REDMI 4: Budget Smartphone from Xiaomi (Mi)

• Posted By Amritesh
• On May 29th, 2017
• Comments: one response

Xiaomi recently launched their latest Budget Smartphone, Redmi 4 in India. The handset is exclusively sold through Amazon and Mi Portal. Xiaomi has been ruling the budget and midrange segment for quite some time now. The Redmi 4A or the Redmi 3S/Prime were total value for money devices. No other smartphone manufacturer has been able to match the competitive edge enjoyed by Xiaomi in the lower end segment. The devices come with decent specs and build quality despite being priced pretty reasonably.

Xiaomi has claimed to have sold 2,50,000 units within 8 minutes at the first flashsale. The device comes with minor improvement over the Redmi 4A, but additional features such as the finger print scanner along with metal body even on the base variant makes it an attractive device. The phone comes in 3 variant, 2GB Ram/ 16GB Storage @Rs 6,999/- while the 3GB Ram/16GB Storage @ Rs 8,999/- whereas the premium variant comes with 4GB Ram/64 GB Storage having a price tag of Rs 10,999/-. Although, at present the premium variant is not available for sale.

The phone is currently available through weekly flashsale. The next flashsale is on 30^th May 2017.

Lets take a closer look at the device:

Build and Design: The phone comes with unibody metal build which lends a premium feel to the device. The 2.5D curved glass on a budget end smartphone is also a game changer. The fingerprint scanner is placed at the back while 3 capacitive keys below the screen are not backlit.

The phone comes with 5 inch IPS LCD screen with 720p resolution which is expected to have crisp display along with fairly accurate color reproduction.

Overall, Build and Design of the device is impressive considering the price. The ergonomic design enables single hand use.

Software and Performance: The phone comes with MiUi interface over the Marshmallow OS. The phone is expected to get the Nougat update in the future. The MiUi interface is slightly heavy, thus it is recommended to opt for the 3 GB Ram variant over the base variant.

The Snapdragon 435 chipset is the latest budget end hardware from Qualcomm which is expected to do a reasonable job under normal usage. It sports the Octa Core A53 processor clocked @ 1.4 Ghz coupled with 2/3/4 GB of Ram and Adreno 506 GPU.

The device comes with 16/32/64 GB of inbuilt storage along with Hybrid SD Card support up to 128 GB.

The hardware specs is decent for a budget end smartphone. The battery provided on this device is of 4100 mah which is sufficient to last for 1.5 working days even under heavy use. However, the device does not come with Qualcomm fast charging support.

Camera: It is not the strongest aspects of the Budget end smartphones. Redmi 4 too has a decent camera but nothing extraordinary. The camera will do well under daylight conditions but the images will be soft under artificial and low light scenarios.

HD Video recording is also possible on the device.

The front camera too is decent enough for taking selfies.

Network and Connectivity: The device comes with 4G VoLTE support dual sim (micro and nano) support along with Wifi, and other important sensors such as Proximity Sensors, Gyroscope, Ambient Light sensors to name a few among others.

Features: Xiaomi has also not skimped on the features offered on this device. Along with the basic sensors the phone does come with the IR Blaster and Fingerprint scanner.

Redmi 4 supports most of the common features normally found budget/midrange smartphones.

Overall Views: Xiaomi has once again come up with an impressive device in the budget segment with improved build quality and enhanced features. The device is perfect for individuals looking for a compact budget end phone. It is adequately powerful along with good battery life and features which would fit into most of the users requirements. The Camera performance on this device is average but acceptable given the price range.

Xiaomi has also been working on the after sales service support. Currently, Mi exclusive service centers have improved on the service which is a relief for the Mi Users.

Hardware Specifications