Xiaomi Mi A2 Performance and Gaming Review: Nothing Too Noticeable

Xiaomi has recently launched the Mi A2 in India and it packs mid-range specs at an affordable price. The successor to last year’s popular Mi A1, the smartphone offers a stock Android experience unlike other devices from the Chinese manufacturer. is priced Rs. 16,999smartphone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. On paper, it looks like a good mid-range smartphone that will take on the likes of the Xiaomi Mi A2, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Nokia 6.1 and Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1. So if you’re wondering how the smartphone performs in real-world usage and most importantly when playing games, you’ve come to the right place. We tested the Mi A2 so you can be sure whether you should invest your hard-earned money in a new device or a different device. Let’s jump right into Mi A2 performance and gameplay review and find out:

Xiaomi Mi A2 Performance and Gaming Review

While we don’t firmly believe in synthetic benchmark scores, we know this is of some importance to many of you. Therefore, before testing the device’s performance in real-world use, we ran it through the usual benchmark sets to get a preliminary performance reading.

• Xiaomi Mi A2 Comparisons

As soon as we took the Mi A2 out of the box, we installed AnTuTu, Geekbench 4 and 3DMark on the device to check the benchmark scores before continuing. The scores given by the Mi A2’s hardware are pretty much in line with what we’d expect from a mid-range device that rocks the Snapdragon 660 with 4GB of RAM. Starting with AnTuTu, Mi A2 managed to get a respectable score 129863 Compared to Redmi Note 5 Pro’s 113131, ZenFone Max Pro M1’s 115299 and Nokia 6.1 Plus’ 115398, it is slightly better. The score is no surprise given the fact that the Mi A2 is packed in a Snapdragon 660 as opposed to the Snapdragon 636 on all other devices.

In the next Geekbench 4, the Mi A2 has managed to put it together. 1626 single core points and one 4565 multi-core score. Compared to the scores posted by the Redmi Note 5 Pro, ZenFone Max Pro M1 and Nokia 6.1 Plus, the Mi A2 once again performs marginally better in single core results, but quite surprisingly, lags behind in multi-core results.

And finally, the Mi A2 is a good 1265 in 3DMark’s Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL testwhen publishing 1045 in Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan. Here too, the Xiaomi Mi A2 is marginally able to outperform competing devices, despite having a more powerful Snapdragon 660 processor with a better Adreno 512 GPU.

• Xiaomi Mi A2 Gaming Performance

While synthetic benchmarks are good enough for a preliminary assessment of any device, they don’t exactly paint the most accurate picture of the device’s actual performance in day-to-day use. To test this, we played quite a few games on the Mi A2, including PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9: Legends, Tekken and Breakneck. The Mi A2, quite surprisingly, could not keep up with competing devices. While the gaming performance of the device was quite good at first, started lagging and freezing when loaded with heavy games or benchmarks in a few days.

I played a few PUBG Mobile games on the device and it performed pretty well at first, but encountered some issues loading artifacts early in the game due to some RAM limitations. Loading improved significantly when I entered the game and overall performance was not marred by any lag or stuttering. After using the device for a few days, I realized that it started lagging a bit and after playing two or three PUBG games in a row it froze completelyholding the power button forces me to reboot.

Asphalt 9: Legends also ran smoothly at first, and I didn’t experience any lag or frame drops. However, when I played more than ten races in a single yawn, the device started acting up once again. When I play Asphalt 9 and PUBG back to back, the device began to heat up and the upper half of the back reached 41 degreesIt’s uncomfortable to hold.

I didn’t notice the same issues when playing lighter games like Tekken and Breakneck, and the games ran as smoothly as you’d expect from a midrange hardware device. Compared to Redmi Note 5 Pro and ZenFone Max Pro M1, Mi A2 performs significantly worse and I guess it has something to do with the poorly optimized Android One ROM.. On the other hand, there was no such problem with the Nokia 6.1 Plus, which is also an Android One device.

SEE ALSO: 6 Best Xiaomi Mi A2 Alternatives to Buy

Xiaomi Mi A2 Performance and Gaming Review: Like Other Mid-Range Devices

Xiaomi Mi A2 (Rs. 16,999) has a newer processor compared to other mid-range smartphones in the market today, its performance is terrible. I expected the device to be much better than the competition, probably as it runs stock Android, but that wasn’t the case.. I was also quite surprised as the Snapdragon 660 in the Mi A2 lagged behind in multi-core scores compared to the Snapdragon 636.

This leads me to believe that Xiaomi is having some issues optimizing stock Android for the device, just like with the previous generation Mi A1. To test this, I compared the performance of the Mi A2 with the MIUI variant of the device, the Mi 6X, and I did not encounter such a problem.. Mi 6X not only performs better in benchmarking apps, but also does not lag or freeze when playing intense games. Hopefully, Xiaomi should fix this with a future update. However, for now, if you’re in the market for a mid-range device that offers great performance, you should definitely consider something other than the Xiaomi Mi A2.

Buy Mi A2 from Amazon: (Rs. 16,999)