It's no secret by now that both Xiaomi and Meizu are taking over the smartphone market. Both companies keep launching spectacular phones at even more spectacular prices. Today we're gonna take a deeper look at one of the most recent launches; the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.
Launched just a few days ago, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes as a successor to the highly successful Redmi Note 2 and features a metal body, fingerprint scanner, and a 3 GB RAM option as it's biggest selling points.
SEE ALSO: Xiaomi Redmi Pro with OLED display ¡The Pros and Cons you can't ignore!
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pros and Cons Rundown
The Pros...
Redesigned metal body. One of the most attractive features in the Redmi Note 3 is its stunning design. The new smartphone arrives just in time to compete against the very attractive Meizu Metal betting on a metal body that gives the smartphone a nice sharp look that differentiates it from other mid-range phones in the market.
Another major upgrade in the new Xiaomi smartphone is its fingerprint scanner, located on the back side of the smartphone, below the flash. This gives way to good ergonomics and an overall good experience when handling the smartphone.
Octa Core CPU and a 3 GB RAM option. Xiaomi opted to repeat the CPU it placed on the Redmi Note 2 (if it ain't broke...). That's an octa core Helio X10 CPU with a 64 bit architecture that clocks in at 2.0 GHz.
However, although it opted to repeat the CPU settings it didn't repeat the RAM setting. To be more specific, the new flagship comes in two options; a 2 GB RAM option and a slightly more expensive 3 GB RAM option. This is a major thing considering that most top tier smartphones that cost double or more than what Xiaomi is asking don't tend to go over the 3 GB of RAM.
Finally a Battery that lasts. Another big update came in the form of a bigger battery. The Redmi Note 3 features a 4000 mAh battery which is a big step up over the 3060 mAh battery placed on the Note 2. To put it more bluntly, the Redmi Note 3 offers up to 264 hours of talk time over a 3G network while the previous model barely made it over the 140 hour benchmark. In real life use this means that the Note 3 will give us about a day and a half of good usage which, all things considered, is still pretty good.
A decent set of cameras. While the cameras on the Redmi Note 3 don't suppose a major selling point for the device in and of themselves, truth is we do appreciate a good set of cameras. Obviously they fall behind in terms of quality when compared to the Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6s but they're still pretty good cameras. Specifically we've got a 13 megapixel rear end camera with a dual tone flash and a 5 megapixel front facing camera.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Cons
No slot for microSD cards. Things are starting to heat up in our recap of the Redmi Note 3 pros and cons and we've arrived at one of the phones biggest disadvantages. You see, the Redmi Note 3 does not sport a slot for microSD cards which means you're stuck with whichever storage capacity you choose.
Taking into account that we've only got two models with 16 and 32 GB of storage I would pin this out as a major disadvantage for some users. Personally i'm good with 16 GB and i've got more than enough storage with the 32 GB option but not everyone is like me and for some people the lack of a microSD card slot is a deal breaker.
Non removable Battery. Sure, it's true that the Redmi Note 3 sports a bigger capacity battery but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's still a non removable battery. This basically means that if you run out of juice you can't simply pop the lid and exchange the battery, you have to either carry the charger or have an extra battery charger on your backpack if you're planning on being away for a while.
The front facing camera doesn't have a flash. This might be a minor disadvantage to the Redmi Note 3's pros and cons but we still would have very much appreciated a front facing flash for the front facing camera. I can't recall the amount of times I wished my smartphone had this feature when taking selfies on low light situations.
No NFC. Personally I don't give much tought to the whole NFC thing. I basically use it to pass pictures from one smartphone to another without the limitations of Bluetooth. However, it should be noted that the Redmi Note 3 does not include NFC technology.
Not water resistant. Finally, to wrap up our list of cons for the Note 3 we should mention that the smartphone is not water resistant, a feature that a lot of people would've surely appreciated though all in all we're talking about a pretty minor disadvantage so we're not really gonna hold it against the smartphone.
Wrapping it up
We've arrived at the finish line and the truth is we're still in love with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 spite it's shortcommings. For it's low budget price (check price on Amazon here) we believe the Note 3 to be one of the most balanced smartphones in the market. We could've done with a microSD card slot but other than this we're pretty happy with the new smartphone launch.
If you're looking to buy a new smartphone and you're not looking to spend a lot of money from the get go or be tied to any network provider then the Redmi Note 3 is probably one of the best options you'll find in the current marketplace and we really can't think of a scenario where we wouldn't recommend this smartphone to a prospective buyer looking to keep expenses low and specs high.