Xiaomi’s Redmi Note lineup has been very popular both in China and internationally. The Redmi Note 4x is the upgrade to the Redmi Note 4 and it sports great specs, fantastic build quality and it costs less than $170. Learn more in the full Gizmochina’s review.
Thanks to Giztop for sending Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x for a review.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: VIDEO
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: UNBOXING
Inside the box, you can find a charger, some paperwork, SIM ejector pin and USB cable.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY
The front of the phone looks just like previous Note-series devices. We have a sharp and bright 5.5” 1080p LCD display. In fact, it looks even better than a great display found on the Redmi Note 4.
We also have nicely backlit capacitive buttons and a highly customizable notification LED light.
The Note 4x is made of metal and it definitely feels premium but I was disappointed that the top and bottom parts of the backplate are made of plastic not like on the all-metal Note 4.
We have a 13MP shooter on the back, which is coupled with the dual-LED flash. Xiaomi phones are known for great fingerprint scanners and the Redmi Note 4x is no exception. You can unlock your phone very quickly straight from the standby mode.
The buttons feel nice and tactile, and we have some extra features like the IR blaster to control devices like TVs.
Xiaomi decided to stick with the micro USB port on this phone, which is not a deal-breaker but I would prefer the USB-C.
As for loudspeaker, I would say it is pretty good as on most of the Xiaomi phones. However, there is a little bit of distortion going on at the highest volume settings. The sound quality via the headset jack is pretty good too.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
I have a standard edition of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x that sports an octa-core Snapdragon 625 chip with the max. clock speeds of 2.0GHz, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is also expandable via the microSD card slot. If you are willing to pay extra, you can get a 64GB model with 4GB of RAM.
The gaming performance is great and the Snapdragon 625 chip does not heat up so quickly. Games like Asphalt 8 run fine on the highest graphics with just a few skipped frames but that didn’t bother me at all.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: BENCHMARKS
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: USER INTERFACE
When it comes to the user interface, the Redmi Note 4x ships with the MIUI 8, which uses Android 6.0 as a foundation. My review unit ships with the global ROM that has Google Play services pre-installed and Chinese bloatware removed.
I love how fast the phone is on the daily basis even after installing quite a few apps. So far, the phone has been working fine and I didn’t have any lag.
As usual, there are plenty of customization options Xiaomi phones have been famous for. Just to name a few, you can adjust display settings, choose from a variety of themes, customize the capacitive buttons or change the colors of the LED notification light. If you want to customize the phone even further, there are a lot more other features to play with.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: CAMERA
We have a familiar camera app that allows you to take pictures very fast. You can also play with some basic shooting modes and settings. E.g. you can adjust some image properties using the manual mode.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: IMAGE QUALITY
For a $170 phone, the pictures taken with the Redmi Note 4X look quite nice and there is a good amount of detail in most of the daylight shots. However, there were a few pictures with softer focus and inaccurate-looking colors.
When it comes to the low-light photography, the Redmi Note 4x is a pretty good performer. Sure, you can’t expect wonders from a $170 phone but the images are one of the best in class. In fact, I see the improvement over the Redmi Note 4, meaning that the Xiaomi finally improved its noise reduction algorithms.
The video quality is pretty good but it could definitely have more detail and look sharper.
As for selfie camera, a 5MP shooter can produce quite good selfies that will be more than enough for social media Unfortunately, the stock camera app allows you to shoot only in 720p with the front facing camera. On the other hand, the quality of the footage is pretty good and the sound recording quality is decent for a cheap phone.
Download full resolution camera samples
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: CONNECTIVITY
The phone comes with a hybrid dual-SIM card tray, which can take either 2 SIMs or 1 SIM and the microSD card.
As for connectivity, everything has been working fine. I didn’t have any issues with Wifi that works fine on both 2.4 and 5GHz bands. Also, the GPS has been very accurate and finally, the call quality along with the signal reception have been great.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: BATTERY LIFE
A huge 4100mAh battery has been phenomenal. I could use the phone for 2 days easily even with some heavy usage. That translates to over 7 hours of screen-on time. You can achieve even better results if you are going to use the phone just for the basic stuff.
Although the Snapdragon 625 supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology for fast charging, Xiaomi does not include the fast charger in the box and it takes about 2.5h to fully charge the phone.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x Review: CONCLUSIONS
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x is yet another budget offering by the Chinese giant and I have to say that it is a great phone for the price of $170.
The device sports a very good built quality and it uses metal in the construction. Also, we have one of the best-in-class displays, feature-rich user interface and the phone can handle 3D games quite well. In addition, the battery life is fantastic. Finally, the camera can take some pretty good pictures.
A few minor shortcomings would be that the phone still uses the micro USB charging port, not the USB-C port. Also, the phone does not ship with the fast charger and finally, the top and bottom parts of the backplate are made of plastic, which is kind of a downgrade from the Redmi Note 4.
The question is: should you upgrade if you already have the Redmi Note 4. I would say no, since this phone is just an incremental upgrade. However, if you are in the market for a solid budget-friendly phone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x should be definitely on your list as it is an easy buying recommendation for the price of under $170.
