Xiaomi Redmi Note Review: An alternative for a budget smartphone

Xiaomi is the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, which quickly rose to fame in the shortest time of its existence in the market. The smartphone manufacturer climbed to take the Number 3 spot in the world with the most number of handsets shipped out of the factory.

Xiaomi entered into India, promising high-end smartphones with an affordable price. The aim was to have the MIUI operating system and a decent smartphone in every hand.

Xiaomi introduced itself in the Indian smartphone space with three smartphones, sporting tempting prices that took the smartphone market by a storm. The Mi3 was a high-end smartphone with a great price of just Rs 13,999. Later, they introduced the Redmi 1S, which was a super-budget smartphone with a decent mid-range hardware that took the budget smartphone industry in India by a surprise. The Redmi 1S was priced at a mere Rs 5,999, which forced people to rethink their decisions with the existing Moto E and Android One handsets.

And now, the Chinese smartphone giant has gone to another extent by launching the Redmi Note and Redmi Note 4G, which is a 5.5-inch phablet and has a pocket-friendly price tag. We have the Redmi Note for scrutiny and here is what we have to state about the Redmi Note (non-4G variant).

un-Supported Media

To begin with, The Xiaomi Redmi Note has two variants—a non-4G version priced at Rs 8,999 and a 4G version priced at Rs 9,999. The only major difference between the two handsets is the chipset it incorporates.

The Redmi Note (non-4G) features a 5.5-inch IPS HD display with a 720x1280 pixel resolution. The display is protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, tough enough to resist scratches and scuffs caused due to daily use. Moving ahead, the Redmi Note is powered by a Mediatek MT6592 chipset which features eight processors clocked at 1.7GHz each. Supported by 2GB of RAM and a MALI-450 graphics processor, the Note is a powerful handset for daily work.

The internal storage is 8GB and can be expanded using a micro SD card, albeit only to 32GB. The Redmi Note is provided with a 13MP sensor in the rear camera and sports a single LED flash, while the front camera incorporates a 5MP sensor. One the connectivity side, the Redmi Note supports two SIM cards (WCDMA and GSM), 3G, 2G, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. Lastly, the Redmi Note is powered by Xiaomi’s own MIUI operating system, a custom brewed version of Google’s Android v4.2.2 operating system, and fuelled by a really large 3100 mAh battery. The Redmi Note weighs 199g (4G weighs 185g) and the thickness is 9.45mm.

The Redmi Note 4G has an exactly similar look and configuration, except for the chipset. The 4G variant supports LTE 4G data speeds and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.6GHz processor and an Adreno 305 graphics processor. The rest of the configuration is identical to the non-4G variant, except that the internal storage can be expanded up to 64GB as compared to 32GB on the non-4G variant.

The Redmi Note looks almost similar to the Redmi 1S in terms of aesthetics, except that it is a little larger and broader than the latter. The Redmi Note sports a dual-tone body with an extremely glossy black front and white rear panel.

The front panel has the regular look as found on any of the Xiaomi devices—earpiece on the top with the front camera next to it and backlit capacitive buttons (back, menu and home) on the lower end. The volume rocker and power buttons reside on the right side of the handset, while the headphone jack and micro USB port take their places on the top and bottom, respectively.

The rear panel sports the 13MP camera, towards the top-centre, with an LED flash just below it, while the chrome-plated Mi logo and the speaker grill are placed on the lower end.

The rear panel is extremely glossy and can attract scratches in minutes if not handled with care. We suggest, you opt for a silicon back cover or alike to save the device from tarnishing. Xiaomi has a lot of rear panels for the smartphones and you could opt for one of these from the Flipkart website. As for the front panel, since it sports a Gorilla Glass 3, you need not worry about scratches. So even if you don’t install a scratch guard, it would be fine. However, installing a scratch guard or screen protector is a personal preference.

We did notice one issue with the rear panel—Xiaomi somehow did not provide a recess to the rear panel to help open it. Instead, you have to rely on the groove of the micro USB slot, on the bottom end, to open the rear panel.

Below the rear panel you will find a really large housing for the 3100 mAh battery. You have to remove the battery in order to slide in any of the SIM cards or the micro SD card.

The handset is a bit too uncomfortable for regular use. The device is a bit large and not recommended for those with tiny palms. However, is you are looking for a device with a screen for work and fun, the Redmi Note is one piece we can recommend. The device is a good blend for those looking for a smartphone with a little bit of room for a tablet experience.

Switch on the Redmi Note and you will find everything familiar, if you have used any of the Xiaomi handsets. In short, there is nothing much to talk about the MIUI operating system unless we see the MIUI V6 making its debut on one of these handsets.

Moving on to the camera front, though the camera is good enough with a 13MP sensor, we found the camera capturing images slightly slower than usual. So you may miss out on a few important shots while focussing and grabbing the exact moment, especially when shooting action or fast moving objects.

Images shot are also a little above average - the quality is not at par as we assumed it would be similar to the 13MP camera of the Mi3. The images are a tad darker and could do with a little more brightness, though this could be resolved later by a little photo editing, if needed. Also the images are found to be a bit grainy when zoomed in. Lastly, we also did notice that some colours being captured are a little too vibrant and not as natural as it should be. Overall, the performance of the camera is above average, and for the price of the smartphone, we think it is one of the best you can get. Pictures captured in HDR modes were excellent. The camera does a pretty decent job with the exposure levels. Have a look at the few examples we have put down for you.

As far as the performance is concerned, we did find the device slightly sluggish than usual in the beginning. A possibility could be similar to the Redmi 1S issue which cropped up a while back. Xiaomi had sent out an update patch for the Redmi 1S to reduce the heating issue. The heating issue was because the processor was highly active (boosted for performance) and producing excess heating issues. The update reduced the performance of the handset to reduce the heat dissipated by the processor and maintain the temperature to a bearable level. However, in the Redmi Note, you should not find any performance issues, particularly with media experience, internet use, or call related stuff. What you may notice is a sluggish performance with the user interface with the smartphone during the first boot. However, once you reboot the device once or twice, the performance increases and the sluggishness fades away. The reason is because the new operating system takes a while to settle, build up the necessary cache files and the dalvik cache region, to start performing faster. Additionally, tweaking a few settings in the developer settings mode can increase this performance a little more. Overall, the user experience with the MIUI and Redmi Note was great.

On the audio front, the earpiece’s performance is good enough. However, the rear speaker is a bit lower than normal. Though the audio quality is decent, the audio volume is pretty low and since the speaker is on the rear, you would end up cupping the device with your palm for an audible experience. Using a pair of earphones would resolve this issue for now. Hopefully, Xiaomi takes care of these few issues in a software update.

Above: A few pictures with HDR and without HDR. Note the difference in lighting without affecting the sharpness.

Overall, the experience with the Xiaomi Redmi Note was good. The average performance and large build can be ignored, but the large display with an IPS panel and great viewing angles are crisp and clear for a good multimedia experience. The large display also makes it comfortable for the internet and casual typing and chatting. The camera is definitely above-average, albeit a bit sluggish while capturing shots. For a price of Rs 8,999, the Xiaomi phablet is definitely a good value for the price it demands. If you are sure you would use a 4G connection in your city (either immediately or when it launches), then the Redmi Note 4G is worth the choice. Else you could stick to the non-4G variant and save around Rs 1,000.