The Redmi Note 3 is the first full-metal body smartphone in Xiaomi’s Note series, and it looks really good. Sure it’s a phablet with a 5.5-inch display and a 4050 mAh battery, but the phone doesn’t feel too bulky or heavy. The curved edge design means it fits perfectly in most hands.The rear camera is bang in the middle of the rear cover, below which is the fingerprint scanner. Xiaomi has kept the speakers at the bottom, adding a little rift just below these to ensure that even when the device is placed on a totally flat surface, the sound is not affected.
From a design perspective, the gold-coloured Redmi Note 3 looks quite stylish, especially for its price. I’ve seen the Le 1s and the Huawei Honor 5X smartphones, both of which are full metal body and in the same price-range. Personally, I’ve liked the Redmi Note 3 as it looks the best out of the three, although the Le 1s is a close competitor.
Pros
Obviously, the design of this phone is a big plus point. The other feature that accentuates the Redmi Note 3 is the 5.5-inch full HD display. It’s a vivid, crisp display, and perfect for binge-watching Netflix sessions as I found out. The 4050 mAh battery means you don’t have to worry about charging it, and I didn’t get tired holding the device forever.Redmi Note 3 comes with Sunlight Display technology as well, and it makes sure that even in bright sunlight, you don’t have trouble reading on this phone. There’s also a reading mode where the screen turns all yellow, blocking out harsh blue light, which is effective if you’re planning to use this smartphone before going to bed.
Battery is the other really strong suit with the Redmi Note 3. As I noted in the first impressions, the first few days I didn’t feel the need to charge the smartphone more than 40 per cent, as it would last the whole day. Even with constant notifications on WhatsApp, Facebook alerts, browsing, gaming, the phone easily lasted one-and-a-half days for me. Given the price-point, I’d say that’s a clear win for Xiaomi. From a battery perspective, you can’t get better than this.But benchmarks aside, the phone is more than equipped to handle anything you throw at it: gaming, watching videos, or just your general browsing. The fingerprint scanner on the back is accurate and fast, and till now I’ve not seen it fail. The audio quality and call quality is also quite good on this phone.Add to this MIUI7 ensures a pretty smooth experience overall. I personally use the Mi Pad and have come to like Xiaomi’s approach to UI. It’s clutter-free, the extra apps from Xiaomi are not constantly giving alerts, like I’ve seen from other companies.
Cons
Perhaps the biggest letdown for the Redmi Note 3 is the camera, both front and rear. In proper daylight, or even solid indoor light, the camera performs decently, although PDAF takes some time to adjust and focus. The camera, however struggles with low-light, and even slightly darker colours. For example, one colour it struggled to capture was a deep magenta, say in the backdrop of a sunlit blue sky. While it captured the blue sky okay, the staircase looks two shades darker than what it is.
