2015 was a rather quiet year for Xiaomi in India when one consider the buzz and hype it did with the Mi3, Redmi 1s and Redmi Note phones earlier. Xiaomi has been frowned upon by most of the fans for being a laggard in brining all those elusive phones released in China and in many cases like the Mi Note/Pro and Mi4c which never came to India. They are looking to change that notion in 2016 with Mi India announcing earlier this year that they’d look at brining more devices to India with as less delay as possible. And they seem to be working hard on this thanks to the fact that competition like Lenovo and LeEco have thrown in some killer priced devices in the form of K4 Note and 1s. Mi India has officially taken the wraps off the Redmi Note 3 which is also called as the Redmi Note 3 Pro back in China. This is a variant that comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor as compared to the Helio X10 on its Chinese counterpart. Lets take a look at the offering.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Specifications –
| Features | Details |
| Display | 5.5” IPS LCD Full HD display with 403 ppi |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor clocked at 1.8 GHz Adreno 510 GPU |
| RAM | 2GB/3GB |
| Memory | 16GB/32GB that can be expanded via microSD slot upto 128GB |
| Camera | 16MP primary shooter with f/2.0, PDA, autofocus and LED flash
5MP secondary shooter |
| OS | MIUI 7 built off Andoid 6.0 |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, GPS and GLONASS |
| Colors | Silver, Dark Gray, Gold |
| Battery | 4000 mAh non-removable battery with fast charge support |
| Formfactor | 8.7mm thick and 164gms in weight |
| Price | 9,999 INR for 2GB, 11,999 INR for 3GB |
On paper this looks to be a killer of a combination of specs when compared with the competition like Honor 5x, LeEco 1s and Lenovo K4 Note. With new rules of Xiaomi preventing the unlocking of the bootloader unless approved and such it does takes the fun away from the developer community but MIUI 7 itself brings in tons and tons of meaningful features and options that we’ve always loved.
Snapdragon 650 is supposed to be a high performer and in many events many have claimed this to outperform other processors such as the SD 801 and 808. These are tall claims and this coupled with Adreno 510 GPU must make for a stunning powerhouse for the Redmi Note 3.
The fingerprint scanner on this device will be the first one from Xiaomi and again, claimed to be one among the fastest. So far from what we have seen in the reviews of the Redmi Explorers the feedback has been really positive. And we trust Xiaomi to have done a good job here,
From Redmi Note, Xiaomi jumped to Redmi Prime and now the Redmi Note 3. Though there were lots of other phones in the lineage like the Redmi Note 2 and its Prime they never made their way to India. Xiaomi will look to leverage on the success they had with the rock solid all-rounder Redmi Note 3G and 4G they had.
We are sure that the Redmi Note 3 at the price offered will bring Xiaomi back to its winning ways but having said that, Lenovo’s K4 Note and LeEco’s Le 1s will be the ones to beat and it will be a good battle to watch!
Pricing and Availability – Redmi Note 3 with 2GB and 16GB ROM is priced at Rs. 9,999 whereas 3GB RAM variant with 32GB ROM is priced at Rs. 11,999. It will be available starting March 9th on Amazon India and Mi India store. Flipkart and Snapdeal to follow soon.
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