Xiaomi launched the successor of the Redmi Note 3 in the Indian market last week starting at Rs, 9,999. Dubbed as Redmi Note 4, it comes in three variants in India.
Moreover, the company said that based on their test, the Redmi Note 4 offers 25% more battery life compared to Redmi Note 3. The Redmi Note 4 comes in Gold, Matte Black, and Dark Gray colors.
It is priced at Rs. 9999 for the 2GB RAM with 32GB storage version, Rs. 10,999 for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version, while the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs Rs. 12,999. It goes on sale every week through flash sales on Flipkart and Mi.com.
Today, we are going to compare this smartphone with its predecessor to find out how good is the latest outing. Does the sequel to the Redmi Note 3 check the right boxes? Is it a worthy successor? Let’s find it out.
Design
In terms of physical overview, the Redmi Note 4 looks more or less like Note 3 with a little bit of refining done. This time, the smartphone has a 2.5D curved glass on the front and a bit of curved edge on the back similar to Mi5. The speaker grills are now placed at the bottom with USB port in middle. Comparatively, this smartphone has a chamfered edges with antenna band separated by thin chrome treatment. It measures 151x76x8.45mm and weighs around 175 grams.
On the other hand, the Redmi Note 3 comes with metal unibody design as well. This handset measures, 150x76x8.65 mm, slightly taller and thicker than the successor, but it weighs around 164 grams, about 11 grams lighter. Both the smartphone sport an “Always Active” fingerprint sensor on the back, just below the camera module.
The button placements are same in bot with the Volume rockers and power buttons on the right, hybrid SIM slot on left, 3.5mm audio jack, infrared sensor and secondary microphone on the top. We also did a fingerprint recognition comparison between Redmi Note 3 and Note 4. Surprisingly the Redmi Note 3 turned out to be the fastest one here.
Display
In this case, both the smartphone shares similar specification sporting a 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD IPS display on the front. There is a very slight difference in terms of pixel density, which should not be an issue.
Both the phones offer a bright display with good color reproduction. The viewing angles, sunlight readability are equally good on both the smartphones.
Hardware
The Redmi Note 4 comes powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm processor clocked at 2GHz with Adreno 506 GPU. This chipset offers much longer battery life by supporting up to 35% lower power usage. So if you are concerned about the battery life, then Redmi Note 4 is your answer.
Meanwhile, the Redmi Note 3 is powered by Hexa-Core Snapdragon 650 64-bit processor with Adreno 510 as GPU under the hood. Talking about the real world usage, both the smartphone offer lag-free experience and handles multi-tasking butter smooth. Gaming is smooth on both the phones without any frame drop. However two ARM Cortex A72 cores offer better performance in some games.
Talking about storage, the Redmi Note 3 comes in two variants 2GB RAM with 16GB storage / 3GB RAM with 32GB storage and can be expanded through MicroSD card up to 32GB through hybrid slot. Its successor comes in three variants — 2GB/3GB RAM with 32GB storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB storage. Also, it supports expandable MicroSD cards up to 128GB through hybrid slot.
The Redmi Note 4 offers 32GB of inbuilt storage, out of which user will get around 23GB of free space. On the other hand, the Redmi Note 3 offers 25GB of free space.
Camera
Moving on to the camera department, the Redmi Note 4 flaunts a 13MP rear camera with CMOS sensor, PDAF, dual-tone LED Flash, f/2.0 aperture and 5MP front camera with 85-degree wide-angle lens. Comparing its predecessor, the camera resolution has been downgraded which might worry some. But, the company has equipped a new 13MP CMOS f/2.0 aperture camera made by Sony or Samsung with bigger pixel size for better images. You can check out the camera samples of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 in our review here.
The Redmi Note 3 has a 16MP rear camera with dual tone LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video recording, 120fps slow-motion and 5MP front-facing camera as well. You can check out the camera samples of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 in our review here.
Redmi Note 3 Camera Samples
Redmi Note 4 Camera Samples
Software
On to the software front, both the smartphones run MIUI 8 on top of Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) out of the box. The MIUI is known for its customization and the company has enhanced it even more with MIUI 8. If offers lots of features to provide the user with smooth and decent UI experience.
Just like other phablets, the MIUI 8 comes with One handed mode, which shrinks the content on the display down to 4.5, 4.0 and 3.5-inch to any one of the bottom corners. Just swipe the home button and back button to display the shrunken content on to right and swipe the home button and menu button to display the content on left.
Moreover, it also comes with shortcut menu called as ‘Quick Ball’ similar to Apple’s Assistive touch. This Quick Ball lets you add up 5 different options, which can be placed anywhere on the edge of the display. Also, it comes pre-installed with native apps that can clean junk, scan virus and much more.
You will get access to various themes and wallpapers from the collection, Mi Remote that lets you control infrared appliances in your home. In fact, there are features like dual apps, Second space, and lite mode as well.
Battery and connectivity
Coming to the battery, the Redmi Note 4 is a jump considering its predecessor. As per the spec sheet, this smartphone comes with 4100mAh battery. The Note 3 is juiced with a reduced 4000mAh battery under the hood. The Redmi Note 4 achieved a One Charge Rating of 17 hours and 16 minutes in our battery test compared to One Charge Rating of 15 hours 36 minutes in Redmi Note 3.
Both the smartphones support connectivity options like 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS + GLONASS. Both the phones have dual-band (2.4 & 5GHz) Wi-Fi, but only the Redmi Note 3 has 802.11ac WiFi support, while the Redmi Note 4 comes only with 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi.
However, it is a little bit disappointing to see that both the smartphones don’t support fast charging, even though the Qualcomm chips support Quick Charge.
Verdict
The Redmi Note 4 is indeed a worthy successor with minimum yet crucial refinements. This smartphone comes with an improved camera, battery, up to 4GB of RAM and up to 64GB of inbuilt storage as well. If you are searching for a new mid-range in town, Redmi Note 4 is your answer. For those, who invested in Redmi Note 3 recently, worry not!