Earlier today, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 4 in China — the successor to Redmi Note 3, which was launched earlier this year. The Redmi Note 3 has been one of the best selling smartphones in India in just five months since its launch. Despite being an incremental upgrade, the Redmi Note 4 brings in some nifty changes, making it the better version of Redmi Note 3 that you always wanted. The smartphone will be offered in two variants – 16GB storage with 2GB of RAM priced at 899 Yuan ( Rs 9, 000 approximately) , and 64GB storage with 3GB of RAM priced at 1, 199 Yuan ( Rs 12, 000 approximately) . The Redmi Note 3 is priced at Rs 9, 999 ( 16GB storage + 2GB RAM) and Rs 11, 999 ( 32GB storage + 3GB RAM) . Now let’s take a look at what all is different in the Redmi Note 4 compared to the Redmi Note 3.
Design: Both smartphones feature a unibody metal design and they look similar too. However, there are some notable differences – the Redmi Note 4 comes with a 2.5D curved glass on the front and chamfered edges on the metal chassis, something that is missing from Redmi Note 3. The back of the smartphone is slightly curved and antenna bands are clearly visible. Also, the speaker grill that was earlier on the back, is now moved at the bottom along with the microUSB port. The back panel of the Redmi Note 4 also houses the camera lens, LED flash and fingerprint scanner, just like the Redmi Note 3.
Display, processor and GPU: Both smartphones flaunt a 5.5-inch full HD ( 1080p) display with a pixel density of 403ppi but the Redmi Note 4 gets a 2.5D curved display that looks more elegant and premium. Xiaomi has also included its dedicated Reading and Night Display modes for better readability. Under the hood, the Redmi Note 4 is powered by MediaTek’s 64-bit Helio X20 deca-core processor ( two Cortex-A72 cores, eight Cortex A53 cores in quad-core setup) paired with Mali-T880 GPU. The Redmi Note 3, on the other hand, is powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor ( two Cortex A-72 cores and four Cortex A-53 cores) paired with Adreno 510 GPU.
RAM and storage: Both smartphones come in two variants — one with 2GB of RAM and another with 3GB of RAM. While the base variant with 2GB on both phones have 16GB of internal storage, Xiaomi has doubled the internal storage on the 3GB variant to 64GB in the Redmi Note 4. Both smartphones also come with a microSD card slot with support for up to 128GB. It’s a hybrid SIM card slot, allowing you to either use two SIM cards or one SIM card and one microSD card, not both.
Camera: For shutterbugs, the Redmi Note 4comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/2.0, PDAF and dual tone LED flash, whereas the Redmi Note 3 has a slightly higher resolution 16-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/2.0 with PDAF and dual tone LED flash. Even though the resolution has come down on the Redmi Note 4, it appears to be quite a capable shooter, especially looking at some of the camera samples shared by Xiaomi. Up front, is a 5-megapixel selfie camera on both smartphones of aperture f/2.0 and 1080p video recording capabilities. For the record, Xiaomi had first launched a MediaTek Helio X10 version of the Redmi Note 3 in China that had a 13-megapixel camera.
Battery, connectivity and operating system: The Redmi Note 4 is armed with a 4, 100mAh battery, whereas the Redmi Note 3 has a 4, 050mAh battery. We have already reviewed the Redmi Note 3 and during out usage, it had delivered a good battery life, and the same could be expected with the Redmi Note 4 too.
In terms of connectivity, both smartphones feature 4G LTE with VoLTE HD voice calling support, dual SIM card slots, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth and GPS. On the software front, the Redmi Note 4 comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-based MIUI 8, and while the Redmi Note 3 comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop based MIUI 7, Xiaomi has also started seeding MIUI 8 update for the smartphone.
Xiaomi has done a commendable job with the Redmi Note 4, even after the design tweaks, addition of 2.5D curved glass, 64GB onboard storage and a slightly better MediaTek Helio X20 chipset, the pricing still remains the same as the existing Redmi Note 3. Also, while there is no word on when Xiaomi plans to bring the smartphone in India, it is unlikely that we will get the same version with MediaTek chipset.
Comparison table:
Features
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Display
5.5-inch 1080p ( 2.5D curved glass)
5.5-inch 1080p
Processor
MediaTek Helio X20 deca-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 hexa-core
RAM
2GB/3GB
2GB/3GB
Storage
16GB/64GB
16GB/32GB
Rear Camera
13-megapixel
16-megapixel
Front Camera
5-megapixel
5-megapixel
Battery
4, 100mAh
4, 050mAh
Connectivity
Fingerprint scanner, dual-SIM, 4G, VoLTE
Fingerprint scanner, dual-SIM, 4G, VoLTE
