Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro review: Trimmed up

Telephony

The dialer and the phonebook share a single app although there are two shortcuts, bringing you straight to the tab you need. The app has pleasant flat looks, and it's about the same as we remember it. It uses a tabbed interface - recent with dialer on the first and the contact list on the second.

The Phonebook

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro supports voice call recording, and it can do it automatically on each call if you like. You can also assign an answer gesture, pre-define quick responses upon reject, there is even support for internet calling.

The Dialer

There are even more call settings if you dig deeper into the menu - flip to mute the ringer, turn on/off the proximity sensor, lock automatically once slipped in a pocket, it can even mute calls from unknown numbers.

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro speaker scored a Good mark on our loudness test. Its sound quality was excellent with deep and crisp sound, and we think missed calls are unlikely in most environments.

Other apps

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro offers an excellent file managing app called Explorer, which lets you browse the files in its internal storage and groups them by type.

Explorer

The MIUI v7 also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, clean some RAM; it can also manage the permissions of your installed apps.

Security app

The Mi Remote uses the IR blaster to control anything from TVs (including the Mi TV, of course) to digital cameras. The setup process is fairly simple and a handy option shares the remotes you've set up with others on the same Wi-Fi network. This means you'd have to go through the setup only once per home assuming everybody else uses a Xiaomi phone as well.

The Mi Remote app can share configured remotes with your family

The custom and now flat Calendar looks good, syncs with your accounts including Google, and offers Day and Month views.

Calendar

There is also the standard sound recorder, notes, flashlight, calculator, clock, and weather apps, among others, that are a given in any self-respecting Android package nowadays.

Voice recorder • Notes • Calculator • Weather

We liked the Compass app. It has very nice and clean interface, shows the magnetic directions and doubles as a level meter. If you lift the phone up, then you'll get a nice augmented reality view with real-time East/West/North/South overlay.

Compass • level • VR directions