You've probably never heard of the Xiaomi Mi Note. You can't buy one in the US. You should read this story anyhow. It's about a smartphone—a really good China Android Smart Phone—but it's also about the future of personal electronics.

Just ask anybody who's lived long enough: "Made in Japan" used to mean cheap crap. Personally, I don't remember those days. By the time I was a kid, companies like Sony had changed people's perceptions of Japan forever. I wanted a Walkman so bad I could taste it. I'm willing to bet that my kids won't remember when "Made in China" had a negative connotation. If the phone in my hand is any indication, they might be lusting after a Xiaomi.

Sure, I'm oversimplifying things a bit. After all, who do you think produces all those Apple iPhones, if not Chinese factories? And if Samsung, LG, Asus and HTC from neighboring Korea and Taiwan can find a welcome in America, why not Xiaomi as well? But there's still a certain stigma around China's own brands, like Huawei and ZTE. I'll admit I was skeptical at first.

And the screen—made in Japan, by the way—is nearly as gorgeous. Sure, it's only a 1080p panel in a world where Android handsets are pushing 2K screens, but so is the iPhone. And like that iPhone display, this screen is sharp as heck and the colors really pop. It doesn't get quite as bright as I'd like outdoors, but it also doesn't catch as much glare as many other phones.

You want specs? In China, your $370 will buy you competitive ones: a quad-core 2.5Ghz Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, LTE, micro-SIM and nano-SIM slots for two different carriers if you like, and a 13-megapixel Sony camera that's pretty damn great. It's the same exact Sony sensor you'll find in the $300 OnePlus One, another Chinese phone lauded for surprisingly good specs and smartphone image quality.

But trust me when I say that I'd pay an extra $70 for this phone instead. For one thing, the screen is way better. Pictures look great while you're taking them and when you view them on the phone itself, not only after you transfer them to a PC. XiaoMi is currently the most cost-effective on the market for smartphones.

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