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Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
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n the last two years, the Indian smartphone market has become very
competitive. The entry of Chinese brands has brought disruptive new
smartphones at ultra-affordable prices. Heck, we're in a day and age
where there's talk (albeit dubious) of a Android smartphone that costs Rs 251.
But
at the same time, the market has also become monotonous. The year 2015
wasn't the greatest year for smartphones. Yes, they got better, but then
they were also plagued by issues related to heating or battery life,
which held them back. This year promises to be different and Xiaomi,
which is entering the new year in India with the Redmi Note 3, promises
big things.
The Redmi Note 3,
which costs Rs 9,999 for the 16GB version, is Xiaomi's first truly new
smartphone in more than a year. Yes, it had a couple of models like the
Note Prime, but they were more of re-thinking of existing phones. The
Redmi Note 3 is something that you can call next-gen. It also comes with
new silicon from Qualcomm, which promises to undo all the wrongs that
plagued phones in 2015.
So, is the Redmi Note 3 a step up for
what one expects of a phone in the mid-range? Does it have class leading
performance and battery life? Is it the phone to buy if you have a
budget of around Rs 15k? Let's find out.
Design
Xiaomi
normally builds solid phones that are attractive to look at. In fact,
it normally is known to take the cake for design in whichever price
bracket it competes in. The Redmi Note 3 is a good looking phone, which
is also well built, but by no means it is the most attractive phone at
its price point. That title goes to the LeEco 1S, which has a lovely
matte finish, metal body with chamfers and a mirror finished fingerprint
sensor on the back.
That's
not to say that the Redmi Note 3 isn't made of metal. Actually, it is.
It has a unibody frame, which is very sturdy yet feels relatively
lightweight at 164 grams. Its back is gently curved from the sides,
which ensures the phone nestles comfortably in the hand, despite its
rather chunky 8.7mm thickness.
What we don't like is that Xiaomi
has added a faux metal lining along the bezels, which probably is trying
to add an effect similar to that of a metal chamfer. That just takes a
lot away from the look and feel of the device and adds an element of
cheapness to it.
Other than that, the design looks very sorted.
The phone's bezels aren't overly thick, it has a fingerprint scanner on
the back and there are no oddities with its volume and power rockers.
It
may not be a gorgeous phone as some of the phones under the Mi
branding, but it certainly is a cleverly designed phone, which always is
a good thing.
Display
Another
thing that Xiaomi's phones are usually great at is providing a great
viewing experience. In 2016 most new phones have fullHD screens, and the
Redmi Note 3 is no different with its 5.5-inch panel. It is a good
screen, which is reinforced with Corning's Gorilla Glass 3.Like some of
other Xiaomi phones, it also uses 'sunlight display' technology.
However, if you are a type of person who likes to judge a display by its
sheer brilliance, then the Redmi Note 3 is just about regular. The best
screen, in this price range, is with the LeEco Le 1S. The
Redmi Note 3 has a strange oversaturated yellowish hue to the screen. It
is definitely not as bright as the LeEco Le 1S but it is also less
reflective and hence provides better readability under sunlight.The
display on the Redmi Note 3 won't present any major issues in terms of
usability.But it is not a class leader.
Camera
The
Redmi Note 3 has a 16-megapixel camera, which is pretty much the
highest resolution shooter found on the back of a Xiaomi phone in India.
It also has f/2.0 aperture and a phase detection auto-focus system and a
dual-tone flash. Does that mean it is the best Xiaomi camera we've
tested? Well, yes and no. In terms of speed it could be the fastest
camera in the segment, but at the same time, in terms of picture
quality, the Xiaomi Mi 4 still is probably the best camera phone in the price bracket. At
best, the picture quality of the camera is average which is to say that
it is inferior to what phones like the Mi 4i provide. Generally, the
phone locks focus fast, but the image that comes out is often devoid of a
level of detail that you'd expect of a great camera. Images in
day-light also show noise.
However, the HDR mode is great. It
balances the highlights and shadows and displays an exaggerated effect
on landscape shots, which generally looks pretty. It also works well in
low-light and can be used to take shots of still objects in low-light.
The results often are decent.
As for close-up shots, the phone
locks focus quickly, but the photos do lack the blurred background that
is often seen on higher-end smartphones. The same holds true for video
and the front 5-megapixel camera. In low-light selfies don't look great,
but in day-light they are usable. Video is often shaky and the quality
of audio in loud environments isn't usable in most cases.
Performance
Xiaomi's
Jai Mani talks about sustained performance when he describes the Redmi
Note 3. He also says it feels faster than a phone running Qualcomm's
Snapdragon 810 processor and runs smoothly without turning into a block
of molten lava. And Jai Mani is dead right in his assessment
because the new 6-core 64-bit Snapdragon 650 processor feels as
responsive as a Snapdragon 810, if not more, but without any of its
flaws. This means the performance doesn't peter-out after a while, the
phone doesn't become uncomfortably warm and everything moves along at a
rapid clip without any fuss.
Of course, 3GB RAM and 32GB of
storage does help. Multitasking is never a burden on the phone and it is
an area where it pulls ahead of any Xiaomi phone in the market; heck,
it pulls ahead of many more expensive phones in the market.
Gaming also works out well. The new Adreno GPU renders graphics
beautifully and the quality while not as good as a phone like the Nexus
5X
or the 6P, it is a step up from any Xiaomi phone in India including the
Mi 4 and Mi 4i. While doing so, there ae fewer frame rate drops, and
the phone runs cooler on heavy duty games like ShadowGun and Asphalt 8.
More
than Xiaomi, you can truly say that Qualcomm is back, as the Snapdragon
650 is the engine that's at the heart of the Redmi Note 3 experience.
And this is just a rather humble offering as we are yet to see phones
with the flagship Snapdragon 820 CPU in India.
The network
performance of the phone is fairly standard.But one thing that Xiaomi
touts is support for the maximum number of LTE bands and support for
technologies like carrier aggregation, something which is facilitated by
the new Qualcomm processor. The Note 3 supports more bands than even a
phone like the Galaxy S6 and is on par with Google's Nexus 5X and 6P and
the iPhone. It's impressive though we don't know how much of a benefit
this will be for consumers as Indian phone companies are currently
updating the network technology.
Oh, by the way, the Redmi Note 3
also has a fingerprint scanner on the back, below the camera. And boy
it is a joy to use. It is possibly the fastest fingerprint scanner we've
used! Yes, it sure feels faster than an iPhone 6S. It also is highly
reliable.
Software
Mi
UI is the experience that defines and shapes Xiaomi's phones. It is one
of the most well known and well done Android customisations around and
it works wonderfully well. Mi UI 7 which is still based on Android
Lollipop is an oversimplification of the Android user interface, which
contains a springboard of apps devoid of an app drawer. Its icons are
squared off and flat and generally it is a simple experience that's at
play. Most people like it, but hardcore Android geeks not so
much. We sure do like it, though we still prefer stock Android,
particularly Marshmallow which has goodies like Doze which improves
battery life and Google Now on tap. It is not due to any issue with the
performance of the phone, but simply because, the customisation comes
with the trade-off of a delayed update to Marshmallow, which is true of
even the Redmi Note 3.
Battery life
A
4050mAh is a number that is not be taken lightly. And the Redmi Note 3
doesn't take it lightly. The phone is an absolute road-runner. The first
two days we didn't even pop a SIM in the phone and ran it purely on
Wi-Fi. Guess what! The phone lasted 2.5 days on 80 per cent charge. When
we added the SIM and used it on a patchy Vodafone 3G network too, the
phone never fell short of juice on a single day and many a times, it
crossed the 30-hour mark, which is impressive to say the least. No
matter what, one thing is clear, this phone will last in excess of a
day and you'll never feel any kind of tension, if you forget to carry a
charger while going to work.
Xiaomi also says that the phone has
support for quick charging technology, but we couldn't test that because
the unit we received came with a Chinese adaptor, so we used a charger
from a different phone that didn't have quick charging. Also, lastly,
the phone is still using the older microUSB port, which is going to be
loved by a lot of people because of the sheer convenience of finding a
charger.
Should you buy it
If
you care about boring yet critical things like consistency of
performance, heat management and battery life and simplicity of use,
then the Redmi Note 3 is a must buy! But if you're looking for a class
leading camera, or display and design, then it's not the best for its
price. However, in the overall scheme of things it is a well rounded
product, which comes with a decent display and a neat design.Simply
put; you can't go wrong with the Redmi Note 3. It is blazing fast in
almost a boring way and its battery life is superlative. While doing so,
it doesn't have a glaring weakness in any other area. There's a word
for such a performer - an 'all-rounder' it is. Or yes, it is the Rahul
Dravid of smartphones.
