What do you get when you learn from your mistakes? Improvement. What do you get when you put Snapdragon 650 inside a phone? you get a roaring dragon of a phone. Snapdragon has never really been true to its name when it comes to mid range processors but this time they have learned from their mistakes and made a beast of a processor.
Build Quality/Hardware
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is an all metal uni-body phone. So obviously, it’s build quality is very good.
Although under my practical pressure test it did get bent a little. You can see that in the review video below.
It also comes with infrared blaster, fingerprint scanner as some special hardware features.
Display
Redmi Note 3 dons a 1080p IPS LCD display. It comes with lot of settings to set its brightness/contrast/tint according to your liking.
It has very good viewing angles and if you want the screen to be sunlight readable you need to turn the automatic brightness off. As it keeps the display a little dim naturally to save battery life.
It also has some sort of protective glass on top to protect it from shattering and scratches.
Its brightness slider is very fickle if you turned it all the way to the minimum the screen will become completely black.
And If the automatic brightness is on then even when you turn it all the way to the maximum the screen will still look DIM. That’s why i would suggest you to keep the Automatic Brightness off.
Camera
The 16MP rear facing camera of this phone is a white washer. It doesn’t matter what conditions you take the photo in, it will make you glow like a CFL.
It’s called ‘over-exposure’. It can be fixed by dialing the white balance down a bit. But it will make the photo look unnatural and ‘full of black patches’.
Second thing is that it captures overly saturated colours. It never captures real or natural or warm colours.
One very good thing about its camera is that it captures extremely detailed images in almost all lighting conditions, except for extremely bad light.
Same story for the front 5MP snapper it captures overly bright photos but most people are going to like this instead of despising it. Because that’s how people are.
Both the cameras can shoot full HD videos. You can also shoot time-lapse and slow mo videos. Slow motion video is limited to 720p resolution.
Multimedia
The best multimedia feature of Redmi Note 3 is that it is future ready at least in the video playback department as it can play 4K resolution video without a hitch in its default player.
It is probably the most affordable phone at least in India currently that can play Raw 4K video natively.
Its music quality is also good, speaker quality is loud and clear.
Music quality in earphones is also very good with lots of settings to personalize it according to your pleasure.
OS/RAM/Storage
Redmi Note 3 runs on Android 5.1 or MiUi. It is a heavily customized Android OS as you all are probably familiar with it already.
Because of combination of 2GB RAM and powerful chip-set the OS remains lag/stutter free most of the time even when the internal memory is full.
It comes with total of 11GB internal memory out of 16GB. Out of 2GB RAM you will get around 1GB of RAM free when nothing is running in the background.
It also supports USB OTG. And it has a tricky Micro SD card slot.
Performance/Benchmark/Gaming
Currently the performance of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is unparalleled in the price range it is available.
And it is going to stay that way unless someone launches a phone with the same or high-end Snapdragon or Mediatek chip-set in the same price range.
Current mid range processor like Mediatek 6752, 6795 or even the upcoming Helio P10 can not beat it.
The reason is none of those chip-sets have Cortex A72 in them. P10 and P20 will probably be able to beat it in some GPU specific tasks but that’s about it.
The processor structure of Snapdragon 650 is dual core Cortex A57 coupled with Quad-core Cortex A53. Adreno 510GPU.
The only place this chip-set is a little weak is the GPU department although the powerful CPU makes up for it a lot, but hey, you can’t have everything now, can you?
You can see that in the 3DMark Slingshot test result which is mainly a GPU benchmark.
In the benchmarks this phone performed like a last year’s high end phone. Believe me that’s a compliment. Just Antutu’s score alone can tell you that.
In the Vellamo it topped the chart in two out of three tests even beat the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Its gaming performance is also like its benchmarks performance. And the best part of all it stays fairy cool all the time. Hardly ever go over 45° Celsius.
It even took revenge for its older brother Snapdragon 615 by slaying/playing GTA San Andreas smoothly at maximum settings. As you can see in the video below.
Antutu
3DMark
Geekbench
Vellamo
Connectivity
Redmi Note 3 is a well connected phone it has everything from 4G to GPS. AGPS, GLONASS, WiFi Direct, Dual-Band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 everything is present.
It also comes with a well hated hybrid/’either or’ SIM/Micro SD card slot. In which you can either use a Nano SIM or a Micro SD card.
Its WiFi because of dual-bands is very fast. It downloads everything very fast. Almost utilizes all of the broadband’s bandwidth.
Battery
Since battery of Redmi Note 3 is big both physically and in capacity. You can naturally expect very good battery life out of it.
I can assure you that if used conservatively it will give you at least 10 hours or a day of battery life easily.
On heavy use you can expect somewhere around 6-7 hours.
It also comes with a lot of battery saving options which you can utilize to extend the battery even more.
Conclusion
Since i have started reviewing smartphones. I have never seen a mid range Snapdragon chip-set more powerful than a mid range Mediatek Chip-set.
This time though, tables have been completely flipped not just turned.
Now, i can finally recommend a mid range Snapdragon phone over any Mediatek phone if it has this very same chip-set inside.
As for this phone for 10,000 Indian National Rupees, i don’t think you will find a better phone for a long time.
So just buy it and save money till the next great budget phone launches.
4 replies on “Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Review – The Dragon Roars”
Good work ! Can yo do a review of micromax 50 inch 4K smart tv with gaming of ₹47000 ? I hope you will do if possible . If you can review of expensive htc and sony phones then why not try something new and if not possible then try to do a review of mmx 42 inch model which costs around 35k real vfm. Anyway best of luck for future !
All i can tell you is, if i had that kind of budget i would rather buy a TV from LG, Sony or Samsung not from Micromax.
Well thats the difference between mmx and lg sony etc . Its value for money . If you can buy an overpriced phone from sony for 37K (M5) than whats wrong in buying a smart tv at lesser that price ? Acttuly I don’t have a pc at home and an normal led tv of 32 inches so I wanted to buy them both so thats why I found this deal amazing as even a normal pc costs around 35K and a normal 42 inch led from lg and samsung costs more than 50K and if you want a smart tv from them you can’t get in less than 75K (that too are not 4k) and the 50 inch model you can’t get in less than 1lakh! So 47K is unbeliveble for a 50 inch 4K smart Tv which can play games (it comes pre installed with reptide gp2 and speedx 3d etc)and moreover you can install them on a usb or a sd card and more you can find on net yourself . Don’t worry much about longativity of micromax leds as I was asking for the lg and sony smart tv which were in 70K range from shopkeeper and he surprisingly told me that he is getting complaints from costumers on them although they were working fine when I tried them but he told me that he does not have a single complaint of mmx smart Tv which are currentley out of stock which is a tall claim as shopkeeper is known of my and moreover he could probably get more profit on lg and sony tvs . Anyway I am reading your articles from years now and I am a fan of your because the sense of humor you have got in your articles is very unique . I don’t think that anyone does that in whole world and you are also not a fanboy like many other reviewers . But I will request you to do more reviews of mmx and intex samsung j series etc and not of so many expensive phones of sony and htc mobiles . Please have varity as I assume you bought mobiles yourself not review units so do not repeat same chipsets and gpus etc . Anyway thanks for replying !
Its value for money only if you are spending a minimal amount and getting somewhat more than what you paid for, which is both true and false in this case, true because you are getting more than what you pay for, false because it is not a minimal amount. And when you spend that much you should look for quality not how many features you can get. Because we are not buying a 10,000 Rupees phone here which you can get replaced, repair or even sell it easily, if you don’t like it at minimal loss. Micromax may have become a known brand in Smartphone business but in TVs it’s still not preferred.
And one more thing, if you take my advise never listen to the sales agent as they will always try to sell you the product in which they get most of the margin. It even happened with me, i went to look for a new fridge with my father to three or four showrooms, we already knew what we wanted, we wanted a Whirlpool fridge because we have been using a Whirlpool fridge for more than 15 years and its still working fine. So we know that Whirlpool makes quality.
But the sales person in every showroom were trying to sell us Samsung or LG refrigerators why? obviously because companies are allowing them more margins on each sale. Its simple maths and there’s nothing wrong with that, they were just doing their jobs. You know, Samsung fridges that they were trying to sell us were all covered at the back with thick steel sheet, why? because designer. But you know what that will really do? Not much place for the generated heat to be dissipated in the environment, result? more heat generation. And that means more pressure on cooling equipment and specially the compressor. We can tell just by looking at it that it is going to give us a lot of problems in the future. So, obviously we didn’t buy any of the sales man sweet talk.
All i am trying to tell you is spending close to 50,000 Rupees is not just a buying decision, it’s also a long term invested because obviously you aren’t going to sell that TV for half of its price the next month if you don’t like it or if there’s something wrong with it which is not covered in warranty, which you can do with something for which you payed a very minimal amount like a budget smartphone.
Also a smart TV is nowhere near the functionality of Windows PC or even separate Android or Windows Dongle. I would rather advise you to buy a full HD standard TV and a separate Windows Dongle. It would be much better combination in terms of functionality.
If you still wanna buy Smart TV then here are few options under full HD resolution
http://www.amazon.in/LG-43LF6300-inches-Full-Smart/dp/B011IAQI1A/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-2 comes with WEB OS way better than China made TV OS which comes in Micromax TV.
http://www.amazon.in/LG-43LF5900-inches-Full-Smart/dp/B00ZVDX8C8/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-10 again WEB OS
http://www.amazon.in/Samsung-RM40D-101-6cm-inches-Signage/dp/B00UJWR4GW/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.in/Samsung-40J5300-101-6-inches-Television/dp/B00WI34HG0/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.in/Sony-Bravia-KLV-32R562C-inches-Smart/dp/B015WELFPC/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.in/Onida-LEO40FSAIN-LEO40FAIN-inches-Android/dp/B010ANTV7Y/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459228071&sr=1-7 Onida is also not that big of a name in TV industry just like Micromax, although its been around forever, this tv is in the list because it comes with Android OS
Another option is to buy something like this http://www.amazon.in/Micromax-43T8100MHD-109cm-inches-Black/dp/B01CJV7ZPK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459230935&sr=1-1 it’s a micromax TV but its very cheap so you wouldn’t feel that big of a hit if something goes wrong with it, or you can look at this one http://www.amazon.in/LG-43LF513A-108cm-inches-Black/dp/B016I4XZHG/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459231061&sr=1-6 and use it with something like this http://www.amazon.in/Beelink-Pocket-P2-Windows-Streaming/dp/B00VHG51UU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1459231174&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+dongle or this http://www.amazon.in/Gigabyte-Intel-Celeron-Barebones-GB-BXBT-2807/dp/B00KR0QHXW/ref=pd_sim_sbs_23_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=31ctwYg4y2L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0QCAKE6GACRHKJDGD3CG
You can also go my route and buy an imported product as i bought Xperia M5 imported for around 29,000 Rupees. I buy overpriced products sometimes but never at their full price. Because that’s not a very wise decision.
Look, value for money has a very broad meaning it could differ from people to people. Thing is, people look for something in a brand under a specific budget and when they don’t find it they look into more affordable brands. For 50,000 Rupees you can get 43 inches, Smart TV, the only thing you are not getting is 4K. That Micromax TV doesn’t look like a bad product but if it was me i would sacrifice 4K and buy something reliable. Don’t mind me saying that, but you are getting kind of greedy here, as you are getting 4K, smart TV all under your budget and that is making you overlook the quality of the brand and the product.
But still it’s your decision, you say that you are happy with how it looks, works and everything else. So if you feel its right for you and have no doubts about its quality, then just go for it.