[Mi 3 Original Android Development] Vasoconstriction:
My review of Cyanogenmod 13 2016-06-02 in comparison with Cyanogenmod 12.1 2015-12-22

Performance:

The performance is similar on balanced mode. Cyanogenmod 12.1 used to be a lot better in terms of performance, but Cyanogenmod 13 has surpassed CM12.1 by a slight bit now. The difference in loading speeds is clearly noticeable in favor of CM 13 when opening light apps like settings, messaging, music and whatsapps (especially when opening a conversation in whatsapp). I don't feel like there's a noticeable difference in loading speeds with bigger apps (games). Cyanogenmod 13 feels snappier, but Cyanogenmod 12.1 feels smoother. I noticed some minor lag sometimes in animations like opening the recent app drawer. Scrolling is also slightly smoother on content rich pages like Twitter. Gamingwise there is not much of a difference on the balanced powermode, but on performance mode there's a huge difference. In some games where I used to have some pretty annoying framedrops on balanced, I get a steady 60fps on performance mode. Scrolling on performance mode also beats CM12.1's scrolling on performance mode. Ofcourse it's not efficient to have your phone on performance mode all the time, therefore I'm giving the benefit of the doubt in terms of performance for CM12.1, if you've got some battery to spare I highly recommend you to put your phone on performance mode though. Having no heating issues.

Battery:

I do not know what they did in this ROM but wow. Getting a stunning 7 and a half hours of screen on time (normal use with wifi and location on) on a full charge! As opposed to the 5 hours of screen on time on CM12.1. Wakelocks are coalesced nicely and barely any wakelocks when screen is off. Standby battery drain of less than 0,5% per hour. If you had a shortage of battery on CM12.1, just switch immediately. It took a day of usage and two full charges to get this battery life though. At first boot the battery life was comparable to CM12.1, but it got a lot better after some time.

Multitasking:

This is the dealbreaker for me. Cyanogenmod 12.1 has the multitasking performance you would expect from a 2gb device, good and able to store about 7-9 apps in memory. Cyanogenmod 13 absolutely kills Cyanogenmod 12.1 in this aspect though and can handle around 15 apps before starting to struggle! Most people don't even use 15 apps on a normal day, so if you don't clear your RAM your loading speeds will be out of this world. In combination with Marshmallow's new animations, you just get one hell of an experience with this €120,- device. Another difference is when you open an app which is stored in CM12.1's RAM you partially reload it (except when you do it via the recents tab). In CM13 you open an app with the exact same speed as you would open it with in the recents tab. This hugely contributes to a real-world speed gain, when using your device normally.

Camera:

CM13 has no noise reduction at all, this results in some great shots at broad daylight, but results in worse shots with low lighting. The new snapdragon camera is way faster in taking pictures than the CM12.1 camera. The HDR is a lot less oversatured than CM12.1's HDR though and works well in broad daylight. However when there's a bright light source (like a computer screen) in a dark lit environment, the HDR barely works. Front camera's HDR works incredibly well with a lot of backlight. Pictures with flash look fairly natural too. If you're a casual user who likes to quickly shoot a picture of something to remember it later, you will see this camera as an improvement. If you like taking good pictures in broad daylight and playing with the different modes and lighting, you will

like the new camera. If you take shots in indoor or dark lighting, you well have to accept a step back when going to CM13.

Sound quality:

One or two nightlies ago the sound libraries for the Mi 3 were updated and boy can you notice the difference. Speaker quality is heavily increased and can go to much higher volumes without being distorted, however the highest volume does distort the sound a little, therefore I recommend keeping all speaker volumes down a few notches from max. The volume won't decrease a lot, but the distortion will (since distortion occurs when you basically push the volume past a device's maximum volume). Another solution for the distortion is setting the speaker gain to -2 in kernel adiutor (thanks to [MENTION=6799092]TofikLupus[/MENTION] for this solution). On this setting the speaker sounds both better and louder than cyanogenmod 12.1. The real difference in sound quality lies in the headphone quality. The soundstage and hi's are far far far better on CM 13. Marshmallow reduces the audio latency from 20ms to 10ms, this definitely plays a role, but nevertheless the improvement is incredible. The hi's sound way more crips without being harsh (like the terrible harsh hi's on Ivan's AOSP). There is no bass boost whatsoever (like on MIUI) and mids sound just like they're supposed to sound. Before upgrading to CM13 I thought of buying an external DAC/amp for my Shure SE215's, but I changed my mind now. If you're an audiophile do not hesitate to upgrade. CM12.1's audio was by no means bad (in comparison to MIUI), but CM13 just wins by far here. I never call, so I do not know about call quality. The stock recorder app is terrible in both ROMs (use Easy Voice Recorder or HD audio recorder for recording), but whatsapp voice message quality is better in Cyanogenmod 13.

Charging:

The charging works amazing and it seems like there's finally decent fast charging support too (I heard from other users). Getting about 800ma on my (normal) charger with cm12.1 and upwards of 1050 ma on CM13! Since I often charge my phone for 15-30 minutes after flashing ROMs etc, this is a welcome improvement.

Benchmarks:

CM12.1 Antutu: 49000

CM13 Antutu: 50500

CM12.1 Sunspider (browser benchmark, lower is better): 1400ms

CM13 Sunspider (browser benchmark, lower is better): 1280ms

Bugs:

- On first boot the phone lost its ability to orientate, meaning it stayed in landscape mode for example. Neither did the gyro work. Reboot fixed it all though and didn't occur ever since.

- Not able to switch between 3g and 2g (stuck on LTE which the Mi 3 doesn't even have).

- Bluetooth not working well I heard from other users (I don't use Bluetooth myself).

- Battery graph in settings not always accurate (random dips after straight lines and big white spaces after which the battery is suddenly 10% lower).

Overall stability:

One time a reboot when using the camera app, otherwise no screens of deaths or forced closes for me. The ROM is usable for advanced users, but I would not recommend it to the general people for daily usage.

Conclusions:

Cyanogenmod 13 has the potential and is slowly becoming the best option out there for the Xiaomi Mi 3, however there are still some slight hiccups here and there.

If you're an audiophile or want to stay on track with the latest development and features, I recommend Cyanogenmod 13.

If you want to take night photo's or want a completely stable experience, go for Cyanogenmod 12.1 for now.

The choice is all up to you! Either way, you're getting a great ROM, each with it's pro's and con's and whatever you will choose, the Xiaomi Mi 3 remains a great bang for your buck.

Happy flashing!