[REVIEW] XIAOMI REDMI NOTE 3 REVIEW

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is the sequel to the more popular Redmi Note and does justice to the name of the product line and the company that is well known for low-cost smartphones. Launched at a price of Rs. 9999 for the 2G RAM and 16 GB Storage variant and 11,999 for the 3GB RAM and 32 GB Storage option, the smartphone will be sold exclusively on the company’s website and e-commerce retailer Amazon.

Let's Dive in to the full review and see "is it worth the Hype"

Overview

The Redmi Note 3 has all the qualities of a powerful budget smartphone. An all metal build, excellent specs, good cameras, improved battery and a new processor which impresses on the benchmarks front. The phone impresses on many fronts and may turn out to the be the current choice of the masses just as the original Redmi Note did.

Build Quality And Design

Design wise the phone follows the legacy of Xiaomi, the front is flat with just three touch capacitive buttons, and the fingerprint sensor is placed at the back, identical in size and just below the camera module, giving the whole design a sense of completion. The form factor of the smartphone is great and thanks to its rounded back edges it fits ever so nicely in the hand. The speaker sits at the back, with a metal body design this phone looks great.

Hardware

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a new Snapdragon 650 chipset, 2/3 GB RAM options, expandable storage via MicroSD and a good set of cameras with wide lenses and an f2.0 aperture.

Specs	Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Display	5.5 inches Full HD Display
Resolution	1920 x 1080
Dimensions	150 x 76 x 8.7 mm
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC
GPU	Adreno 510
RAM	2GB / 3GB LPDDR4
Storage	16GB / 32GB flash storage
Rear Camera	16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED
Front Camera	5 MP, f/2.0, 1080p
Expandability	128GB via microSD
Battery	4050mAh
Connectivity	4G+, Wi-Fi 802.11ad, VoLTE, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC, VoLTE
OS	Android 5.1.1 Lolipop with MIUI 7

Camera

The camera on the Redmi Note 3 is brilliant and you will get an excellent depth of field and great bokeh effect out of them. The camera focuses quickly and has great light detection. You also get decent low light pictures thanks to the wide aperture on the lens of the camera.

The video is not all that great, the lack of any stabilization will make the video shaky. Also, the phone’s camera app does not natively record 4k video even though the likes of the LeEco 1s do. There are workarounds if you want 4k video. But, they are not recommended for the chipset.

Performance and Battery

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, offers excellent performance in its class of smartphones. With Antutu crossing 70k easily on benchmark scores. The overall UI is fast and responsive and offers a good day to day usage scenario. Multitasking works great and app optimization, as well as RAM optimization, works well on the Redmi Note 3. The fingerprint scanner which sits right under the camera is extremely fast and quick to unlock the device.

With support for two SIM cards, the Redmi Note 3 offers LTE across India, on both the cards, while you can also pop in a MicroSD card in case you choose to do that. Battery life is longer than expected, with a massive 4050 mAh battery you will get true to work one day of use without any compromises. Despite the battery being large, the chipset is designed to handle battery management well.

Conclusion

Redmi Note 3 has excellent advantages over the competition, especially the LeEco Le1s. Despite a few drawbacks it still manages to perform pretty well and is a best buy for normal users. By bringing Redmi Note 3 to India, Xiaomi has really uped the game and has emerged as a strong player in the budget segment.