Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro review: Trimmed up

Performance

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro, just like the original Redmi 3, is powered by the Snapdragon 616 chipset. The SoC offers eight Cortex-A53 cores, four of them ticking at 1.5GHz and another four running at 1.2GHz. The GPU in charge of graphics is Adreno 405 while the available RAM is now 3GB.

The single-core performance of an A53 core is nothing to talk about, really. It gets destroyed by the A72 processor inside the Redmi Note 3 (the Snapdragon model).

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1543
• Huawei P9 Lite
  899
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  668
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  655
• Sony Xperia E5
  540
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  471

Eight A53 is not an impressive picture either, especially when those are clocked at 1.2 and 1.5 GHz. Those are pretty much on par with the raw processing power of the Oppo F1 (same chip), Xiaomi Redmi 3 (same chip), but are easily overshadowed by the Redmi Note 3 models (both Helio X10 and Snapdragon). The Huawei P9 Lite powered by the Kirin 650 is quite a threat, too.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3695
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  3554
• Oppo F1
  3014
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  2874
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2842
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  2803
• Sony Xperia E5
  1490
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437

The compound AnTuTu 5 shows the Redmi 3 Pro is as powerful as its Redmi 3 predecessor, which is expected. The new AnTuTu 6, which gauges CPU, GPU and memory, places the Redmi 3 Pro on par with the Redmi 3 and Oppo F1 - both powered by the Snapdragon 616. The Xperia E5 is a notch behind those, while the Huawei P9 Lite and Redmi Note 3 (Snapdragon) are way more powerful.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  47816
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  38786
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  34077
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  33542

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  76186
• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  41693
• Oppo F1
  35353
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  34937
• Sony Xperia E5
  32248
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

BaseMark OS II is another compound benchmark, which additionally tests web performance and system behavior. The Redmi 3 Pro's 3GB RAM gave it an edge over its predecessor, but the Oppo F1 came on top of both.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1914
• Oppo F1
  1055
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  956
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  826
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  804
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  727
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  576

Finally, the Adreno 405 can perfectly handle any 720p content you throw at it, and that's noticeable in the GFX 3.0 on-screen benchmark.

The 1080p Offscreen test results, on the other hand, can show you how the chipset stacks against the competition as far as the raw GPU performance is concerned.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  6.5
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  5.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  5.8
• Oppo F1
  5.8
• Sony Xperia E5
  3
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  11
• Oppo F1
  11
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  8.7
• Huawei P9 Lite
  8.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Sony Xperia E5
  6
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  3.8

The BaseMark X GPU test places the Redmi 3 close to other similarly priced devices.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14717
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Sony Xperia M5 Dual
  7780
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7681
• Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
  7263
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  5427
• Oppo F1
  5314
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  5108
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2180

The Snapdragon 616 chipset undoubtedly provides more than enough power for the Redmi 3 Pro - especially since it runs everything on the undemanding 720p screen resolution. The chipset seems like a great match for the Redmi 3 Pro ambitions for providing great day-to-day performance and an excellent feature package on budget pricing. Only OpenGL 3.1 compatibility is missing for rendering high-end mobile graphics, but most games will run just fine with only perhaps lowered graphics quality here and there.