XiaoYi Action Camera Review

The device being sold by Xiaomi developed by partner company Xiaoyi with its English name of the device is the Yi Action Camera.

"If you’re looking for an action camera on a budget,

just to try things out, you can't go wrong with the

Yi Camera"

According to Xiaomi on its official blog, the Yi Action Camera is able to shoot videos at 1080p and 60 frames per second through a 16MP camera that packs the acclaimed Exmor R BSI CMOS image sensor developed by Sony. From these specs alone, the device is already superior to the Hero, which is only able to record 1080p video at 30 fps or 720p video at 60 fps using only a 5MP camera.

With a much cheaper price, Xiaomi's Yi camera is able to deliver matching quality with the GoPro HERO3, although there is an obvious gap between the Yi and the GoPro HERO4.

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Let’s be honest

From my hands on experiences, I personally felt that the image quality of XiaoYi is very good in daylight and roomlight. The video quality somehow good in daylight compare to room light and dark. Occasionally noise found during one of the dark room footage with some help of tungsten light the quality improves drastically.

Flaws but not deal breakers

Probably the biggest and most widespread complaint leveled at the XiaoYi is their battery life. With the XiaoYi Action Camera, shooting 1080p at 48 fps with Wi-Fi on will get you around 1:35 of battery life.

Who should buy one?

As the name suggests, designed for people who live active lifestyles and want to capture their experiences, whether they be underwater, on top of a mountain, or in a cave somewhere. If any of this sounds like your ideal weekend, an action camera is exactly what you’ll need to make a digital copy of your memories. But while that’s the main demographic, we've seen a lot of pretty amazing video as a result of people strapping these tiny cameras to their babies, dogs, airplanes, racecars, motorcycles, or even eagles.

Also, like we brought up earlier, action cameras are meant for extreme sports and video recording, so if you're mainly concerned about taking impressive shallow underwater stills you'd be better served with a waterproof camera like this one. Basically, if photography isn’t a priority and whatever activity you’re looking to take photos using your hands, then the XiaoYi won’t be for you. However, like I told you earlier,the image quality is still better than the video quality, thanks to Sony Exmor image sensor.

Specs

Color options: White / Green
Dimension: 60.4mm x 42mm x 21.2mm
Weight: 72 grams (2.54 oz)
Optics: Ultra-sharp aspherical glass lens/f2.8 aperture/155-degree view
Waterproof depth: 40 meters (approx. 131 feet)
Video: H.264 codec, .mp4 file format
Audio: Stereo, 96KHz
Photo Resolution: 16-megapixel/4608 x 3456
Time Lapse: 0.5/1/2/5/10/30/60 second intervals
Storage: 64GB
Wireless connection: Broadcom wireless module, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0
The Yi camera is currently only available in China.

Conclusion

As a conclusion with a cheap price tag, obviously this device have done a fantastic job with high resolution images and good video recordings. Sadly, Xiaomi haven't announce any equipment for XiaoYi such as underwater case and so on except the selfie stick which comes in a pack in travel package.

Andriod APK file
XiaoMi Action Camera Installation Guide : http://en.miui.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=93465&highlight=tweaked%2BYi%2BCamera

Direct link for English apps :
v1.3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_9xgAlvq-tZWF9pcmdaNzN3bEU/view?usp=sharing
v.1.4 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_9xgAlvq-tZWEc0UFZrdTN4RFk/view?usp=sharing

Unboxing XiaoYi Action Camera

Gallery