Xiaomi Redmi 3 review: Precious little one

A 13MP snapper with an LED flash

Xiaomi Redmi 3 features a 13MP camera, just like the Redmi Note 3. It is equipped with a standard single LED flash. The snapper also features a hybrid autofocus system utilizing phase-detection for faster and more accurate focus.

The camera interface is fairly simple and features toggles for the HDR mode, the flash and the video camera.

It has three panes - the default one shows the viewfinder with a virtual shutter, flash trigger and front camera key. A pull down from the top of the screen gets you a choice of 12 filters with live previews. A slide from the bottom displays the advanced modes such as Panorama, Beautify, Scenes, and Manual as well as the camera settings.

Camera UI

The Manual Mode offers you manual settings for white balance and ISO. The Face Detection switch is within the additional settings.

We found the Xiaomi Redmi 3 to perform very well regarding image quality. It snaps the photos very quickly, resolves above average amount of detail, and while there is some corner softness, the noise levels are kept reasonably low. The white balance is accurate, and we like the lively color rendition. The dynamic range turned out average, but sometimes it managed to surprise us by capturing a lot of detail in the shadows without turning the HDR mode on.

Just like other non-flagship Xiaomi phones, the Redmi 3's samples are nothing spectacular, but they look excellent on the 5" display and work great for capturing and sharing your moments on social networks. The Redmi 3 ticks the right boxes in most of the scenarios - the colors and contrast are good, there is enough detail, the dynamic range is good for the class as well.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 camera samples

The HDR mode is conservative enough and rescues both the highlights and shadows without making the image look flat. Those aren't the best HDR photos we've seen, but are definitely among the better ones, and we liked all of them.

HDR off • HDR on • HDR off • HDR on

Panorama shots are available too. You can capture both landscape and portrait panoramic photos with an 180-degree field of view. Shooting is easy, but the stitching takes a while to complete. The result is rather disappointing, though - the resolution is about 2000x760px, and the image quality is quite poor.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 panorama sample

Xiaomi Redmi 3 features a 5MP front-facing camera for high-res selfies. The images come out soft with average detail, but will do for Facebook or similar social networks. Their contrast turned out good, as were the colors and the dynamic range.

A 5MP selfie • Another 5MP selfie • Using the soft skin effect on a selfie

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 is more than capable of pulling its weight in our Photo Comparison tool. You can see how it stacks against other 13MP snappers we've tested.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 in our Photo Compare Tool

1080p video recording

Xiaomi Redmi 3 camcorder has the same UI as the still camera. It supports time-lapse videos with customizable snapping interval.

Camcorder UI

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 is capable or recording up to 1080p@30fps. The bitrate of the video recordings is uninspiring at about 15 Mbps while audio is captured at 96 Kbps with two channels (stereo).

The resolved detail in the videos is modest but enough for the class. We noticed some over-sharpening though. The colors and contrast are good, and the framerate is smooth and consistent at 30fps. The dynamic range is average.

And here is a 1080p video we've uploaded on YouTube.

You can also download the 1080p video sample (15s, 28MB) taken straight off the Xiaomi Redmi 3.

Here the Xiaomi Redmi 3 enters our video comparison tool. There are plenty of 1080p camcorders you can compare it against. It resolves an average level of detail, but contrast and colors are excellent.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 in our Video quality comparison