Hey Guys I'm Back With Another RoM Review Of Your Xiaomi Device " Redmi 2 Prime "
Recently Xiaomi Released MiUi 8.1 Update With Lots Of New Features And The Most Waited Font Option In Global RoM Is Back With 8.1.3.0 LHJMIDI.
The Size Of This Update Is 791MB. And It Took Me 30Minutes To Get Installation Done.
Xiaomi Launch the RedMi Pro, Featuring a 5.5" Full HD OLED display, the Key highlight of the phone is the dual camera setup at the back, with a main 13MP camera (Sony IMX 258) augmented by a 5MP secondary camera that adds depth information. The additional camera is joined by a depth of field image processor.
Xiaomi's RedMi Pro MediaTek Helio X20 SoC is A Beast offering Deca-Core (10 cores) in three clusters. There are two high-performance Cortex A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, joined by four Cortex A53 cores at 2.0GHz, and four additional Cortex A53 cores at 1.5GHz. Other specs on offer include 4GB of RAM, 128GB storage, 5MP camera at the front, dual-SIM, LTE with VoLTE, and a 4050mAh battery. The phone joins the Mi 5 in offering a fingerprint sensor at the front and USB-C connectivity.
Xiaomi Redmi Pro Price & Availability: The Redmi Pro will be available from ¥1,499, which comes out to the equivalent of Rs15000. That's for the base model with a Helio X20 SoC, 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. The Helio X25 model with 3GB of RAM and 64GB storage will set customers back ¥1,699 (Approx. Rs.17000), and the high-end variant with Helio X25, 4GB of RAM and 128GB flash storage will debut for ¥1,999 (Approx Rs.20000). "Thanks For Reading,Stay Tuned With The Latest Tech & Gadgets Updates With Reviewing Gadgets By Joining Us On Facebook"
Coolpad Note 3 Lite Is A Killer Budget Phone Which Cost's Just Rs.6999, Let's Have A Quick Loot At Specs: 1.3GHZ MediaTek Quad-Core Processor+Mali 720GPU, 16GB ROM & 3GB of RAM, 13Mp Rear+5Mp Front Camera 4G With VoLTE, 2300Mah Battery
Performance:
With 1.3ghz, Mali 720GPU & Huge 3 GB Of RAM Which Made It Ultimate Gaming Device In Budget Segment It Can Run Almost Any Popular Game At High Graphics Mode(Games Tested On High Graphics:GTA San Andreas, Asphalt 8 Airbrone, NOVA 3)
Camera:
It Features 13 Mp Rear+ 5Mp Front Camera, 13Mp Rear Camera Is Average/Poor Even Redmi 2/Prime 8Mp Camera Takes Better Photos Then It In terms of Colour Reproduction, 5 Mp Front Shooter Is Nice & Decent For Selfies
Battery:
Its Powered By 2500Mah Battery, Which Is Ok in Terms Of Normal Usage & Can Last A Day, But If U Game it Will Last Max 3-4Hours
Connectivity:
CoolPad Note 3 Lite Cubed With 4G With VoLTE/3G/2G Dual Band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.
Unboxing:
If U Are Using Coolpad Note 3 Lite Please Give Ur Review/Feedback In Comments Section
Hello Friends, Welcome To Reviewing Gadget, Today We Are Reviewing Some Budget Friendly SmartPhones Of July 2016 Which Are Under Rs.6000
1)Xolo Era X
Price: Rs.5,499
Key Features:
*Supports 4G
*8Mp Rear & 5Mp Front Camera
*2GB Ram
*2500Mah Battery
*5" HD IPS Display With Corning Gorilla Glass Protection
Xolo Era X Comes With 5" HD IPS Display With Corning Gorilla Glass Protection, Powered By 1.5Ghz Quad-Core Processor Along With 2GB Of Ram & 8 GB Internal Memory, It Supports 4G Which Is The Key Feature At This Price Point, Runs On Android 5.1(Upgradeable To Android 6.0 Marshmallow)
Xolo Era 4K Comes With A Huge Battery Of 4000Mah Whcih Will Last's At Least 2 Days On Moderate Usage, Powered By 1.0Ghz Quad-Core Processor, 2GB of Ram & 16 GB Rom, It Sports 8Mp Rear & 5 Mp Front Facing Camera & Runs On Android 5.1 Lollipop, Key Highlight Is 4000Mah battery & 4G Support At Considerable Price Point. More Details
4)Swipe ELITE
Price: Rs.5,999
Key Features:
*13Rear + 8Mp Front Camera
*2GB Ram & 16 GB Rom
*5" HD IPS Display With DPi Of 320 & 2.5D Glass
*2500Mah Battery
Swipe ELITE Comes With 5" HD IPS Display With DPi Of 320 & 2.5D Glass ,Powered By 1.3Ghz Quad-Core Processor, 2GB Ram & 16 GB Rom, Highlight Of Swipe ELITE Is Its 13+8 Mp Camera Which Is Good For Selfies ,Swipe Elite Runs On Android Lollipop In terms of Connectivity Is Supports 3G/EDGE/GPRS/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
Swipe Virtue Comes With 5" HD IPS Display, 1.3Ghz Quad-Core Processor, 2GB of Ram & 16GB Rom, Runs On Android 5.1 Lollipop. More Details
Key Specifications: Ringing Bells Freedom 251 Features A 4Inch qHD Display Unspecified 1.3Ghz Quad Core Processor 1GB Of RAM 1450Mah Battery
3.2Mp Rear Camera
Well, it's finally happening. Noida-based Ringing Bells is all set to launch the world's cheapest smartphone Freedom 251 on July 7. As you may know, the handset hit the headlines earlier this year due to its controversial price tag of Rs 251, which majority of us found hard to believe.
Note: This is the final version of the Freedom 251 smartphone. The earlier version that we had reviewed was a prototype unit given to the media.
And yes, the manufacturing cost of Freedom 251 is not Rs 251 (the price it will be available to users at), as the company CEO Mohit Goel himself confirmed that company will be losing money on every handset it sells. He, however, insisted that he plans to generate overall profit on bulk orders.
Ringing Bells seems all set. The company claimed that it has 2 lakh Freedom 251 units ready to ship. Users can get their hands on the ultra-budget smartphone via a lucky draw process. The company's general manager, Anmol Goel told TOI that they will be allotting nearly 10,000 units for each state.
Design and Display:
To start with, we are glad to see that the new and final version of the Freedom 251 is nowhere close to what we saw back in February. That cheap iPhone 5-like design has finally been waved goodbye to in favour of a much sleeker and unique build.
As you can see from the images, the Freedom 251 now has a textured plastic back panel, comes in White and Black colour variants, has a different placement of rear camera, and features three navigation keys similar to what we see on a typical Android handset.
All we know for now is that the back panel is removable. However, peeping inside was not allowed.
It is compact, offers firm grip, is definitely slimmer but of nearly the same height as its prototype model. The micro-USB charging port and headphone jack stays on top, while the power button and the volume buttons sit on right and left side respectively. Above the display you have a speaker and a front-facing camera.
Xiaomi's Redmi series has been wildly popular over the past few years and for good reason. The low prices and good features have really set these models apart, and even other Chinese players have found them hard to compete with. Thanks to this competition, you can get a lot more in a budget or even mid-range smartphone than you used to be able to a few years ago.
After pushing powerful components and cutting prices, manufacturers have started focusing on premium aesthetics and build quality, which appeal even more to customers. We've seen a lot of metal being being used by companies rather than plastic, such as with the recently released Honor 5 X (Review) and Le Eco Le 1s (Review). In terms of specifications, 3GB of RAM is not something to boast about anymore, and Coolpad has proven to everyone with the Coolpad Note 3 (Review) that even fingerprint sensors are not restricted to premium phones.
In light of all this, the Redmi 2 series feels a bit dated, and so Xiaomi is right on time with the newRedmi Note 3. We had a first look at the device back in December, although that was the original version running on a MediaTek processor. The one launched in India sports a more potent Qualcomm chip which should make it more competitive. Just like the Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime, the Redmi Note 3 will also be made in India.
The two biggest competitors for the Redmi Note 3 that immediately spring to mind are the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note and LeEco's Le 1s. Can Xiaomi's latest offering become the undisputed winner in the sub-Rs.15,000 segment? Let's find out.
Look and feel
The moment you take it out of the box, the Redmi Note 3 looks and feels incredibly premium, especially in gold. The full-metal body gets a smooth matte finish that doesn't attract fingerprints. It's easy to keep clean too, as dust and grime come off with a simple wipe.
In the front, we have the 5.5-inch full-HD IPS display with very narrow side bezels. There's a glossy rim running along the edge of the front facia, which is elevated above the rest of the display to protect it from scratches when the phone is placed face-down. It's a nice design touch but it's also a bit of an annoyance on the ear when you're making calls. The display has a scratch resistant layer, although Xiaomi hasn't explicitly stated this anywhere.
There's a 5-megapixel camera on the top along with a notification LED for alerts. Mercifully, the capacitive buttons at the bottom are backlit. The volume rocker and power button are quite ergonomically placed on the right, while the left side houses the hybrid Dual-SIM tray. In addition to the headphones socket on the top, we also have an infrared (IR) emitter. The phone uses a standard Micro-USB connector for charging and data transfers.
Around the back, we have a 16-megapixel camera, a dual-tone dual-LED flash, the fingerprint sensor, and a speaker grille at the bottom. The Redmi Note 3 ships with a 10W charger, data cable, SIM ejector tool, and instruction leaflets. The quality of the accessories seems good, and they should last.
We feel that Xiaomi has done a terrific job with the design and aesthetics of the Redmi Note 3. The finish of the phone is excellent and the display is crisp and vibrant. The IPS panel has very good colour reproduction and features Xiaomi's Sunlight Display hardware feature which indeed makes it decently legible even under direct sunlight.
We also like how comfortable the phone feels in the hand. It's a bit tricky to use one-handed, but is fairly slim at 8.7mm with good weight distribution.
Specifications
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 might be a budget smartphone but there's certainly nothing low-end about the hardware it packs. This is the first phone to roll out with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 650 SoC, which is a pretty big deal given its near-flagship level performance in some benchmarks. It's a hexa-core SoC, much like the Snapdragon 808 found in the Moto X Style, but instead of the Cortex-A57 cores, we have two of ARM's more powerful Cortex-A72 cores running at 1.8GHz. The other four cores are Cortex-A53s which chug along at 1.4GHz. This SoC still uses the 28nm fabrication process but the GPU is a newer Adreno 510, which is one notch lower than what's present in the flagship Snapdragon 820 chip.
In benchmarks, we 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 got from many high-end phones based on the Snapdragon 810. GPU performance is equally impressive, and we recorded 31fps in the T-Rex test in GFXbench, which once again is competitive to scores posted by Snapdragon 810 devices.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 will come in two variants. What we have today is the one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, but you can opt for the other model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage if your budget is tight. Officially, storage can be expanded by up to 32GB by using a microSD card instead of a second SIM in the hybrid slot, though unofficially you can put cards of bigger storage capacity as well.
Thanks to the Qualcomm chip, the phone features Category 7 LTE for Band 3, 5, 40 and 41 along with VoLTE support. You also get dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooh 4.1, USB OTG, FM radio, Miracast, GLONASS, and BeiDou. NFC is one feature that's missing.
Software
The phone ships with an Android Lollipop fork called MIUI 7, which is has been reworked from the ground up. Compared to earlier versions of MIUI, version 7 is certainly more likable and better polished. It's still a single-layered interface, but it does let users customise the look and feel with transition effects and themes. The Theme Store app has a pretty good selection of free themes, and we particularly liked the Marshmallow one.
The lock screen gets a feature called Wallpaper Carousel, which displays random wallpapers from a user-selected collection which is updated daily. The notification shade has separate tabs for incoming alerts and toggle switches, to avoid clutter. There's also a lite mode for those looking for a simplified interface, and a child mode that lets you restrict which apps your children have access to when you let them play with your phone. The Settings app is where you'll find the most interesting changes.
Reading mode, which is essentially a bluelight filter, can be toggled from the notification shade. The strength of the filter can be adjusted in the Display sub-menu. The fingerprint sensor can recognise up to five fingerprints. Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra stated during the phone's launch that it's possible to record your lip pattern too, though it failed to unlock the phone when we tried it.
Signing up for a Mi account gives you 5GB of cloud storage for backing up your contacts, messages, photos, etc. You also have the option to password protect specific apps to keep nosy people out of your private chats, for example. You can hide files with fingerprint authentication using the Explorer app.
Xiaomi has incorporated a one-handed mode, which you can enter or exit by simply swiping right from the capacitive Home button. You can even choose the size to which you want the display to shrink. The phone comes with a preloaded app called Mi Mover which lets you move apps and data to or from any other Android device. MIUI 7 supports up to 13 indic languages. Apart from the standard Google keyboard and SwiftKey, our test unit also had a keyboard called Fleksy, which turned out to be much better than we had expected.
In terms of preloaded apps, you get basic productivity tools along with some additional ones such as Mi Remote. This lets you set up the IR emitter for various infrared-capable devices, including DSLR cameras. The Mi Store app is a marketplace for all Xiaomi products sold in India. The Security app lets you monitor data usage and run basic maintenance tasks. You also get Facebook, WPS Office, and the usual Google apps.
Performance
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3's hardware and software come together nicely to deliver a very pleasing Android experience. The interface is fluid with barely any noticeable stutter when multitasking. Call quality is good and the phone had no trouble latching on to multiple carriers' LTE networks in Mumbai.
Our review unit was fairly stable apart from a few reboots which occurred when the phone got warm when running benchmark tests with it plugged in. Speaking of heat, the metal body does get warm during continuous video playback and when recording videos, but it doesn't get too uncomfortable.
One niggling issue we did encounter was the long time it took to get both SIMs working. This wasn't a problem if there was only a single SIM in the phone, but when we inserted a second one, it would take a really long time for the phone to detect it. We were stuck with a 'No Service' message for more than 10 minutes on one such occasion. Rebooting the phone didn't help. This could be a pain if you swap SIMs often, but otherwise it's not that big a deal. We're happy to report that the fingerprint sensor works well and is quite fast at unlocking the phone.
The Redmi Note 3 is great for multimedia, especially thanks to its crisp display. The phone can handle 4K video playback. The speaker is fairly loud for alerts and media although we missed the stereo effect. The music player is functional and you can switch between different audio profiles set for different types of earphones. You can quickly share media files with other Xiaomi devices using Mi Drop. We didn't have issues with audio quality with our own earphones. In the 32GB version, you get about 26.2GB of accessible storage space. On average, you have about 1GB of free RAM available if you only have a single app running.
Camera
The rear camera has a 16-megapixel sensor and a wide f/2.0 aperture. Both landscapes and macro shots captured in daylight have good detail. Colour reproduction is good too. However, objects in focus lack a bit of definition and aren't very sharp, but this is only visible once you zoom in. Images look good on the phone's display though, and as long as you don't need to crop the picture at full size, you should be good.
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The camera also struggles a bit with sharpness and depth under artificial lighting. Low-light images are not too shabby, as there's barely any visible noise in the dark areas. The dual-tone flash is decent for nearby objects but don't expect too much from it. 1080p video recording is good but very shaky due to lack of any software stabilisation. Also, 720p video quality is not great so we recommend shooting in full-HD all the time. The front camera captures good selfies in daylight thanks to the same wide f/2.0 aperture.
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The camera app is simple to use and has plenty of shooting modes. We liked the handy HDR toggle switch next to the shutter button, which makes life a lot simpler. You swipe down or left for filters, and the other way for shooting modes, depending on whether you're holding the phone in landscape or portrait. The Panorama mode does an okay job of stitching photos together. The Manual mode lets you play with white balance and ISO settings but there aren't any options for aperture or shutter speed.
The focusing speed is good, even in low light. You can capture an image with the secondary shutter button placed in the centre of the focus ring. Burst mode also works well. Other modes includes Gradient, which helps level out shots even if you tilt the phone; Fish eye, which adds a fun effect; and Beautify which lets you smoothen out skin blemishes.
Battery life
The non-removable 4050mAh battery managed to get us through 12 hours and 21 minutes of continuous video playback, which is quite good. During actual usage, we easily managed to go more than a day, and this was without resorting to the battery saving modes. The phone supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge feature, and we managed to charge the Redmi Note 3 up to 20 percent in half an hour. We wouldn't call this super quick but it's better than nothing.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is priced at Rs. 9,999 for 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and Rs.11,999 for 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is very aggressive when you consider the overall package. Xiaomi has also partnered with Hungama to offer a free two-month subscription to its streaming service.
It's hard to find fault with the Redmi Note 3 as it ticks all the right boxes, and in some ways, rivals phones that cost a lot more. The metal body and fingerprint sensor are welcome additions to the Redmi series, and make the Note 3 feel relevant in 2016. You also get a great display, very good battery life, and a powerful SoC. The camera isn't too bad, although we could have done with sharper stills and better quality HD videos. MIUI 7 is improved compared to previous versions, and is quite likable. We do wish storage expansion beyond 32GB was officially supported, and it woudn't have hurt to throw in NFC just to complete the package.
A few kinks aside, we believe that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is easily one of the best smartphones available for under Rs.15,000 today, and has the potential to get better with future software updates. If you are confused between this, the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note (Review) and the Le 1s (Review), we can confidently give the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 our vote.
Competition in the budget and mid-range smartphone segments has been getting fiercer by the day, and buyers aren't complaining one bit. At this point, a lot of people no longer think it makes sense to spend big money on high-end smartphones, when options such as theLe 1s(Review) andXiaomi Redmi Note 3(Review) offer practically everything you want at a fraction of the price. The sub-Rs. 15,000 space is where most of the excitement is today.
Apart from Xiaomi and LeEco, Lenovo also competes in this segment with the Vibe K4 Note, which is on our test bench today. After the success of the K3 Note, Lenovo is going into this one with massive goodwill on its side. The phone was at first available only through flash sales, but can now be bought freely online. Does it have what it takes to compete in the most exciting smartphone battle of early 2016? We find out in our review.
Look and feel While the Redmi Note 3 and Le 1s are made of metal, the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is unashamedly plastic. Everything from the removable back panel to the frame and edges of the device is made of plastic, but the phone is still only marginally lighter than both its metal competitors. That said, the Vibe K4 Note does have a sense of solidity and durability to it, and looks alright as well.
The back has the camera, fingerprint sensor and flash, along with Lenovo and Dolby Atmos logos. Our review unit was black and had a matte finish which lent it a fair bit of sophistication. There's also a white option, which looks nice as well. The back panel pops off quite easily to reveal the SIM and microSD slots. These are thankfully separate, so you can have two SIMs in place alongside additional storage if you choose. Also visible under the cover is the battery, but it isn't user-replaceable.
The edges have a fairly common layout, with the power and volume buttons on the right, Micro-USB port at the bottom, and 3.5mm socket at the top. The front of the phone is strikingly similar to that of the Lenovo Vibe X3 (Review), with its dual-speaker layout and extended Gorilla Glass that covers the capacitive keys, front camera, sensors and LED indicator. These similarities and design cues extend to other parts of the phone as well, and in fact the K4 Note is marketed as the Vibe X3 Lite in some countries.
The sales package includes a plastic protective case, screen protector film, and a useful 10W charger, which charges up the 3300mAh battery quickly. Although the protective case adds a fair bit of bulk to a phone that's already on the larger side, it might be a good idea to use it to avoid scratches and nicks on the edges.
The screen of the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is a 5.5-inch full-HD IPS LCD panel. Although it has a slightly warm tone to it, the screen is incredibly bright, sharp and detailed. There is a beautiful sense of sophistication to the way everything looks, and the display is, once again, very similar to the one on the Vibe X3, which makes it excellent for the price of the phone.
Specifications and software The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note runs on the MediaTek MT6753 SoC, clocked at 1.3GHz for all of its eight cores. This is most similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC, and three months into 2016, is starting to feel a bit dated. In comparison, the Le 1s uses the more powerful MediaTek Helio X10 SoC, while the Redmi Note 3 runs on the brand new and highly capable Snapdragon 650. Both of those seem like much better options if performance is what you're looking for.
There's also 3GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (expandable by up to 128GB), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac compatibility, and 4G connectivity on both SIM slots. TDD Band 40 and FDD Band 3 are both supported. However, only one SIM can run 4G at any time, with the other dropping to 3G. The internal storage is less than the 32GB offered by the Le 1s and Redmi Note 3, which is a disappointment. However, the Le 1s does not allow for expandable storage, while the Redmi Note 3 is officially limited to 32GB microSD cards.
The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is compatible with the ANT VR headset, which is being sold as an optional extra for Rs. 1,299. The phone quickly prepares any ordinary content for VR use, and you simply have to switch the phone to VR mode through the power menu and slot it into the headset to use. Although the phone falls short of its competition in a few other ways, this major feature is totally unique and gives it a serious advantage, as one of the most affordable devices with VR compatibility.
The phone runs on Android 5.1, with Lenovo's Vibe UI on top. The interface has gone through some significant improvements of late, and is now incredibly polished and easy to use. One of the most useful recent changes is the addition of a dual-layered mode, which enables the app drawer and allows for a look and feel that is more reminiscent of stock Android. You can of course choose to revert to the single-layered mode of the past, but we found no good reason to do so.
The biggest improvements to the user interface are in the form of customisation options. Everything from the home screens and interface to the quick settings menu is highly customisable, and you can set the phone up exactly as you like. The notification log feature we saw on the Vibe X3 is also carried over, letting you go back to notifications you've already dismissed. There are a bunch of pre-installed apps including Amazon, WeChat and Lenovo's suite of tools, but most of these can be uninstalled and you can keep things clean and light if you choose to do so.
The settings menu is chock full of options to tweak the phone, giving you enhanced control over practically every aspect of the device. There are useful features as well, such as being able to double-tap to wake the screen, flip the phone over to lock it, and take a quick photo by quickly double-pressing a volume key.
The fingerprint sensor can recognise up to two stored fingerprints, which are used to unlock the phone. It works quickly and effortlessly, usually unlocking it without any trouble. The sensor can also be used for certain functions when the phone is unlocked, such as serving as a shutter button for the camera, going back, or pulling up the app switcher. The whole system works efficiently, and on the whole, Lenovo's Vibe UI is now among the better manufacturer interfaces we've used.
Camera The primary camera of the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is a 13-megapixel shooter with a dual-tone LED flash, while the front camera is a 5-megapixel affair. Both are capable of recording video at 1080p. Photography modes are basic and limited to the essentials. Panorama, filters, self-timer, HDR and multi-shot are all accounted for, though.
The camera app is the epitome of simplicity, with toggles only for the camera switcher, flash and HDR mode. Recording video is a two-step procedure, and the Mode menu only lets you choose panorama mode or filters. Within the Settings menu, you can control manual settings, photo resolution and ratio, video resolution, and a few other things such as touch shutter, smile detection, and a self-timer.
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Pictures taken with the primary camera are sharp and detailed in and around the focus area, but bright parts of the image have a tendency to wash out. For close-ups, indoor shots and low-light photography, this isn't really a problem and pictures are very good in those situations. Low-light and indoor shots in particular are excellent, and the phone succeeds in brightening up dull settings while maintaining a fair amount of detail.
However, the washing out of bright colours is a serious problem, and daylight tends to flood parts of pictures to the point where entire portions of pictures are overpowered. On the whole, pictures aren't terrible, but the camera isn't anywhere near as good as other options we've seen in this price range. If camera quality is your primary concern, you're better off looking at options such as the Asus ZenFone Max.
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Performance The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is powered by the MediaTek MT6753 with an integrated Mali T720MP3 GPU, and also has 3GB of RAM. Coupled with the efficient software, this keeps things running fairly smoothly and you're unlikely to have any performance issues with the phone. Gaming is also smooth for the most part, although heavy games such as Dead Trigger 2 did generate a fair bit of heat and cause rapid battery drain. Our suite of heavily encoded videos also ran well, with barely any visible lag or stutter.
However, the phone's performance is not on par with that of its two biggest competitors, and you will get better performance from both the Le 1s and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Both these devices use newer hardware that performs better. Benchmark results for the K4 Note were more or less on par with other MT6753 and Snapdragon 615 devices, with scores of 36,637 and 20,525 in AnTuTu and Quadrant respectively. GFXBench and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme logged scores of 12fps and 3923 respectively. All of these are much lower than those of the two phones we mentioned before, and represent the weaknesses that this phone has when it comes to raw performance.
The Vibe K4 Note's 3300mAh battery ran for 8 hours, 54 minutes in our video loop test, which is barely above average. However, with ordinary use, the phone ran for a bit longer than the loop test would have us think, often easily lasting through the day even with 4G connectivity and moderate-to-heavy use. Battery consumption by the screen is particularly heavy, so the longer you have the screen on, the less battery life you can expect.
Sound output from the phone is particularly good, thanks to the dual stereo speakers in front. Sound is loud, clear and sharp, and audio through headphones is decent as well. The Vibe K4 Note has Dolby Atmos support, which sounds a bit ridiculous considering that Atmos is typically a multi-speaker atmospheric setup that requires speakers to be positioned overhead, along with the use of complicated processing equipment.
Enabling Atmos mode on the phone changes the sound ever so slightly by widening the soundstage and giving you the impression of audio sources being more spread out and open. It isn't what we're typically used to with Atmos, but it's an interesting tweak nonetheless. Apart from this, the phone does a decent job of holding onto both cellular and Wi-Fi networks, and often caught a strong Wi-Fi signal where other devices couldn't.
Verdict The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is a bit of a mixed bag for us. It's great in certain ways, such as its screen, fingerprint sensor, sonic capabilities, and excellent software. There's also the fact that the smartphone is ready for VR use, and you can pick up the inexpensive ANT VR headset and quickly watch any content in VR mode. Additionally, it's worth noting that you can have up to 128GB of expandable storage while using two SIM cards in this device. Having 3GB of RAM is another nice touch that is helpful in keeping things running smoothly.
Unfortunately, there are shortcomings, notably when it comes to the construction materials, internal storage, performance, and camera quality. The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note was an excellent option at the start of 2016, but has now been shadowed by Xiaomi and LeEco. It shows how fierce competition is, but we have to say that at this point, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is in all ways a better smartphone. However, if the VR capabilities appeal to you, or if software, brand value and easy availability are important factors, then the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is still definitely worth considering.
Xiaomi's Redmi series has been wildly popular over the past few years and for good reason. The low prices and good features have really set these models apart, and even other Chinese players have found them hard to compete with. Thanks to this competition, you can get a lot more in a budget or even mid-range smartphone than you used to be able to a few years ago.
After pushing powerful components and cutting prices, manufacturers have started focusing on premium aesthetics and build quality, which appeal even more to customers. We've seen a lot of metal being being used by companies rather than plastic, such as with the recently released Honor 5 X(Review) and Le Eco Le 1s (Review). In terms of specifications, 3GB of RAM is not something to boast about anymore, and Coolpad has proven to everyone with the Coolpad Note 3 (Review) that even fingerprint sensors are not restricted to premium phones.
In light of all this, the Redmi 2 series feels a bit dated, and so Xiaomi is right on time with the newRedmi Note 3. We had a first look at the device back in December, although that was the original version running on a MediaTek processor. The one launched in India sports a more potent Qualcomm chip which should make it more competitive. Just like the Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime, the Redmi Note 3 will also be made in India.
The two biggest competitors for the Redmi Note 3 that immediately spring to mind are the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note and LeEco's Le 1s. Can Xiaomi's latest offering become the undisputed winner in the sub-Rs.15,000 segment? Let's find out.
Look and feel The moment you take it out of the box, the Redmi Note 3 looks and feels incredibly premium, especially in gold. The full-metal body gets a smooth matte finish that doesn't attract fingerprints. It's easy to keep clean too, as dust and grime come off with a simple wipe.
In the front, we have the 5.5-inch full-HD IPS display with very narrow side bezels. There's a glossy rim running along the edge of the front facia, which is elevated above the rest of the display to protect it from scratches when the phone is placed face-down. It's a nice design touch but it's also a bit of an annoyance on the ear when you're making calls. The display has a scratch resistant layer, although Xiaomi hasn't explicitly stated this anywhere.
There's a 5-megapixel camera on the top along with a notification LED for alerts. Mercifully, the capacitive buttons at the bottom are backlit. The volume rocker and power button are quite ergonomically placed on the right, while the left side houses the hybrid Dual-SIM tray. In addition to the headphones socket on the top, we also have an infrared (IR) emitter. The phone uses a standard Micro-USB connector for charging and data transfers.
Around the back, we have a 16-megapixel camera, a dual-tone dual-LED flash, the fingerprint sensor, and a speaker grille at the bottom. The Redmi Note 3 ships with a 10W charger, data cable, SIM ejector tool, and instruction leaflets. The quality of the accessories seems good, and they should last.
We feel that Xiaomi has done a terrific job with the design and aesthetics of the Redmi Note 3. The finish of the phone is excellent and the display is crisp and vibrant. The IPS panel has very good colour reproduction and features Xiaomi's Sunlight Display hardware feature which indeed makes it decently legible even under direct sunlight.
We also like how comfortable the phone feels in the hand. It's a bit tricky to use one-handed, but is fairly slim at 8.7mm with good weight distribution.
Specifications The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 might be a budget smartphone but there's certainly nothing low-end about the hardware it packs. This is the first phone to roll out with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 650 SoC, which is a pretty big deal given its near-flagship level performance in some benchmarks. It's a hexa-core SoC, much like the Snapdragon 808 found in the Moto X Style, but instead of the Cortex-A57 cores, we have two of ARM's more powerful Cortex-A72 cores running at 1.8GHz. The other four cores are Coretx-A53s which chug along at 1.4GHz. This SoC still uses the 28nm fabrication process but the GPU is a newer Adreno 510, which is one notch lower than what's present in the flagship Snapdragon 820 chip.
In benchmarks, we 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 got from many high-end phones based on the Snapdragon 810. GPU performance is equally impressive, and we recorded 31fps in the T-Rex test in GFXbench, which once again is competitive to scores posted by Snapdragon 810 devices.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 will come in two variants. What we have today is the one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage, but you can opt for the other model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage if your budget is tight. Storage can be expanded by up to 32GB by using a microSD card instead of a second SIM in the hybrid slot. This isn't much when you consider that most phones today support 128GB or more.
Thanks to the Qualcomm chip, the phone features Category 7 LTE for Band 3, 5, 40 and 41 along with VoLTE support. You also get dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooh 4.1, USB OTG, FM radio, Miracast, GLONASS, and BeiDou. NFC is one feature that's missing.
Software The phone ships with an Android Lollipop fork called MIUI 7, which is has been reworked from the ground up. Compared to earlier versions of MIUI, version 7 is certainly more likable and better polished. It's still a single-layered interface, but it does let users customise the look and feel with transition effects and themes. The Theme Store app has a pretty good selection of free themes, and we particularly liked the Marshmallow one.
The lock screen gets a feature called Wallpaper Carousel, which displays random wallpapers from a user-selected collection which is updated daily. The notification shade has separate tabs for incoming alerts and toggle switches, to avoid clutter. There's also a lite mode for those looking for a simplified interface, and a child mode that lets you restrict which apps your children have access to when you let them play with your phone. The Settings app is where you'll find the most interesting changes.
Reading mode, which is essentially a bluelight filter, can be toggled from the notification shade. The strength of the filter can be adjusted in the Display sub-menu. The fingerprint sensor can recognise up to five fingerprints. Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra stated during the phone's launch that it's possible to record your lip pattern too, though it failed to unlock the phone when we tried it.
Signing up for a Mi account gives you 5GB of cloud storage for backing up your contacts, messages, photos, etc. You also have the option to password protect specific apps to keep nosy people out of your private chats, for example. You can hide files with fingerprint authentication using the Explorer app.
Xiaomi has incorporated a one-handed mode, which you can enter or exit by simply swiping right from the capacitive Home button. You can even choose the size to which you want the display to shrink. The phone comes with a preloaded app called Mi Mover which lets you move apps and data to or from any other Android device. MIUI 7 supports up to 13 indic languages. Apart from the standard Google keyboard and SwiftKey, our test unit also had a keyboard called Fleksy, which turned out to be much better than we had expected.
In terms of preloaded apps, you get basic productivity tools along with some additional ones such as Mi Remote. This lets you set up the IR emitter for various infrared-capable devices, including DSLR cameras. The Mi Store app is a marketplace for all Xiaomi products sold in India. The Security app lets you monitor data usage and run basic maintenance tasks. You also get Facebook, WPS Office, and the usual Google apps.
Performance Xiaomi Redmi Note 3's hardware and software come together nicely to deliver a very pleasing Android experience. The interface is fluid with barely any noticeable stutter when multitasking. Call quality is good and the phone had no trouble latching on to multiple carriers' LTE networks in Mumbai.
Our review unit was fairly stable apart from a few reboots which occurred when the phone got warm when running benchmark tests with it plugged in. Speaking of heat, the metal body does get warm during continuous video playback and when recording videos, but it doesn't get too uncomfortable.
One niggling issue we did encounter was the long time it took to get both SIMs working. This wasn't a problem if there was only a single SIM in the phone, but when we inserted a second one, it would take a really long time for the phone to detect it. We were stuck with a 'No Service' message for more than 10 minutes on one such occasion. Rebooting the phone didn't help. This could be a pain if you swap SIMs often, but otherwise it's not that big a deal. We're happy to report that the fingerprint sensor works well and is quite fast at unlocking the phone.
The Redmi Note 3 is great for multimedia, especially thanks to its crisp display. The phone can handle 4K video playback. The speaker is fairly loud for alerts and media although we missed the stereo effect. The music player is functional and you can switch between different audio profiles set for different types of earphones. You can quickly share media files with other Xiaomi devices using Mi Drop. We didn't have issues with audio quality with our own earphones. In the 32GB version, you get about 26.2GB of accessible storage space. On average, you have about 1GB of free RAM available if you only have a single app running.
Camera The rear camera has a 16-megapixel sensor and a wide f/2.0 aperture. Both landscapes and macro shots captured in daylight have good detail. Colour reproduction is good too. However, objects in focus lack a bit of definition and aren't very sharp, but this is only visible once you zoom in. Images look good on the phone's display though, and as long as you don't need to crop the picture at full size, you should be good.
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The camera also struggles a bit with sharpness and depth under artificial lighting. Low-light images are not too shabby, as there's barely any visible noise in the dark areas. The dual-tone flash is decent for nearby objects but don't expect too much from it. 1080p video recording is good but very shaky due to lack of any software stabilisation. Also, 720p video quality is not great so we recommend shooting in full-HD all the time. The front camera captures good selfies in daylight thanks to the same wide f/2.0 aperture.
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The camera app is simple to use and has plenty of shooting modes. We liked the handy HDR toggle switch next to the shutter button, which makes life a lot simpler. You swipe down or left for filters, and the other way for shooting modes, depending on whether you're holding the phone in landscape or portrait. The Panorama mode does an okay job of stitching photos together. The Manual mode lets you play with white balance and ISO settings but there aren't any options for aperture or shutter speed.
The focusing speed is good, even in low light. You can capture an image with the secondary shutter button placed in the centre of the focus ring. Burst mode also works well. Other modes includes Gradient, which helps level out shots even if you tilt the phone; Fish eye, which adds a fun effect; and Beautify which lets you smoothen out skin blemishes.
Battery life The non-removable 4050mAh battery managed to get us through 12 hours and 21 minutes of continuous video playback, which is quite good. During actual usage, we easily managed to go more than a day, and this was without resorting to the battery saving modes. The phone supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge feature, and we managed to charge the Redmi Note 3 up to 20 percent in half an hour. We wouldn't call this super quick but it's better than nothing.
Verdict The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is priced at Rs. 9,999 for 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and Rs.11,999 for 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is very aggressive when you consider the overall package. Xiaomi has also partnered with Hungama to offer a free two-month subscription to its streaming service.
It's hard to find fault with the Redmi Note 3 as it ticks all the right boxes, and in some ways, rivals phones that cost a lot more. The metal body and fingerprint sensor are welcome additions to the Redmi series, and make the Note 3 feel relevant in 2016. You also get a great display, very good battery life, and a powerful SoC. The camera isn't too bad, although we could have done with sharper stills and better quality HD videos. MIUI 7 is improved compared to previous versions, and is quite likable. We do wish storage expansion beyond 32GB was supported, and it woudn't have hurt to throw in NFC just to complete the package.
A few kinks aside, we believe that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is easily one of the best smartphones available for under Rs.15,000 today, and has the potential to get better with future software updates. If you are confused between this and the Le 1s, we can confidently give the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 our vote.
1) Battery: In My Usage I Didn't Find Any Battery Drain Issue's And Battery Life Is Same as Before
