Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Snapdragon) review: Dragon fire

Introduction

There's no way you have missed the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. It's been the bang-for-buck benchmark for a while now, delivering a feature set and performance way above what its price tag suggests.

To refresh your memory Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 3 at the turn of last year and it was powered by a MediaTek Helio X10. In the spring of 2016, a Qualcomm-driven Redmi Note 3 followed and broke the company's sales record in India. Now this full review admittedly comes a little late, but the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is still on many people's radar, so we figured a way to compare the Mediatek-powered original and the Snapdragon edition might come in handy.

Besides the chipset, there's also a new camera sensor, a 16MP unit even if it is limited to 1080p video recording. Another difference is the second SIM card tray can now take microSD cards. It's the hybrid kind, which isn't ideal for people who want to have it all. Other than that, the hardware is perfectly familiar.

Key Features

• Aluminum unibody design
• 5.5" IPS display of 1080p resolution; 403ppi
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 650; 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 + 4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 510
• Android 5.1.1 with MIUI 8 (Global 6.7.5 Beta)
• 2GB RAM with 16GB of storage/3GB RAM with 32GB storage; microSD support, hybrid slot shared with 2nd SIM
• Dual SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, IR, microUSB
• 16 megapixel rear camera with PDAF, f2.0 aperture, dual LED flash
• 5 megapixel front camera, f2.0 aperture
• Fingerprint sensor
• 4000mAh battery

Main Disadvantages

• Runs Lollipop
• Non-removable battery
• Cannot have 2 SIMs and a microSD card
• No Quick charge 2.0/3.0 support, just 5V/2A charging

Like sealed batteries, the shared card slot is the compromise we're only going to see more often, like it or not. Anyway, even this less-than-perfect solution makes an already popular and capable phone better than before.

The near perfect balance of price and specs should be no news but let's check out the rest of the Redmi Note 3 with the dragon fire at medium heat.

Special thanks to HonorBuy for providing the review unit.