Xiaomi has launched its new Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 in India starting from Rs. 9,999. With this aggressive pricing, Xiaomi has already given nightmare to all companies that are selling their phones for the price range of Rs. 10000 – Rs. 15000. I got a chance to spend a couple of hours with the phone and here is my first impression of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes with similar aluminum body sporting a burnished metal finish, but few notable changes over Redmi Note 3. Now the speakers have been placed on the base side. The microUSB port now sits in the middle of the bottom edge between the two speaker grills. It has also used the symmetrical placing of the sensor and front camera above the display. Capacitive keys below the display are now backlit.
It has the rear camera, dual color LED and fingerprint sensor at the back panel aligned vertically. The antenna band division lines are chromed up. At the top edge, it has 3.5-mm audio port and Infrared blaster.
The volume rocker and power button are at the right edge while the SIM card slot is at the let edge.
The company boasts a lot about its symmetrical design and metal finishing but trust me there is nothing exciting to note except the new Matte Black variant of the phone. This color looks cool but it will be available in the third-week of the February.
The phone still carries the 5.5-inch Full HD display but the new 2.5D curved glass in use definitely adds a little more touch of class. The display is definitely good and offers reading mode, adaptive display, and options to customize it. The phone’s display offers nice color reproduction and good viewing angles.
The phone runs on MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. This is the same variant running on all Xiaomi devices. The good thing is that Xiaomi has already confirmed that a preview version of Android 7.0 Nougat for the Redmi Note 4 is already available. Soon after beta testing, this will be available to all Redmi Note 4 users in India.
In India, the company has launched the global variant of Redmi Note 4 with Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor. This chipset is based on the new 14nm architecture and offers better battery life. While the performance of the phone remains the same as in Redmi Note 3, this new phone will offer improved battery life. You have three different RAM/ Storage options including 2GB RAM with 32GB of storage, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB of storage. You can select any of these storage variants depending on your choice. But you must note that the more RAM a phone has, the better multitasking it offers.
I tested the 3 GB RAM and 4 GB RAM variants and didn’t find any noticeable difference in performance. But it was just a minor test with few specific apps and 4GB RAM variant is obviously better.
As the phone carries the Hybrid slot, you can expand the storage up to 128 GB.
The phone comes with 13MP with a f/2.0 aperture that seems a downgrade from the Redmi Note 3 but there is a new Cmos sensor this time with larger pixel size to offer better camera experience. The camera also offers PDAF and dual color LED flash. It also has a 5 megapixels front camera with f/2.0 aperture.
I cannot say anything about the camera because I didn’t get proper time to check it and compare the results. But I captured these shots in the indoor light conditions.
The phone comes with 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS with GLONASS, infrared and a microUSB connectivity options. It is packed with 4100 mAh battery that is same as in Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S prime. But the new Soc has helped it to offer 25% better battery life when compared to the Redmi Note 3.
Final words
On paper, you will not see this phone as a big upgrade over the Redmi Note 3 but technically Redmi Note 4 has been designed to perform better in all things including performance, camera, and battery. With the aggressive pricing, Xiaomi will surely repeat the history of Redmi Note 3.
