Xiaomi Redmi 3S review: Game of Iterations

Performance

The Xiaomi Redmi 3S runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 with octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 1.4GHz and new Adreno 505. It's a significant improvement over the Snapdragon 410 on the Redmi 2 and snapping at the heels of the Snapdragon 616. The Redmi 3S comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage whereas the more expensive Redmi 3S Prime gets 3GB RAM and 32GB storage.

The eight identical processor cores and the newer Adreno 505 should give an edge on the Redmi 3S and its Snapdragon 430 over the other Redmi 3 phones powered by the Snapdragon 616 chip.

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
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Oppo F1s
  706
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  668
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  665
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  655
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  616
• Sony Xperia E5
  540
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  471

Eight A53 is not an impressive picture either, especially when those are clocked at 1.4 GHz. Those are pretty much on par with the raw processing power of the Oppo F1 (S616), Xiaomi Redmi 3 (S616), but are easily overshadowed by the (more expensive) Redmi Note 3 models (both Helio X10 and Snapdragon). The Huawei P9 Lite powered by the Kirin 650 is quite a threat, too. But the overall CPU performance is about right for the class.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4537
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3695
• Meizu m3 note
  3028
• Oppo F1s
  2967
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  2876
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  2874
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2842
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  2803
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  2493
• Sony Xperia E5
  1490
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437

AnTuTu 6, which gauges CPU, GPU and memory, places the Redmi 3S on top of the Redmi 3 and 3 Pro and the chip gets close to the Helio X10 performance.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Meizu m3 note
  44898
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  41693
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  40976
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  34937
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  33414
• Sony Xperia E5
  32248
• Oppo F1s
  30657
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

BaseMark OS II is another compound benchmark, which additionally tests web performance and system behavior. The Redmi 3S Snapdragon 430 indeed gave it an edge over its Redmi 3 siblings.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  956
• Meizu m3 note
  930
• Oppo F1s
  888
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  882
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  877
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  826
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  727
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  576
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  509

Finally, the Adreno 505 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. You can see the Adreno 505 is more powerful by its Adreno 405 predecessor found in the previous Redmi 3 smartphones.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  7
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  6.5
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  5.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  5.8
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Oppo F1s
  5.1
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4.8
• Sony Xperia E5
  3
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.8

And here are the onscreen results. The 720p resolution is handled with ease by the GPU and you'll have no problems with games whatsoever.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  13
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  11
• Oppo F1s
  10
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  9.4
• Huawei P9 Lite
  8.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9
• Sony Xperia E5
  6
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  3.8

The BaseMark X GPU test places the Redmi 3S equal to the Huawei P9 lite and on top of its competitors.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7681
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  7263
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime
  7236
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  5427
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  5108
• Meizu m3 note
  4567
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4263
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2180
• Oppo F1s
  419

The Snapdragon 430 chipset undoubtedly provides more than enough power for the Redmi 3S - especially since it runs everything on the undemanding 720p screen resolution. The chipset seems like a great match for the Redmi 3S ambitions for providing great day-to-day performance and an excellent feature package on budget pricing. The Adreno 505 provides OpenGL 3.1 compatibility, which pretty much was our only concern we had with the previous Redmi 3 phones. Nice choice of chipset, Xiaomi!