Xiaomi Redmi 4 review: Blue-plate special

Blue-plate special

GSMArena Team, 05 July 2017.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 is powered by the Snapdragon 435 chipset, one of the more recent iterations in Qualcomm's super-popular 400 series. It's a rather classic setup found in many a midranger in terms of CPU configuration - eight Cortex-A53 cores, in this instance clocked at up to 1.4GHz.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 review

Kicking things off with GeekBench, as usual, we observed a bit of an oddity - the octa-core Redmi 4 posts only marginally higher scores than the quad-core Redmi 4a in the multi-core portions of the benchmark. The 4 also lags behind the Moto G5, which packs the older S430 chip. There are no such discrepancies in older versions of GeekBench (3.7 and 4.0), so we can only speculate there's some sort of incompatibility between phone and benchmark.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    3611
  • Oppo F3
    2798
  • Moto G5
    2580
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    1819
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    1781
  • Nokia 3
    1529
  • Meizu M5c
    1285

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    887
  • Meizu M5c
    870
  • Oppo F3
    764
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    677
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    670
  • Moto G5
    618
  • Nokia 3
    551

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    4997
  • Sony Xperia XA1
    4539
  • Oppo F3
    3101
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    2931
  • Meizu M5s
    2888
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    2876
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    2774
  • Meizu M5
    2713
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    2012
  • Nokia 3
    1556
  • Meizu M5c
    862

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    1025
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    938
  • Oppo F3
    808
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    690
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    674
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    672
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    665
  • Meizu M5
    660
  • Meizu M5s
    623
  • Nokia 3
    576
  • Meizu M5c
    408

There's nothing alarming in Antutu, where the numbers are as you'd expect them to be. The Redmi 4 with its Snapdragon 435 chip posts nearly identical scores as the Snapdragon 430-equipped phones - after all the SoCs are very similar. A lot of the other phones here sport the Mediatek MT6750 chip, and that one can't keep up with the S435. There's a Redmi 4 on top of this chart - the Prime with its Snapdragon 625 is in a different league, one where the Xperia XA1 with its Helio P20 is a better match.

By the way, you can hover over the bars to see hardware info relevant to the respective benchmark - in case you missed this feature we introduced recently.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    62316
  • Sony Xperia XA1
    60707
  • Oppo F3
    53008
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    44115
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    44089
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    43957
  • Moto G5
    43755
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    43344
  • vivo V5
    41702
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    40976
  • Meizu M5
    40831
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    39439
  • Meizu M5s
    39166
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    36110
  • Meizu M5c
    29001
  • Nokia 3
    28441

We don't have a number for the Redmi 4 Prime in Basemark OS II 2.0, but the Xperia XA1 is in the lead - thanks, P20. The Snapdragon 435s and 430 are tightly packed, yet the Redmi 4 is among the better ones. There are also the Lenovo K6 Power and Asus Zenfone 3 Max that make the S430 look bad here.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    1351
  • Oppo F3
    1085
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    882
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    832
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    830
  • vivo V5
    821
  • Moto G5
    795
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    794
  • Meizu M5s
    781
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    707
  • Nokia 3
    568
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    295
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    281
  • Meizu M5c
    182

Graphics oriented benchmarks show that the Adreno 505 isn't a powerhouse - what else is new? That said, the 720p display resolution helps here, and despite the lack of much raw power, the Redmi 4 puts out respectable fps numbers - for its class, that is.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    6.2
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    6.2
  • Moto G5
    4.6
  • Oppo F3
    4.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    4.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    4.5
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    4.4
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    4.4
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    4.4
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    3.5
  • Meizu M5
    3.4
  • vivo V5
    3.4
  • Meizu M5s
    2.9
  • Meizu M5c
    1.4
  • Nokia 3
    1.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    15
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    10
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    10
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    10
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    8.7
  • Meizu M5
    7.9
  • vivo V5
    7.8
  • Meizu M5s
    6.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    6.1
  • Moto G5
    4.6
  • Oppo F3
    4.5
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    4.4
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    4.4
  • Meizu M5c
    3.2
  • Nokia 3
    3.2

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    3.7
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    3.4
  • Moto G5
    2.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    2.5
  • Oppo F3
    2.4
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    2.4
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    2.4
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    2.3
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    2.3
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    1.9
  • Meizu M5
    1.8
  • vivo V5
    1.8

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia XA1
    7.9
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    5.1
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    4.9
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    4.8
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    4.3
  • Meizu M5
    3.7
  • vivo V5
    3.7
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    3.4
  • Moto G5
    2.5
  • Oppo F3
    2.4
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    2.4
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    2.4

Adreno 506 vs. Adreno 505 - what a difference 1 makes. Look at the Basemark X results where the 506 GPU of the Redmi 4 Prime significantly outperforms the 505 in the Redmi 4. The 4, on the other hand, beats all the S43x competition, if only just.

Basemark X

Higher is better

  • Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime
    10424
  • Sony Xperia XA1
    9714
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4
    7608
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime
    7604
  • Asus ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL
    7510
  • Moto G5
    7475
  • Lenovo K6 Power
    7475
  • Xiaomi Redmi 3S
    7263
  • Oppo F3
    6148
  • vivo V5
    4996
  • ASUS ZenFone 3S Max ZC521TL
    4991
  • Meizu M5
    4767
  • Meizu M5s
    4646
  • Xiaomi Redmi 4a
    3335
  • Meizu M5c
    2292
  • Nokia 3
    2210

Overall, a predictable showing from the Redmi 4 in the benchmark run - not a record breaker, but a dependable all-round performer. If anything, it inches ahead of most similarly equipped competitors.

Audio output impresses

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 did very well with an active external amplifier, delivering above average loudness and perfectly clean output.

Quite impressively, and even more so for its price range, the smartphone had virtually no degradation with a pair of headphones. The only affected reading was stereo crosstalk and even there the difference was tiny. Volume remained above average too, making this a really solid showing by the Redmi 4.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Xiaomi Redmi 4+0.06, -0.02-94.390.80.0024 0.0089-94.0
Xiaomi Redmi 4 (headphones)+0.06, -0.04-93.890.60.035 0.044-79.5
Xiaomi Redmi 3s+0.02, -0.07-94.390.60.0024 0.0087-91.8
Xiaomi Redmi 3s (headphones)+0.02, -0.10-93.790.30.028 0.061-72.2
Nokia 3+0.02, -0.11-91.991.80.012 0.017-91.8
Nokia 3 (headphones)+0.88, -0.06-78.777.60.039 0.348-52.5
Sony Xperia L1+0.10, -0.11-93.692.90.0090 0.013-93.8
Sony Xperia L1 (headphones)+0.79, -0.10-92.991.90.010 0.420-53.1

Xiaomi Redmi 4 frequency response
Xiaomi Redmi 4 frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.

Reader comments

  • bushidoN
  • 25 Nov 2022
  • Lc7

Still rock solid in late 2022.5 years already in my hands and still running smoothly. Does what it supppsed to do, and still does it quite well given it's age. Too bad that 5 inch displays aren't a thing anymore...

  • Ervin
  • 07 Oct 2022
  • AL{

Nooo xiaomi redmi note 11 pro is best

  • Mr lover
  • 23 Nov 2021
  • gut

How do I upgrade my Redim 4x which has 6.0 version and 16gb rom with 2gb ram