[Smartphone review] | Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

Xiaomi has released it's new 'note' device, the redmi note 4. After the success is redmi note 3, how is the note 4 in comparison? Let's take a look.

Design: The note 4 retains quite a lot of the same design elements as the note 3. The unibody aluminum with a flush camera in the back and a relatively compact footprint. The phone does feel a tad bit slippery as before, but offers quite a premium metal construction to adore. The power and volume buttons are on the right, as usual. The sun tray is on the left side, a headphone jack up top along with an IR blaster! That's always handy to have. On the bottom there's the USB type C port and two cutouts. One for the speaker on the right hand side, and primary microphone onto the left. The redmi note 4 is 8.3 mm thick and weighs 175 gms.

Display: The Xiaomi redmi note 4 sports a 5.5' 1080p IPS LCD panel. I beloeve it's the same one on the redmi note 3, which isn't exactly a bad thing. The display is bright, it uses the sunlight display technology to provide better outdoor legibility and offers excellent viewing angles. The 2.5D scratch resistant glass looks fantastic and the pixel density of 401 ppi is quite enough for everyday media consumption. You won't notice any sort of pixelation, unless pixel peeping is your hobby😆. It's a nice bright display and very pleasing to look at, overall. Do note that it doesn't have any specific protection on the screen, such as gorilla glass.

Performance: This is kind of a step forward from the previous gen. The redmi note 4 has the newer Mediatek Helio X20 decacore processor clocked at about 2.1 GHz, along with 3 GB of DDR3 RAM and the excellent Mali T880 MP4 GPU. There are 16 and 64 GB variants and both support microSD expansion upto 128 GB.
The MIUI V8 running on Android 6.0 marshmallow offers a mixed user experience. In some aspects, it's great. But in other aspects, it might leave you wishing for something a bit more Google-ish. It's upto personal preference to take MIUI or not. But like it or hate it, that's what you'll have to deal with on this phone. Personally, if I get this phone, the first thing I'd do is install Nova launcher😅.
The fingerprint sensor on the rear is okay. It's pretty decent, just like the redmi note 3 and unlocks your phone per much every time. It's a 360° sensor, so you can put your finger in any awkward way you want and still get recognised.

mediocre camera, but improved.

Camera: The phone has a 13 mp rear sensor with f/2.0 aperture and a 5 mp front snapper. The rear camera is also equipped with a dual LED flash. It's a downgrade on terms of resolution from the note 3, but "quality"(😅) doesn't seem to be affected. I mention quality in quotes because it wasn't very good before, still hasn't amazed me now. The rear camera is mediocre at best, taking decent snaps at bright areas and struggling to even focus, in darker environment. The front camera does a comparatively a decent job, but it too struggles with exposure and often produces hazy images. Overall, the cameras on the redmi note 4 aren't the best. Don't buy it if you're a social bee.

Battery: The redmi note 4 comes equipped with the same 4100 mAh battery as it's predecessor. It has some decent quick charging technology, so it charges from 0 to 100 in about 2 hours. The excellent screen-on time of 5½ hours encourages a lot of power users. The standby time is also slightly better than the note 3, so it worthy deep a lot of charge while it's not being used.

Price: If you want to get one for yourself, you can buy it for just $180 or 12,000 INR. It's not made for the smartphone camera guy, but it's targeted more towards those who want a powerful phone and intend to use it heavily though the day, without major camera concerns. Though I can't recommend this phone, it's a good buy, if you're willing to forgive the weak optics.


                                                             

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