Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime vs. Redmi 3s Prime: Primed up!

Primed up!

GSMArena team, 28 December 2016.

Introduction

Xiaomi loves releasing budget phones in series with small variations in their hardware configuration. It's like the company can't settle for just one configuration and wants to cover every little niche you may think of. Whether it's a fingerprint scanner, a better camera or a camera flash, bigger storage or RAM, newer chipset, or even higher screen resolution - there will be a Redmi out there meant to answer your specific requirements.

Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime vs Redmi 4 Prime review

And there is no harm in that - the more options, the merrier. This gives you the freedom to choose the right hardware for your own needs without paying for unneeded features.

If you want all the features the current generation offers in one device, then there are the Prime models. They are the stars of the series and today we have two of those. Our goal is to find out exactly how much better the Redmi 4 Prime is compared to the Redmi 3s Prime, which came out only a few months ago.

Redmi 4 Prime vs Redmi 3s Prime

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
$ Around €155 Around €145
Metal
8.9mm thick, 156g
Metal
8.5mm thick, 144g
5.0" IPS LCD
1080p (441ppi)
5.0" IPS LCD
720p (294ppi)
13MP (f/2.2); phase-detect AF; dual-tone flash
1080p
5MP selfie cam
13MP (f/2.0); phase-detect AF; single-LED flash
1080p
5MP selfie cam
2.0GHz (octa)
Adreno 506 GPU
Snapdragon 625
1.4GHz (octa)
Adreno 505 GPU
Snapdragon 430
3GB RAM
32GB memory (expandable)
3GB RAM
32GB memory (expandable)
4100mAh 4100mAh

Availability

Availability is an important consideration when choosing a Xiaomi phone. Xiaomi only caters to a limited set of official markets and getting their products outside of those markets can require you to shop from gray importer - some online shop, which may or may not assist you if it gets to after-sales support.

If you happen to live in one of the official markets, however, that doesn't mean you have it easy either. Sometimes making sense of the differences in the available models can be a daunting task, too. Especially in this case, where the Redmi 3s Prime can be found at about €150 - the same price as the Redmi 4 Prime. But which one you should buy then? That's the question we'll try to answer today.

Special thanks to HonorBuy.com for providing the review unit.

Reader comments

  • Shuk
  • 10 Jun 2017
  • fFA

Damn!!! So much heat in the discussion! Come on people, let's agree to disagree and just buy the one that you like. Are you both (3s prime fan and 4 prime fan) engineers?

  • Anonymous
  • 13 Mar 2017
  • THA

In GSMArena's review of the regular 3s, the battery life was 104 hours. However, the 3s Prime only scored 85 hours in this test. Can someone explain this?

  • DaveG1981
  • 28 Feb 2017
  • 39x

What it came down to for me was the Global Edition of MiUI and Band 20 (800MHz) LTE support. My 3S Prime has both. As yet the 4 Prime hasn't got a similar edition available.