Xiaomi’s play in the large screen phablet segment has been highly anticipated. With the launch of the Redmi Note, the company now has a formidable product that at least on paper can challenge much higher priced devices. Let’s take a closer at the Xiaomi Redmi Note and it’s 4G equipped variant.
Xiaomi Redmi Note specifications
- 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS display
- 1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592 processor with Mali 450 GPU
- MIUI v5 Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
- Dual SIM
- 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture, 1080p video recording
- 5MP front-facing camera
- 2GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, micro SD card up to 32GB
- 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 3100 mAh battery
At first glance, the handset looks fairly unremarkable. The phone has a large 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating on it. It is surrounded by black bezels all around with three capacitive buttons below the panel. The screen itself covers 70% of the NTSC color gamut and offers excellent viewing angles to boot. While the resolution is just 720p which we feel is a bit lacking given the size of the screen, it is certainly usable. Above the display lies the front facing 5MP camera.
The phone is bereft of buttons on the left side while the right side of the hands sports a power button and a single volume rocker. Over at the top is the 3.5mm audio jack while the microUSB port is placed at the bottom. A very standard configuration and unremarkable to say the least.
Moving over to the back you can see that Xiaomi has kept the rear of the device very clean. There is subtle Mi branding at the bottom while the 13MP camera can be seen up top. There’s a single LED flash below it. While it is too early to make a call, the snapper on the Redmi Note managed to take some surprisingly clean shots even in less than ideal lighting. Certainly better than most devices in 10,000-15,000 rupees price bracket.
The back of the phone is removeable and under it you find one of the most remarkable aspects of the handset. The Xiaomi Redmi Note is equipped with a 3,100 mAh battery unit and comes with a 2A charger in the box. Given the combination of specifications and the battery capacity, we can expect very good battery life out of the handset. As you’ll notice above, the 3G variant of the handset comes with dual SIM support. The first SIM slot supports WCDMA connectivity while the second is limited to GSM. The phone does allow for Dual Standby. The Redmi Note 4G on the other hand is a single SIM device which might limit it’s appeal.
Which brings us to the specifications of the handset. The Xiaomi Redmi Note is powered by a 1.8Ghz Mediatek MT6592 Octa Core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Alongside you’ll find 8GB of built in storage that we feel could be quite limiting. You can however expand that via the microSD card slot. The biggest difference between the 3G and 4G variants of the handsets is the specification list. The Redmi Note 4G is powered by a quad core 1.6Ghz Snapdragon 400 processor. The performance differential between the two chipsets isn’t much and you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The Xiaomi Redmi Note is priced at Rs. 8,999 and will be available starting 2nd December on Flipkart. The Note 4G on the other hand will be priced at Rs. 9,999 and will be available in the 2nd half of December. We’ll have more on the two handsets once we get review units in.