Xiaomi Redmi Note Review

Few months back when Xiaomi has entered Indian market with Mi3, they bought high end specs device in a budget which none of the exiting player has bought. Mi3 turned to a be a super success for the company and soon after that company has launched its entry level smartphone, the Redmi 1S which again turned to be a super success for the company and company has sold lacs of unit of this device and in flash sale we had seen that this device went out of stock within seconds.

Now this Chinese company is up again with another device, Redmi Note, today we have 3G variant with us for review and this device brings big display, high end specs and premium feature again in budget price.

Inbox Contents Of Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Xiaomi Redmi Note comes in its traditional and clean box, when you open box you find following things it :-

• Redmi Note
• Battery
• USB cable
• Wall Charger
• Manuals

Build And Design Of Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Xiaomi Redmi Note does feel like big brother of Xiaomi Redmi 1s with big screen and glossy back panel. At front of the device you will find a 5.5 inch display screen with HD screen resolution, it has black glass with slightly raised plastic at edges which protects device from scratch’s when you put device face down. Just below display you have three capacitive touch button with backlit support, its quite simple and nice.

Above display screen you will find your 5MP camera, sensors and LED notifications, on right side you have Power/Sleep buttons followed by your Volume rockers buttons which are finished in chrome and provide nice user experience to you.

At bottom you have your Micro USB port which can be used for charging and data transfer, there is also a primary mic at the bottom of the device, there is no port on left side of the device.

At top you will find a 3.5mm audio jack with secondary mic for noise cancellation.

At back you have glossy back panel which will invite you fingerprints and smudges, there is a 13MP primary camera with LED flash. You will find MI branding at bottom part of embedded in silver and will also find your speaker grill at bottom.

Back panel is glossy which do looks but also feels slippery, but thanks to the curved sides which makes its easier to hold, back panel can be removed and for this you have to pill back panel from Miro USB slot, one you remove your back panel you will have access to removable battery, two Micro SIM slots and a microSD card slot.

Hardware And Specs Of Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

If we talk about hardware and specs then Xiaomi Redmi Note is powered with 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MTK6592 SoC along with Mali-450MP4 GPU and 2GB of RAM, it will have internal storage of 8 Gb which can be expanded up to 32 GB via microSD card. It has a 5.5 inch IPS-LCD display screen with screen resolution of 1280×720 pixels, means will have pixel density of 267ppi.

For connectivity it includes GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Direct and hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro-USB with OTG, and GPS/ A-GPS, at back it has a 13 megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash, along with a 5-megapixel front facing camera.

Software And UI :-

Xiaomi Redmi Note runs on  Android 4.3 Jelly Bean wrapped under MIUI V5 UI, very soon Xiaomi is going to roll out MIUI V6 which is powered by Android 4.4 KitKat. MIUI is one of the cleanest UI which we had seen from Chinese vendors, its simple and clean, you will find all your apps and widgets sitting together, there is no app drawer which many of you might feel new but the overall UI is good.

Apps icons has been customized and it looks nice, Xiaomi has provided some over top features which make it stand out in the crowd. You can change notification light color, there are lots of ringtone which you can select from, you can change the behavior of long press of navigation buttons.

MIUI also comes with Lite Mode, similar to of which we had seen in Asus ZenUI, Lite Mode is basically for non-techy, children’s or for elder person, here you will get bigger icons and larger texts.

Xiaomi has included guest mode in which some of the settings, messages, notes, photos and call logs will be disabled, so that when you hand over to someone you don’t have to worry about that person having eye on your personal data. You can also set password on guest mode so that no one can disable it without your interventionism.

Camera Of Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Xiaomi Redmi Note comes with 13MP rear camera, at this price range you can’t expect this much camera but Xiaomi made it possible, at front it also comes with a 5MP front facing camera which gives nice selfie images. We also like its auto-focus speed, this is one feature which you will not find in other phones at this price.

When you capture images in daylight you will get nice images with lots of details in it, macro images turned to be well with this camera, issue occurs when you try to capture images in low light, it do takes some time to focus when light is good, it missess illuminated sensors and it can be seen when you capture images in low lights and it misses details.

UI of camera is just like which we had seen in Mi3 and Redmi 1S which is very minimal and simple, there is advance mode also which lets you take more control and allows you to set ISO,  exposure and white balance.

Check out some images which you had snapped :-

Battery Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Redmi Note comes with a 3100mAh Li-ion polymer battery which has performed very well in our test, we had played full HD video and it lasted for 12 hours 03 minutes.

In our daily usage with Facebook, Twitter, calling, internet browsing, some YouTube video browsing, messaging and WhatsApp, Redmi Note lasted for more than a day, it comes with a 2A wall charger, it takes only a couple of hours to charge.

Call Quality of Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Call quality on Xiaomi Redmi Note is quite good, both indoor and outdoor, we were able to make calls from both SIMs and audio quality was also very good.

Performance Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Xiaomi Redmi Note runs on 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek MTK6592 SoC along with Mali-450MP4 GPU and 2GB of RAM, in our test we had played heavy games like Frontline Commando, and Asphalt 8 and we didnt faced any lag or frame drop in it. When it comes to multi-tasking we were able to switch between apps, and there were no delay in opening or closing of apps.

It has a 5.5 inch IPS display screen which respond very well and under sunlight we were able to read our text very easily. Watching movies on it is fun and we were able to play full HD videos very smoothly on it, speakers were loud enough and gives nice quality of feedback, as its a IPS display screen so its viewing angles are very good.

Here are some benchmark results which are quite impressive :-

AnTuTu :- 33947

Multitouch :- 10

Quadrant Standard :- 15736

NeNa Mark2 :- 61.5fps

Final Verdict Xiaomi Redmi Note :-

Xiaomi has the history of providing smartphone with high end specs and premium look and feel at very affordable price and same has been done with Redmi Note. This smartphone with such specs and feature which you might find in other smartphone at the price tag of its double.

If you are looking for a smartphone under 10K then Xiaomi Redmi Note should be on your list, or if you are looking for device at 6K-7K then we would suggest you to raise your budget a bit and you will get this device with lots of features and you wont complain about it.

Pros :-

• Good price
• Nice battery life
• Very well build
• Good performance

Cons :-

• Camera not good in low light
• Runs on Android 4.2.2

tA Rating :- 4.5/5