Redmi Note 3: A great phone at an affordable price

The low price tag makes it a great buy for those who are looking for a performance-centric phone, says Kakoli Chakraborty.

Despite its low price (Rs 11,999), the Redmi Note 3 has managed to up the ante with its appearance and the hardware it houses under the hood.

With a 5.5-inch full HD display with a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 p, the phone looks splendid in Xiaomi's first all-metal body.

The display is great with vibrant colours. Many people said the phone could rival the iPhone in appearance.

It runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. The device houses a 2Ghz MediaTek Helio X10 chipset with 3 GB of RAM.

I downloaded Asphalt 8: Airborne, a very RAM-heavy game. Needless to say, I was impressed with how smooth an experience the phone provided me with.

The phone didn't heat up nor did it slow down in the process. A problem I've faced with many devices is that a lot of apps, especially the camera app, are slow to load.

But with the Redmi Note 3, I faced no such issue even though I had a lot of apps open. 

The device comes with a rear-facing speaker. Usually, the sound is affected by such placement so I decided to test it out. I started with Ed Sheeran's Photograph.

The sound quality was decent. Next, I took it up several notches and decided to play Led Zepellin's Moby Dick and Metallica's Fade to Black.

When I cranked up the volume, I could hear some distortion in the playback. Of course, I wasn't expecting a stellar audio performance at such a low price.

Another feature placed at the rear is the fingerprint scanner. It is placed in a way that makes it easier to register one's fingerprint and unlock the screen with a single touch.

Setting up one's fingerprint is easy and takes less than a second.

A weak point of the phone is its 13-megapixel (MP) primary camera.

In good lighting, the camera performs adequately but as soon as you try to click a picture in low-light conditions, the resultant images are grainy and unclear.

The 5MP secondary camera is nothing special and clicks average selfies.

The Redmi Note 3 has a huge 4,000 mAh non-removable battery.

This did make the phone a bit chunky but then again, you win some and lose some.

The phone, on a full charge, lasted for more than two days. Of course, using RAM-heavy games or Instagram or browsing the internet does deplete the battery a bit, but not considerably.

The low price tag makes it a great buy for those who are looking for a performance-centric phone but don't want it to pinch their pocket too much.

Apart from the camera and a few kinks here and there, the Redmi Note 3 is an all-rounder and a must-buy.

HOW IT FARES AGAINST THE ZENFONE 2

Redmi Note 3

OS: Android 5.0.2

RAM: 3 GB

Processor: 2Ghz MediaTek

Battery: 4,000 mAh

Price: Rs 11,999     Asus ZenFone 2 (ZE550ML)

OS: Android 5.0.2

RAM: 2 GB

Processor: 1.8 GHz quad-core

Battery: 3,000 mAh

Price: Rs 13,999 (on Flipkart)