My Samsung Galaxy S2 is screaming for a retirement, and what impeccable timing it has because Xiaomi, China’s largest smartphone maker has decided to come to Malaysia with their flagship smartphone, the Mi 3.
To make it even better, they are pricing the Mi 3 at only RM769, which is so far lesser than other flagship smartphones with equal hardware.
Digi and Maxis are currently the two telcos offering the Mi 3 at drop dead prices, with Digi in particular, offering it for free, with their RM148 Smart Plan package.
The dilemma here however is which Mi 3 packages would benefit us the most over the years, and to compare it with buying the smartphone directly from Xiaomi.
Why the trouble to do all the compare? Well, because I am Malaysian, and if we could, we would want things free forever.
Anyway, I took my current Maxis SurfMore 75 plan as a bench mark for average usage and did some calculations. I compared the SurfMore 75 plan with Digi’s closest rival, and below is the comparison of outcome:
As you can obviously see, DiGi’s Mi 3 package is the best offered regardless of whether you choose to obtain the smartphone from Xiaomi, or directly from Digi.
As for Maxis, purchasing the Mi 3 directly from the manufacturer is the ‘smarter way’ because you save more, and you are not tied up to any packages.
On top of that, I did contact Maxis to inquire on the warranty, and they said that any claims need to be forwarded to the manufacturer, hence further making the packaged by Maxis even less appealing.  I did not bother inquiring Digi on their warranty.
Well, for what’s it worth, I think the current craze on the Xiaomi Mi 3 would make this comparison helpful to many, but as for me, it looks like I will be fighting to get one with the masses when they do offer it online via the official Malaysian Xiaomi store.
