Xiaomi Mi Max review: Good, but too much phone to handle

If the phrase "too big" never made it into your vocabulary, then the 6.4-inch Xiaomi Mi Max was made for people like you. The display is bright and the battery lasts for a good, long time, but the question for any phone this large will always come back to size: is it too much for you, or can you work with it?

I'm personally not a fan. Phones don't need to be small, but they also shouldn't be hard to use one-handed. And let's be clear here, the Max is a strictly two-handed affair if you want to use it without difficulty (unless you have really large hands). I found it hard to reach apps, and it's just a pain to keep adjusting my grip to reach stuff at the top of the phone. Still, I guess the Mi Max is really useful to shade your face on a sunny day, and I do really like how the metal chassis feels in my hands.

Of course, the real reason you're buying this phone is to watch video and read -- e-books, articles, Facebook, whatever -- and the Mi Max is perfect for this. The large 6.4-inch full-HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) is sharp and vibrant, and Xiaomi's Sunlight Display technology makes details like words and images clearer under bright sunlight. Gaming on the phone was great. Asphalt 8 ran smoothly on High settings, and I actually liked having a bigger screen here.

Retailing at 1,499 yuan ($230, £160 or AU$315, converted) for the cheapest model with 32GB of storage, this big screen phone does offer a lot of value.