Review: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G - it is worth a buy

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G: Xiaomi is playing sumo in India. It has garnered the reputation of launching solid performers and the Redmi Note 4G is no exception. The device comes after the Chinese handset maker launched the Redmi Note in India last year, which set a new bar for the sort of features and performance one can expect in its market category. Xiaomi had spoken of the 4G version of the Redmi Note alongside the original launch. Finally, the phone is here and this is what it has under the hood:

Design: The Redmi Note 4G has been launched and it is same  like the earlier Redmi Note when it comes to design. It is simply not possible to physically tell the two apart just by looking at them. It has a black front face and a shiny plastic rear shell along with very noticeable red icons for the three capacitive buttons below the screen. There’s only a small silver Mi logo on the lower back and no branding on the front. The buttons are lined up on the right edge, while the left is blank. The headset socket is on top and the micro-USB port is on the bottom.

The rear panel is a bit difficult to pry off, but the first major difference between the Xiaomi Note twins is visible beneath it. The 4G version of this phone has only a single regular-sized SIM card slot. You still need to take out the battery in order to swap SIM and micro SD cards. It is available only in white and has a dimension of 154.00 x 78.70 x 9.45 mm and weighs roughly around 199 grams.

Display, camera and storage: With a touchscreen size of 5.50 inches that is a capacitive touch-type, the Note 4G comes with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. As far as phones with 5.5-inch screens go, the device isn’t all that difficult to handle. It’s reasonably wide and tall, but users will feel its weight and will need to balance it carefully in order to reach all parts of the screen with one hand. Coming to the camera, the 4G brother of Note comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with flash and a front 5-megapixel camera. Quality of the rear camera was excellent given different light conditions while the front camera produced good images for video chats and selfies. Although, Xiaomi has boosted the microSD storage to 64 GB, the internal storage continues to be 8 GB which could have been boosted to 16 GB or a model variant could be created.

Hardware, operating system and performance: The Note 4G ships with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.6 GHz  quad-core processor which is more than capable of handling multitasking on a daily basis. To power the heart of the dragon, Xiaomi has placed a 2 GB RAM module to make things easier. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G gave no trouble running common apps and light games. There was a lag when the internal memory was filled up. The battery life test showed an average of 11 hours, 9 minutes compared to the older model’s time of 11 hours, 56 minutes. This could be attributed to the bigger screen size.

The operating system is the Android 4.4 which comes with a Mi user interface which changes the look and feel of the phone. Customisable themes are also available with Java support. Major among them is the Flesky keyboard app that could come in handy as many users may not like the stock keyboard. On the connectivity front, the phone has a Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth module but no NFC or infrared. Several sensors like the compass or the  magnetometer, proximity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and a gyroscope is present.

Verdict

The phone is good if you like the bigger and the 4G version of the earlier Redmi Note. The main strategy seems to be two fold, firstly, not losing out on the 4G front which is making huge progress and secondly, capture the consumers who like big phones. Simply put, worth a buy if you are a Xiaomi fan.

* Estimated street price of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G: Rs 9,999