Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Full Technical Review: Specs, Pros & Cons

Xiaomi, with the drop in the sales for their products in the second half of the year 2015, seems like have come up with a new resolution and releases the new Redmi Note, named as Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with full metal sleek body, powerful battery, better display and more. The previous Mi phones like Mi4i and Redmi’s have sacked some profits in the first half of the year 2015 but the sales graph declined drastically in the second half.

Hoping for a good start for the 2 months old new year, Xiaomi revealed Mi5 with interesting specs in China recently. The company might have been expecting to hold the torch for this year’s budget market too and so released Redmi Note 3 in Indian market under ₹10,000 and ₹12,000 in two physical memory-storage variants. Does these two phones have that X-factor to consider to buy? Or should you wait for Mi5 to come to India? Let’s see.

What’s in the box?

Xiaomi packed no new Christmas goodies inside the box of Redmi Note 3. It comes with the handset, power adapter (no fast charger), USB cable, warranty card and guides. You will miss headphones in the package.

Design

The design of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is what I would like to discuss about this phone. The whole design of the Redmi Note devices has been replaced with full metallic body with fine ergonomics except the top an bottom of the back cover for transceivers. Redmi Note 3 measures 150mmx76mmx8.65mm and weighs 165gms. The phone might look heavy with that 4050mAh battery but feels lighter than the phones of its kind, for e.g., Lenovo Vibe X3.

xiaomi-redmi-note3

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes with 3.5mm audio jack, IR blaster and secondary noise cancellation microphone on the top, micro USB port along with the main microphone on the bottom, hybrid SIM slot (supports both micro SIM, Nano SIM & micro SD slot) on the left and power button along with volume rocker buttons on the right edge.

On the back the phone comes with 16MP camera with dual tone LED flash and fingerprint scanner under it. The bottom of the back has a loud speaker outlet with the ‘Mi’ logo just above it. On the front, it has 5MP front facing camera with the proximity sensor.

Display

With 5.5 inch full HD 1080p IPS display and pixel density of 401ppi, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes with better sunlight display technology than its predecessor versions. It also have a ‘Night Display’ mode like the Apple introduced for iPhones recently, that switches the phone to dark mode while browsing the newsfeed after the sun goes own.

xiaomi-redmi-note3-display

The picture can be viewed clean and same at 178 degree viewing angle. The display is protected but not surely by Gorilla Glass technology.

Processor, RAM & GPU

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is released in two variants, 2GB + 16GB and 3GB + 32GB versions. Both the handsets come with same chipset and GPU but differ only in RAM and internal memory with corresponding prices.

Redmi Note 3 is powered with 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor clocking at 1.8GHz speed. It is added with Adreno 510 GPU along with 2GB/3GB LPDDR3 RAM combination.
xiaomi-redmi-note3-performance

Gaming is amazing on the device with Adreno 510 GPU. There are no frame drops, clean graphics on 1080p display and no over heating.

The processor amazingly doesn’t over heat up even after hours of GPS usage and gaming which is a great compared to Mi4i. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is your cup of tea if you are a sort of gamer or heavy GPS user.

Storage

Redmi Note 3 comes with 16GB and 32GB internal flash memories. Unfortunately, The expandability of the storage has been limited extended to 32GB 128GB only, through micro SD card in the hybrid SIM/SD card slot which is an upset feature from Xiaomi.

It is not new to see the issues with storage capacity for Xiaomi budget versions in the past also.

Operating System

Redmi Note 3 has Android 5.1.1 based MIUI 7 (see full features of MIUI 7) on board which is customized to have no app tray and clean display.

Camera

Redmi Note 3 shoots pictures with 16MP PDAF rear camera with aperture f/2.0 and 0.1 second auto-focus time. The dual tone LED flash helps taking night shots and in low light photography. You can take selfies with 5MP front camera with aperture f/2.0. It also comes with face detection and 36 smart beauty profiles that enhance the skin tone, smoothness and looks.

xiaomi-redmi-note3-camera
Rare camera is just improved with the increasing of few megapixels but the performance is constant. A lot of layers, filters and modes are available for the camera for better and quick photography. However, Xiaomi had a good track record of camera modules in their phones.

Connectivity

Network/Bands:

4G FDD-LTE, TD-LTE –  B1 / B3 / B5 / B7 / B8, B38 / B39 / B40 / B41,
3G TD-SCDMA, WCDMA –  1900 / 2000MHz, 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100MHz
2G GSM – 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz

Wireless connectivity:

Bluetooth® 4.1
Bluetooth® HID
Dual-band Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz
Wi-Fi Display
Wi-Fi Direct

Sensors

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has Electronic compass, Gravity sensor, Light sensor, Gyroscope, IR, Hall sensor and Proximity sensor.
 

GPS Navigation

Redmi Note 3 has GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou positioning navigation systems.
 

Battery

Battery is a beast in Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. It comes with 4050mAh Li-Po battery with the screen on time of 8+ hours. You can use the phone at fullest all the day without having a thought of searching for a charger.
 

Pros

+ Full metallic premium design
+ Better processor & GPU
+ No over heating
+ Better display technology
+ Better camera
+ Powerful battery
+ Wi-Fi supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz band

 

Cons

- No specific screen protection
- No/low memory expandability
- Still Android 5.1.1 based MIUI7

- Heating issues
 

Who can buy it?

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a good package in the price point of view. The 2GB + 16GB version is available at ₹9,999 and 3GB + 32GB version at ₹11,999. The price variation for 1GB extra RAM and 16GB extra memory seems a bit high for me but, it is not an issue considering the performance into consideration.

If you need a phone under ₹10,000/₹12,000 that won’t heat up like molten iron while delivering the performance even during GPS usage and gaming, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is for you.

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