Hi Friends. We are here for you with a cool Android smartphone named Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G. We have purchased it from Flipkart as it is being sold exclusively on Flipkart in India. However it is also available at a bit higher price on ebay.in
Like always product delivery is pretty fast from Flipkart and they sent it via Overnight courier service. We received it after 2 days of order placement. We have bought this phone just for reviewing purpose and we want to explore its all pros and cons to our viewers and blog readers as well.
Design and Form factors
It is a phone with white back panel and black front panel and we were not given the choice of choosing between colors on Flipkart. It is a big phone and it seems a bit thicker as you can also notice. Its right side hosts volume keys and power button. Now we move to back panel that is made up of glossy plastic. Like most of the other Smartphones, Redmi Note too have rear camera at top center and flash is just below it. It is a single LED flash.
Moving to the lower end of back panel we can see MI logo at bottom center. This logo is a metallic embossed text on the back surface. At bottom left, there is an outlet for speaker. Bottom edge has USB host at its center and mic on the right.
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Design quality looks superb and Xiaomi has delivered its best for Redmi Note when design is concerned at this price point. Phone looks premium at first sight. Its front panel is covered with Dragontail glass and glass quality seems very good. However screen bezels are not so narrow and also Xiaomi has not managed to provide high screen to body ratio as there is a lot of space above and below the screen. Additionally it is a thicker phone having thickness of 9.5 mm.
Back panel of the phone looks sexy and it is made up of shiny glossy plastic. Despite of made up of glossy plastic it is not a fingerprint magnet and you will hardly notice fingerprints on back panel and front panel as well.
It is a heavier phone with 199g that is more than that of many other popular same sized phones e.g. Galaxy Note 4, Meizu M1 Note, LG G3. But in fact you will not feel it heavier because of its ergonomic design.
CPU, GPU and Performance
Redmi Note is powered by a quad-core 1.6 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor. There is no other Smartphone that has the quad-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz at this price point. Its competitors have utmost 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. It has 2GB DDR3 RAM that adds extra points to its performance.
Overall Benchmark results
Antutu
Quadrant Standard
Gaming
You can play normal HD games ( Template Run OZ) smoothly as it features Adreno 305 GPU but when it comes to high end games Redmi Note is failed to deliver smooth gaming experience.
Normal HD Gaming
Temple Run OZ – Temple Run OZ is a fine quality HD 3D game for Android and it can be played well on Redmi Note. However if we go into the depth and analyze performance very deeply, we find a negligible lag at some points of gameplay. This lag doesn’t affect gaming experience but after all lag is lag and if buy a phone shelling out 10k bucks we will never expect even this negligible lag.
Minion Rush – Minion Rush is a good quality HD game just like Template Run OZ and it is played well on Redmi Note without any issue.
High-end Gaming
We have tested this mobile playing GTA San Andreas and it was totally failed to play game smoothly even at normal graphics settings. There was a continuous lag and game is not playable at all. However at lowest graphics settings you can play this game compromising graphics quality.
Gaming Benchmarks
3DMarks
We tested its gaming abilities with 3DMark gaming benchmark application and Redmi Note was not lived up to the mark at all. It renders high end graphics at around 10 fps that is very poor. It scored around 2500 in 3D Mark test that is too low.
GFXBench
Device performed very bad with GFXBench that is a powerful 3D graphics benchmarking tool.
Storage capacity and Data transfer speed
Redmi Note has 8GB internal memory and 6 out 8GB is available for user. Phone has microSD card slot too with which you can expand memory up to 32GB. However, you can’t install apps on external storage.
Write speed
619 MB movie file in 46 sec. We impressed with its memory speed. You can transfer a 619 mb movie files from your PC to this phone in only 46 seconds (13.5 mb/sec)
However internal memory should be 16GB if you are buying a phone spending this amount of money.
Display
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Redmi Note has IPS LCD HD display at 720p resolution. Display quality is really very impressive and it looks pure white without any blue or red shade found in most of the LCD displays. Viewing angles are good and colors don’t fade a lot while we view display far from from 90 degree angle.
Unlike most of the other phones with IPS LCD display, you can change color temperature and color saturation using MIUI that is admirable. Maximum and minimum brightness are pretty good and you can browser your Smartphone even in hard sunlight and low brightness saves you in a dark room or a place where light is very low.
Software
Redmi Note 4G is currently running on MIUI 6 a modified Android 4.4.2 KitKat ROM developed by Xiaomi. We have fascinated with what MIUI offers. MIUI seems to be better than most of the other custom Android softwares. It is fast, user friendly, advanced, low power consuming and beautiful UI.
Like Huawei EMUI, Xiaomi MIUI also lacks app drawer and this may be awkward for many users. But in our opinion it is good to remove app menu and it enhances quick access to apps. To stop crowding on home screens, you can create folders and categories for applications. If you can’t manage without app menu, there are many good free launchers available on Google Play and we will recommend Go Launcher.
Salient Features of MIUI 6 on Redmi Note
- Inbuilt Cleaner software with which you can clean cache, junk, residual files and more with one click.
- Inbuilt call and sms blocker
- Virus and malware scanner
- Battery power management system (battery saver)
- Scan a barcode easily with barcode scanner
- Mi Cloud – Free cloud storage for your phone data
- In built backup application with which you can backup and restore also apps data
- Lite mode – If you switch to lite mode, you will find your phone interface simple and it will be a kind of Windows mobile OS interface.
- Do not disturb – When your phone is locked all incoming calls and messages will be received in silent mode. You can also add exceptions for this mode.
- Notification manager – Show hide notifications for selected apps
- Inbuilt app lock (currently offers only pattern lock)
- Screen color temperature and saturation control
- “Prevent pocket dial” feature
- Mi sound – It is a specialized sound option with which you can choose enhance audio mode for different kind of sound output such as speakers, earbuds and Mi specific earbuds.
- Use volume up button to capture images continuously
Camera
Redmi Note sports a 13MP camera on its rear panel and it has single LED flash that produces good amount of light while capturing images and videos. MIUI provides lesser control over image capturing and you will not find some very essential camera features such as burst shot.
camera can be used in two different modes;
Simple Mode – Simple mode is for normal users who want simple settings and don’t want to customize settings deeply
Advanced modes – If you are a pro camera users then you need advanced mode that explores camera settings such as ISO, Exposure, Macro mode and more.
Image quality – Redmi Note rear camera can take decent images in every lightning condition. In sunlight, indoor or low light it has been proved a good camera. If light is very low, its HDR mode is capable of capturing good images in that condition.
However by default taken images seems to be over saturated and they are not sharp enough. (but you can change saturation settings and can decrease saturation)
It has 5MP secondary camera that is really very good in taking selfies and video chat.
Camera Sample Images
Connectivity
It is a 4G device that supports LTE connection up to 150 mbps. Like most of the other Android smartphones in this price segment, this phone features WiFi b/g/n, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth v4 and USB 2. We found no issue with any of the connectivity related hardware and it worked fine when 3G, 4G, WiFi or Bluetooth and USB is concerned.
We have tested it with Superbeam, SHAREit and Send Anywhere to check its WiFi direct feature and it worked fine.
Battery
Its 3100 mAh removable battery is superb and outstanding, providing long battery backup, if you use it moderately ( browse internet, play games, watch movies moderately). Its battery lasts for more than two days if you don’t play games and movies for hours. It is really a very powerful 5.5 inches display phone in terms of battery life.
Overall
Pros
- Affordable 5.5 inches display Smartphone
- Eye caching design
- Awesome screen quality
- Very fast and polished UI
- Efficient processor and good in multi-tasking
- Surprisingly large battery backup
- Good quality 13 MP camera
Cons
- Not made to play detailed graphics games
- Slightly over weighted
[review]
