this one. The Fly GT too is a VFM giant, coming in at only 2,200 INR. I had earlier mistaken the price to be 2,900 INR, which is when I also thought that it could do with a 300 INR price cut -- so the 2,200 INR price tag is justified.

Claw mini

All the things that I packed into the Claw mini. There was space for more

Like I said earlier, this one’s a must have for any motorbike tourer. From my experience, the Calw mini can hold stuff for up to 8-9 days depending on your bathing frequency. Our ride was planned for a total of 8 days, and Claw mini turned out to be the perfect companion. Although I totally dread riding in the rain usually, I was hoping for a bit of a drizzle this time round, just so I could test just how well the Claw mini holds up in the rain… and I got what I asked for. On day 2 of the ride (B’lore - Pondy), it rained for about 30 minutes while we were somewhere near Thiruvanamalai.

Fly GT

I had quite a lot of stuff in the Fly GT. This included a novel, three liners, chain lube, spectacles, slippers, and a hell lot more. The Fly GT is spacious enough to hold one person’s stuff for a 3-4 day ride! What’s more, it can also be used as a tail bag, in case you don’t have a pillion with you and don’t require the services of the more spacious Claw mini.

However, the mount system sucks a little. There are a total of three straps to secure the Fly GT on your bike -- a double-sided buckle (all cool with this one), and two nylon straps that are secured using D-rings on the bag. Now, unlike the Claw mini, these straps (including the double-sided buckle strap) aren’t a part of the bag itself, and are vulnerable to misplacement. I learnt this the hard way, when I forgot where I had kept the straps right before starting off front Pondy, and spent 45 minutes looking for them only to find them in my jacket pocket. Now, not everyone is as careless as me, but I’m sure there could be a better way to implement the mounting system.

Riding with the Fly GT/Claw mini

Once you’re done moutning the bags (which doesn’t take more than 5-7 min after a couple times), the bags are as stable as boulders. You don’t have to think about it no more, unless you’re stopping for fuel. Even then, it is quite an easy job -- simply remove the front strap from the buckles of the Fly GT, top your bike up and vrooooom. Pro tip: inter-lock the buckles of the strap between themselves to avoid the strap from falling off. Also, don’t forget to put it back on before starting again! :P

You won’t feel any different with both bags on your ride, although it might take a few kms to get used to the tank bag in your periphery. I did have to tighten the straps of the Claw mini a couple times, but I think it was more of an OCD thing than a need.

In the rain

We were quick to get off the bike and start covering up the gear as well as ourselves with waterproof liners. The Fly GT came in handy once again; I had kept all three liners -- my jacket’s, Claw mini’s and Fly GT’s -- in the tank bag in the side pockets. Within 5 minutes, I was done and ready to go again.  The design of the rain liners requires you to cover the bags from all four sides, with velcro tape to secure. However, this means you got to take off the luggage from the bike which honestly, is something you would dread in the middle of a ride. And therefore we simply covered the luggage from the top, with the elastic around the liners making sure it held on to the bags.

Also thanks to the tyre hugger on my NS, the Claw mini was virtually spotless at the end of the first leg of the journey -- at Pondy. The Ninja 300, however, lacks a tyre hugger and therefore, Suraj’s stuff which was present at the bottom of his Claw got sort of wet. If you’re planning on not using the bags AT ALL during a particular ride day, it is recommended you secure the Claw before starting off, even when there’s no rain.

The Fly GT too, naturally, was spotless for me.

Verdict

Both, the Fly GT and Claw mini are outcomes of some serious thought. It makes me proud to see an Indian homegrown company make products like these, which are not only well-accepted in India, but also popular outside of the country. Like I’ve said before, the Claw mini is quite an insane VFM product, with an MRP of 2,500 INR. Considering that the Fly GT doubles up as a backpack when needed, the utility factor yet again takes a massive jump. And it sells for just 2,200 INR which is a really good price to pay for that. In fact, if you don’t really go on long rides, you could well give the Claw a miss and go for the Fly GT instead.

ViaTerra have local re-sellers, but the Claw mini and the Fly GT, besides other products, can be bought from their online store as well.

The story follows a famous, well-credited closer for the Detroit Tigers, Billy Chapel. Chapel, a legend of a pitcher in major league baseball suits up to play his last game as a Detroit Tiger. The opening scene is set in the middle of the plot, through out the film the audience learns tidbits of Billy’s career, recounting injuries, trades, and accomplishments. The audience meets a girl named Jane throughout these flashbacks and as the film progresses so does Billy’s memory reliving the development of their relationship.

Stylistically the movie switches scenes from Billy’s last game as a Tiger at Yankees Stadium, pitching for a perfect game, to flashbacks of meeting and dating the love of his life Jane. As he reflects on his time with Jane, who is now on her way to London accepting a job offer he realizes how much he truly cares for her. Amidst his mind wandering on the subject of the girl, Billy reaches the 8th inning without realizing he has pitched a perfect game thus far. In a climatic end, Jane who was ready to leave Billy behind for London misses her plane while watching the Tigers game at the airport. Billy decides to retire, rather than be traded and buys a ticket to London. The two rendezvous in the airport and connect the torn ties of love.

Come 2014, and I was tempted by more releases… iBuyGou sent over a Xiaomi Mi 4, and although I got to use a lot of phones this year, the Mi 4 and the OnePlus One remain to be among my favourites. And I’m a littlleeee skewed towards the Mi 4 thanks to my preference for smaller phones. Basically, phones that fit in my pocket.

I do a lot of traveling on the motorbike and prefer to have the phone in my pocket than anywhere else. 5.5 inch phones haven’t gotten to a level where they’d fit (in thee sitting position), and therefore the Mi 4 pretty much hits the bullseye as far as size is concerned.

Unboxing video

Form factor… and feel

The Mi 4 looks a lot like another popular phone. The latest edition of that ‘popular phone’ is known for a very unique feature, i.e., bending. However, the Mi 4 looks more like a mashup of the previous versions of the phone. If you are a sucker for original design, you should totally stay out. If not… let’s talk!

The bezels are extremely thin, thinner than any other phone I’ve ever owned. This is really what makes the 5-inch phone in a pocket a possibility, really. A lot of other phones have slim bezels, but the top and bottom part of these devices really makes up with abnormally large chunks of bezel. The Mi 4 however doesn’t do anything of that sort, and offers a very one-handed-usable experience.

The edges on the device are chamfered… or tapered if you like to call it that. This is more noticeable on the part that blends into the front than the rear. Not only does it give the Mi 4 a lovely visual appeal, but also makes the device easier to use… and your hands harder to slit. :P

Xiaomi phones traditionally featured buttons on the right, with the ability to change the look and feel because they’re attached to the rear cover. This changed with the Mi 3, which didn’t offer a removable rear at all. The Mi 4 does a bit better and does give you the liberty of taking off the rear… if you have a suction cup handy. And even if you do, you do not have the ability to swap the battery which is a bit of a shame. A bit. User replaceable batteries are overrated!

The front of the Mi 4, as I said before, will remind you of ‘the other phone that shan’t be named’. On the top there’s the earpiece in a little slot of its own. I like it when earpieces are at the same level as the body, they otherwise tend to be dust magnets. Anyway.

On the left of the earpiece you see a little back spot which hides the proximity and light sensors, on the left to which sits the famous Mi logo. On the extreme right, you can see the impressive 8MP camera.

Below the screen, there’s the usual set of buttons -- overflow, home and back. Depending on what OS you’re running (MIUI V5 or MIUI 6), the leftmost button will act as either the menu button or the recent tasks button. In my case, it is the latter… because I love the look and feel of MIUI 6.

The chin of the Mi 4 makes home for the reinforced micro USB port and of course the machine drilled speaker grill. Before talking about the sound of it, let me tell you that it looks pretty kickass :D

Nothing on the left besides the camouflaged SIM slot. The right edge is where you access the power and volume buttons, all covered in great-feeling metal.

The top is where it gets interesting… because not only do you see the standard 3.5mm earphone jack here, but also an IR sensor which is a first for Xiaomi. It is extremely useful as a feature, but unfortunately the range isn’t as much as you’d have liked, on the Mi 4.

  Display

Out of all the phones that I’ve had a chance to use and play with, the Mi 4 sits right on top with the other 5 incher… the OPPO Find 5. I totally loved that device but had to let go of it earlier this year to fund another purchase. Anyway, the Mi 4 does look as good as the Find 5 on screen quality terms. Like I’ve said before, 5 inches of screen is the maximum I can handle, and displays like the one used on the Mi 4 really make it worthwhile. I have another phone for YouTube and video, but that phone is increasingly becoming obsolete due to the presence of the Mi 4!

MIUI (6, in my case) lets you choose between 3 color modes and 2 saturation modes. I usually like to have a very balanced and consequently natural display, but on the Mi 4 it is the ‘cool’ color mode I use everyday. To be very frank, the ‘warm’ mode is on the verge of being called yellow; standard and cool are the only modes you will ever choose in between.

Saturation has a couple of modes -- Brilliant and Standard. The difference between these two modes isn’t as pronounced as the ones between the color modes. I use my Mi 4 in Standard mode, Brilliant gives it a tinge of warmness. Comes down to personal preference, imo.

Backlight bleeding is something Chinese phones have been suffering from for a long, long time. Thankfully, it isn’t the case here. Minus a little part. There’s a slight bit of backlight bleeding on the right edge (bottom), which is hardly noticeable and definitely QC-able. You can certainly live with it and it’s far from a deal breaker.

In a nutshell, I’d rate the display a healthy 9/10, at par with the OPPO FInd 5!

  Camera

If anything, smartphones from 2013 to 2014 have progressed leaps and bounds on the camera front. There’s of course difference in performance, but it isn’t as significant as the difference (read: improvement) in camera tech.

I LOVE the Xiaomi Mi 4 as a camera phone. It might not have the most number of pixels, or even the most features (it lacks a substantial slow shutter mode, for one), but the Mi 4 does a very good job at capturing moments for you. It’s all about the right timing, and thanks to the super fast focus mode on the Mi 4, I am able to take a lot of pictures at the right time. On terms of camera performance, I would rate the Mi 4 second only to the mammoth OPPO Find 7 (which surprisingly uses the same IMX214 sensor as the Mi 4! But it turns out, there’s a lot more to picture quality than just the sensor ;) )

The Mi 4 carries a lot over from the Mi 3. As in, it features the same ‘vivid’ sort of a picture tone with a little bit of exaggeration; but it’s definitely less than the Mi 3, making pictures seem a lot more real. MIUI 6 might also be a bottleneck as far as hardware performance is concerned, but even then I’m pretty satisfied.

During the initial days with the phone, it had a naggy issue where the camera wouldn’t focus during macro shot attempts. This has since been solved thanks to a multitude of OTA updates (the perks of being on a beta channel…) :D

The camera app does lack a bit of functionality though, which I hope will be added with future OTA updates. Xiaomi are usually pretty quick in pushing new updates -- weekly, most often.

The camera also does 4K, but it isn’t relevant to me. It isn’t to you too, if you don’t have a 4K aka UHD television!

Another interesting feature is 'Refocus'. As the name clearly suggests, it allows you to focus on parts of an image AFTER clicking. I'm happy to report that it works wonderfully well. 

Curious, I wanted to know how it worked. Xiaomi advertised a 0.3 second focus duration, so it wasn't all that difficult. Snooping around the phone's file system told me that the device actually takes multiple photos (4 if I remember right) with different points in focus so that you're able to achieve the magical refocus feature later on. Intelligent, I must say! (HTC had to add a whole another sensor to achieve this ;) )

  Battery

I’m very satisfied with the battery life on the Xiaomi Mi 4. It isn’t as good as the OnePlus One, but it falls short only by a shade. On the upside, I get a display that’s way more vibrant and an absolute treat to look at. And according to Android, I look at it about 6 hours before it the phone needs another trip to the wall socket. Speaking of wall sockets, make sure you use the bundled Xiaomi Mi 4 charging adapter. Or be prepared to give it a good few hours of charging (4-5). The stock charger charges up the Mi 4 pretty darn fast; any other charger (even the 2A ones) take way way longer for some reason. Xiaomi don’t advertise anything like VOOC so I’m assuming its some secret tech they’re employing here to get the battery charged fast (unless it is Qualcomm’s fast charging, lol).

My usage often greatly varies from day to day. Most days, I’m left with a good 50% charge at the end of the day, with the phone unplugged for around 18-19 hours along with 3 hours of screen on time. I think this is pretty respectable for a small phone with a 5-inch display, and one that’s so bright.

It might be worthy to let you know about the apps that I use the most, so you get a clearer image about battery life: feedly, Chome, WhatsApp, Pocket, Gmail and a couple other apps that keep changing depending what season it is ;)

All in all I’d give the battery a decent 9/10. Please keep in mind that it took the device a good few weeks before the battery life got to this point; it was far far worse when I started off with using the Mi 4. It could also be the MIUI 6 ROM, but I suspect it has got to do with the hardware itself.

  MIUI 6

Its hard to miss what the Mi 4 runs on. Not only because its pretty beautiful and even more functionally useful, but also because of the fact that the media loves to hate the MIUI ROM; at least that section which hasn’t ever used a Xiaomi phone. And I don’t blame them for that. The MIUI ROM does leave an impression of being a bit of an iOS lookalike, but there’s much more to MIUI than that. Calling MIUI a lookalike of iOS is like speaking only one side of the story… if you know what I mean.

Controversy aside, MIUI is pretty useful and handy, but it takes a while to get used to. Especially when you’re coming from another Android smartphone that runs a more closer-to-vanilla ROM.

While I’m yet to come across any significant functional improvements on MIUI 6 compared to the previous iteration of the ROM, I do very much like the look of it. A lot of the settings previously near-unreachable are now easier to get to, which does leave a good impression in the mind of the user. You can now easily switch launchers and other default apps, in a very steamlined manner unlike earlier.

  Conclusion

I’ve had the privilege of using a lot of phones this year, including the HTC One M8, OPPO Find 5, Find 7, Xiaomi Mi 3 and of course the OnePlus One besides this… but guess which phone I like the most? Yeah you got it right. Of course this is a very subjective topic, since a lot of smartphone users these days tend to pick phones with displays larger than 5 inches. But I guess I’m just too old skool.

The way the Mi 4 is performing for me right now, I think I would be happy to use it as my main phone for a good one year. Like I mentioned before, battery is a very important component on a smartphone for me, and the Mi 4 hits the sweet spot. It almost lasts as long as the Mi 2S with a 3200mAh battery! (keep in mind that the Mi 2S has only a 4.3 inch 720p screen).

Stuff like an IR sensor (which needs a decent English language app at the moment) make the Mi 4 a real worthy smartphone for the money. I'm waiting to see how it performs in the market when it's available in more countries than just China, especially India. Untill then!

                                       I would like to thank iBuyGou.com for shipping the phone. Go get the phone from them!