Redmi Xiaomi Note 3 Review

Xiaomi redmi series has been very popular in recent years and for good reason. Low prices and good features have really set these separate models, and even other Chinese players have found them difficult to compete with. Thanks to this competition, you can get a lot more on a budget or even mid-range smartphone of what used to be able to a few years ago.

After pushing powerful components and lower prices, manufacturers have begun to focus on the aesthetic quality and build quality, which attract even more customers. We've seen a lot of be being used by companies metal instead of plastic, such as the recently published Honor 5X (Revision) and Le Eco Le 1s (review). In terms of specifications, 3GB of RAM is not something to brag more, and Coolpad has shown everyone with Note 3 Coolpad (Revision) that even fingerprint sensors are not limited to mobile premium.

In light of all this, the set 2 redmi feels a bit dated, and so Xiaomi is right on time with the new note redmi 3. We had a first look at the device again in December, although it was the original version It is running on a MediaTek processor. The launched in India a more powerful Qualcomm chip that could make it more competitive sports. Like the Xiaomi redmi 2 Prime, redmi Note 3 also be made in India.

The two biggest competitors Note 3 redmi that immediately come to mind are the Lenovo Vibe Note K4 and Le 1s Leeco. Can the latest offer Xiaomi become the undisputed winner in the sub-Rs.15,000 segment? Let's find out.

Look and feel

At the moment it out of the box, redmi Note 3 looks and feels very high quality, especially in gold. The full metal body gets a soft matte finish that does not attract fingerprints. It is also easy to keep clean, as dust and dirt off with a simple cloth.

Along the edge of the front facia, which rises above the rest of the screen to protect it from scratches when the phone is placed face down. It is a good detail of design, but also a bit of a discomfort in the ear when you're making calls. The screen has a scratch resistant layer, despite Xiaomi has not explicitly declared it anywhere.

There is a 5 megapixel camera at the top with LED notification for alerts. Fortunately, the capacitive buttons at the bottom are backlit. The volume control and power button are ergonomically placed far to the right, while the left side houses the dual SIM tray hybrid. In addition to the headphone jack at the top, we also have an infrared (IR). The phone uses a standard micro-USB for charging and data transfer connector.

At the rear, we have a 16 megapixel camera, a dual tone dual LED flash, the fingerprint sensor and speaker grill at the bottom. The redmi Note 3 is supplied with a 10W charger, data cable, SIM eject tool and instruction booklets. The quality of the accessories look good, and it should last.

We believe that Xiaomi has done a great job with the design and aesthetics of Note redmi phone 3. The finish is excellent and the screen is crisp and vibrant. The IPS panel has very good color reproduction and sunlight has hardware features Xiaomi display that actually does pretty well readable even in direct sunlight.

We also like how comfortable you feel the phone in his hand. It is a bit difficult to use with one hand, but it's pretty thin at 8.7mm with good weight distribution.

Specifications

The Xiaomi redmi Note 3 could be a budget smartphone, but there is certainly nothing on low-end hardware packages. This is the first phone to stretch with Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC, which is very important considering their performance level short logo on some benchmarks. It is a six-core SoC, like the Snapdragon 808 that is in the X Style Moto, but instead of Cortex-A57 cores, we are two of the most powerful Cortex-A72 cores running at 1.8 ARM GHz. the other four cores are Coretx-A53s which chug along at 1.4 GHz. This SoC still using the 28nm manufacturing process, but the GPU is a new Adreno 510, which is a step lower than which it is present in the flagship Snapdragon 820 chips.

In the benchmarks, we have witnessed some pretty impressive numbers, especially considering the price of the device. We got an average of 74,303 in AnTuTu, which is higher than what we received many high-end phones based on the performance of the GPU 810. Snapdragon is equally impressive, and recorded 31fps in Test T-Rex in GFXbench which once again is competitive with scores published by the Snapdragon 810 devices.

The Xiaomi redmi Note 3 will be available in two variants. What we have today is the one with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage, but you can opt for another model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage if your budget is tight. Storage can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card instead of a second SIM card into the slot hybrid. This is not much when you consider that most phones today support 128GB or more.

Thanks to Qualcomm chip, the phone has LTE category 7 for Band 3, 5, 40 and 41 together with the support of VoLTE. You also get dual-band Wi-Fi b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.1, USB OTG, FM radio, Miracast, GLONASS, and BeiDou. NFC is a missing feature.

Software

The phone ships with a fork called MIUI Android Lollipop 7, which has been reworked from scratch. Compared to earlier versions of MIUI, version 7 is definitely nicer and better polished. It is still a single-layer interface, but it allows users to customize the appearance with transition effects and themes. The application of the item shop has a good selection of free themes, and we especially liked the marshmallow.

Lock screen to create a feature called Carousel wallpaper, wallpaper showing at random from a user-selected collection that is updated daily paper. The notification panel has separate tabs for incoming alerts and toggle switches, to avoid clutter. There is also a base for those seeking a simplified interface and a child mode that lets you restrict what applications their children to have access to when you let them play with your phone mode. The setup application is where you find the most interesting changes.

Reading mode, which is essentially a bluelight filter can be activated from the notifications panel. The intensity of the filter can be adjusted in the sub-menu. The fingerprint sensor can recognize up to five fingerprints. Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra said during the launch of the phone that you can register your lips pattern too, but failed to unlock the phone when we tried it.

Sign up for a My gives you 5GB of cloud storage for backing up your contacts, messages, photos, etc. You also have the option to password protect specific applications to keep nosy people out of their private conversations, for example. You can hide files with fingerprint authentication using the Explorer application.

Xiaomi has incorporated a one-handed mode, which can enter or exit just go directly from the Start capacitive button. You can even choose the size you want the screen to shrink. The phone comes with a pre-loaded application called My Move which allows you to move applications and data to or from any other Android device. MIUI 7 supports up to 13 languages ​​of India. Apart from the standard keyboard Google and SwiftKey, our test unit also had a keyboard called Fleksy, which turned out to be much better than we expected.

In terms of pre-loaded applications, basic tools of productivity is obtained, along with some additional as my remote. This lets you set the IR emitter to multiple devices with infrared capabilities, including DSLR cameras. The application My shop is a market for all products sold in India Xiaomi. The security application lets you control the use of data and perform basic maintenance. You also get Facebook, WPS Office, and the usual Google applications.

Performance

Xiaomi hardware and software redmi Note 3 together very well to offer a very nice Android experience. The interface is smooth with hardly noticeable stutter when multitasking. Call quality is good and the phone had no trouble latching on to several carriers LTE networks in Mumbai.

Our review unit was fairly stable apart from some reboots that occurred when the phone is warmed when plugged benchmark tests with running. Speaking of heat, the metal body is not heated during continuous video playback while recording videos, but that does not get too uncomfortable.

A persistent problem we did encounter was the time it took to get the two SIM cards work. This was not a problem if there was only a single SIM in the phone, but when we insert a second, it would take a very long time for the phone detects time. We were stuck with a message "No Service" for more than 10 minutes in one of those occasions. Restarting the phone did not help. This could be a problem if SIM cards are exchanged frequently, but otherwise it's nothing fancy. We are happy to report that the fingerprint sensor works well and is fast enough to unlock the phone.

The redmi Note 3 is ideal for multimedia, especially thanks to its clear display. The phone can handle 4K video playback. The speaker is loud enough so that alerts the media and even though we lost the stereo effect. The music player is functional and can switch between different audio profiles established for different types of headphones. You can also quickly share multimedia files with other devices using Xiaomi Mi drop. No problems with audio quality with our own headphones. In the 32 GB, you get about 26.2GB of storage space available. On average, you have a 1 GB of free RAM available if you only have a single application running.

Camera

The rear camera has a 16 megapixel sensor and a wide aperture of f / 2.0. Both landscapes and macro shots captured during the day are a nice touch. Color reproduction is good too. However, objects in focus lacks a bit of definition and are not very sharp, but this is only visible when approaching. The images look good on the phone screen, however, and as long as there is no need to crop the image in full size, you should be good.

The camera also struggles with a bit of sharpness and depth under artificial lighting. Low light images are not bad, since there is almost no visible noise in dark areas. The dual-tone flash is decent for close objects, but do not expect too much of it. 1080p video recording is good, but very unstable due to the lack of stabilization software. In addition, the 720p video quality is not great, so we recommend shooting in full-HD mode all the time. The front camera captures good autofotos daylight thanks to the same wide f / 2.0 aperture.

The camera application is easy to use and has plenty of shooting modes. We liked the practical HDR toggle switch next to the shutter button, which makes life much simpler. Swipe down or left to the filters, and the other way for shooting modes, depending on whether you're holding the phone horizontally or vertically. Panorama mode does an acceptable job of stitching photos together. The manual mode allows you to play with the white balance settings and ISO but there is no option aperture or shutter speed.

The focus speed is good, even in low light. You can capture an image with the secondary fire button placed in the center of the focus ring. Burst mode also works well. Other modes include degraded, which helps level the shots even if the phone is tilted; fisheye, which adds a fun effect; and beautify which allows smooth skin imperfections.

Battery duration

The non-removable battery 4050mAh got us through 12 hours and 21 minutes of continuous video playback, which is pretty good. In actual use, easy to manage to go more than one day, and this was without resorting to battery saving modes. The phone supports quick charge function Qualcomm, and we managed to load the redmi Note 3-20 percent in half an hour. I not call this very fast, but it's better than nothing.

Redmi Xiaomi Note 3 has a price of Rs. 9,999 for 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and Rs.11,999 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, which is very aggressive when you consider the whole package. Xiaomi has also been associated with Hungama to offer a maximum of two months of free streaming service to your subscription.

It's hard to find fault in Note 3 redmi because it meets all appropriate requirements, and in some ways, rivaling phones that cost much more. The metal body and fingerprint sensor are welcome to redmi series and make the Note 3 feel relevant in 2016 can also get a big screen, good battery life, and powerful SoC. The camera is not too bad, although it could have done with crisp still images and better quality HD videos. MIUI 7 is improved compared to previous versions, and is quite nice. We wish was supported storage expansion beyond 32 GB, and fill have not hurt to throw NFC only to complete the package.

A few problems aside, we believe that Xiaomi Note redmi 3 is easily one of the best smartphones available for less than Rs.15,000 today, and has the potential to improve with future software upgrades. If you are confused between this and Le 1s, which can confidently give the Xiaomi Note 3 redmi our vote.