Following the announcement of the Xiaomi Mi 5C came the unveiling of the Xiaomi Redmi 4X. The launch of the Redmi 4X should not come as a surprise to those familiar with Xiaomi. It was already obvious the Redmi 4 will get the X-treatment after the Redmi Note 4X was announced.

With the addition of this new phone, we now have a total of four Redmi 4 devices: the Redmi 4A, Redmi 4, Redmi 4X, and Redmi 4 Prime. You can call them the Fantastic Four if you wish.

All four phones are well made and are priced at less than $200. However, even though they share the same name, they differ in lots of ways. So if you are having a hard time deciding which is right for you, you should read this to the end.

Redmi 4A

Redmi 4X black

Redmi 4

Redmi 4 prime

Display: Same but Different

All the phones in the Redmi 4 line come with a 5-inch display making them perfect for one hand use.  The difference lies is in their resolution. While the Redmi 4A, Redmi 4, and Redmi 4X have 720p displays, the Redmi 4 Prime has a 1080p screen. That translates into different PPIs too, 294 as against 441.

If you want your display sharp and crisp, you should look to the Redmi 4 Prime but if you don’t care much for that, the Redmi 4, 4A or 4X is fine.

Processors: Different Dragons

Xiaomi has settled for Qualcomm chips only. The Redmi 4A sports the Snapdragon 425; the Redmi 4 gets the Snapdragon 430, the Redmi 4X has the newer Snapdragon 435, and the Redmi 4 Prime uses the popular Snapdragon 625. The Redmi 4 Prime is basically the Redmi Note 4X with a smaller screen. Nothing more, nothing less. So I won’t compare its chip to the rest.

The Snapdragon 425 has a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.4GHz and an Adreno 308 GPU. The Snapdragon 430 and 435 on the other hand are octa-core chips clocked at 1.4GHz and have a more powerful Adreno 505 GPU. The advantage the Snapdragon 435 has over the Snapdragon 430 is in LTE speeds. The SD435 has Cat.7 LTE as against the SD430’s Cat. 4 LTE. That means you will get faster download speeds on the Redmi 4X.

RAM and ROM

The Xiaomi Redmi 4A and Redmi 4 ships with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The Redmi 4X is available in two variants: a 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM and a 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM. The Redmi 4 Prime is only available with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage. All four devices support microSD cards of up to 128GB. If you want a larger RAM, the Redmi 4X or Redmi 4 Prime is your best option.

READ MORE: Xiaomi’s MIUI 8.2 Comes with new Ringtones: Download Here!

Cameras

The Redmi 4 line are all equipped with 13MP rear cameras and 5MP front cameras for selfies. The only difference is in the Redmi 4X which has a f/2.0 aperture for its rear camera whereas the others are f/2.2.

Battery

The Redmi 4, 4X, and 4 Prime ship with a 4100mAh battery but the Redmi 4A takes a dip down to 3120mAh. Since they are all 5-inch devices, battery life should be pretty stellar plus they all feature power efficient chips. However there might will be variations  in on-screen time. The ones with the higher screen resolution may likely record less screen time than the 720p displays.

Fingerprint Scanner

Fingerprint scanners have now become a regular feature in mid-range phones. We have even seen them in some sub $100 devices but sadly, the Redmi 4A misses out on this feature. All the other 3 have fingerprint scanners at the back.

Price

Redmi 4A – ¥599 (~$87)

Redmi 4 – ¥699 (~$102)

Redmi 4X-  2GB RAM+ 16GB ROM = ¥699 (~$102); 3GB RAM + 32GB = ¥899 (~$131)

Redmi 4 Prime – ¥899 (~$131)

NB: Prices are MSRPs and not what you will get them from re-sellers.

Conclusion

Redmi 4A – cheapest of the lot but at the expense of a smaller battery and lack of a fingerprint scanner.

Redmi 4 – the fingerprint scanner and larger battery gives it an edge over the Redmi 4A. Battery life will be great too but probably won’t last as long the Redmi 4X.

Redmi 4X – has a more powerful processor in terms of LTE speeds than the Redmi 4A and Redmi 4 and also has a fingerprint scanner. The screen resolution might be the deal breaker for some. It is also the only other one with a 3GB variant.

Redmi 4 Prime – Best of everything. Compact body, higher resolution display, power efficient CPU, more powerful GPU, and larger RAM and storage. Basically the smaller version of the Redmi Note 4X in size alone.

If you do  not care about the resolution, you are better off buying the 2GB RAM variant of the Redmi 4X or the Redmi 4. The Redmi 4 Prime is the one you should buy if you want to tick all the boxes. The Redmi 4A on the other hand is what you should get if you are looking for a second phone to complement that flagship in your pocket or if you want to get a gift for an older relative.

The post Redmi 4X vs Redmi 4A vs Redmi 4 vs Redmi 4 Prime: Which 4 is Right 4 You? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi’s Redmi smartphones have been one of the most successful budget devices out there. The Redmi 4 Prime is one of the latest offerings and it costs just $160 but it has a premium design and great specs. But is it really worth the price? Learn more in the full Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime review. Also, make sure to check out the coupon code for the discount at the end of the article. 

Thanks to Gearbest for sending the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime for a review.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: VIDEO REVIEW

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otJ_e1VZsMY[/embedyt]

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that comes with most of the phones. No extras included.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, the Redmi 4 is definitely one of the best-looking and the most premium budget phones you can get. It’s made of metal, it sits nicely in the hand and its buttons are nice and tactile.

The phone is compact due to its 5” 1080p display, which is just great. It is sharp, bright and definitely one of the better panels you can find on a budget phone.

We have a 5MP shooter and notification LED light, which can be highly customizable.

Unfortunately, the capacitive buttons are not backlit.

On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a dual-LED flash. As usual to Xiaomi phones, the fingerprint scanner is fast, accurate and it allows you to unlock the device straight from the standby mode.

It’s great that we have the IR blaster to control devices like TVs. The sound quality via the headset jack is great. No distortions, rich and balanced sound and great volume output.

The loudspeaker quality is very good for a cheap phone like this.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

I have the higher-end Redmi 4 Prime that has an octa-core Snapdragon 625 chip, 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM.

You can also opt in for the slightly cheaper Redmi 4 model with Snapdragon 430 chip, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The 3D gaming performance is great. There is no stutter at all and almost no skipped frames. Also, the graphics look good and the phone does not have any overheating issues.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: USER INTERFACE

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 ships with the Android 6.0-based MIUI 8 that we have already seen on many Xiaomi phones. As usual, we have a ton of customization options, various settings, tweaks and little features to make the phone look your own.

Some of the cool features include a baked-in theming engine, where you can choose from a lot of themes, fonts, wallpapers and so on.

Also, you can go to the so-called second space, which is as Xiaomi says “like having two devices” at the same time. In other words, it is like having two accounts on the same phone.

Finally, the phone is pretty fast and fluid on the daily basis and I didn’t see any lag of stutter.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: IMAGE QUALITY

IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.

When it comes to the image quality it is good yet not great.

The Redmi 4 can take some good-looking daylight photos with a decent amount of detail, nice colour reproduction and sharpness. The dynamic range adjustment is not always perfect but the HDR does an okay job bringing the detail back to the shadows.

The image quality is not as good in lower-lit situations. Most of the shots look soft, there is a low amount of detail and the colours look washed out.

The night image quality is even worse. I don’t really want to say that “we may see a software update to improve the quality” but as of now, the photos don’t look good.

The selfie images will look okay on social media but in general, they could have more detail and sharpness.

The 1080p video looks pretty good for a cheap phone. A few complaints would be that the continuous auto-focus is a little jumpy and the footage may look a little shaky as there is no video stabilization built-in.

Download full resolution camera samples

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: CONNECTIVITY

As most of the Xiaomi phones, the Redmi 4 ships with a dual SIM card tray that also doubles as a microSD card slot.

The call quality is okay, GPS is very accurate and in general, I didn’t have any issues when it comes to connectivity.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: BATTERY LIFE

The battery life can be summarized in a few words – one of the best on the market.

The 4100mAh unit will easily get you 2 days of heavy usage or even 4 days of lighter use, which is just an insane result. Seriously, it is very hard to kill this battery! In case you need to recharge it, the phone supports fast battery charging feature but it does not ship with the fast charger. I was able to fully charge the phone in about 2 hours with the supplied charger.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 is yet another great budget device on the market. In fact, it is one of the best you can get at this price point but it doesn’t mean it is a perfect phone.

The device has a top-notch built quality and nice design, the internal hardware components assure a good UI and gaming performance and the camera can take decent daylight pictures. Also, the battery life is just insanely good.

However, even at this price point, we want to see the backlit capacitive keys and a better low-light camera performance. Finally, the phone does not ship with the fast charger.

At the end of the day, the Xiaomi Redmi 4 is still one of the best budget phones you can buy at the moment but make sure to consider if the previously mentioned shortcomings are important to you or not.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review – Awesome Budget Smartphone. Again. appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi’s Redmi smartphones have been one of the most successful budget devices out there. The Redmi 4 is one of the latest offerings and it costs just $130 but it has a premium design and great specs. But is it worth the price? Learn more in the full review.

Thanks to Oppomart for sending the Xiaomi Redmi 4 for a review.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff that comes with most of the phones. No extras included.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes to the design, the Redmi 4 is definitely one of the best-looking and the most premium budget phones you can get.

It’s made of metal, it sits nicely in the hand and its buttons are nice and tactile.

The phone is compact due to its 5” 720p display, which is not of the highest resolution but it is still plenty sharp for everyday use.

We have a 5MP shooter and notification LED light, which can be highly customizable. Unfortunately, the capacitive buttons are not backlit.

On the back, we have a 13MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture and a dual-LED flash.

As usual to Xiaomi phones, the fingerprint scanner is fast, accurate and it allows you to unlock the device straight from the standby mode.

It’s great that we have the IR blaster to control devices like TVs.

The loudspeaker quality is very good for a cheap phone like this.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

I have the lower-end Redmi 4 that has an octa-core Snapdragon 430 chip, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

You can also opt in for the slightly more expensive Redmi 4 Prime model that has a Snapdragon 625 chip, 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM.

Even the lower-end model can handle the 3D games pretty well. I played a few games on the highest graphics and there were just some minor skipped frames. Also, the phone did not overheat.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: USER INTERFACE

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 ships with the Android 6.0-based MIUI 8 Global ROM that has Google services pre-installed and Chinese bloatware removed. As usual, we have a ton of customization options, various settings, tweaks and little features to make the phone look your own.

Some of the cool features include a baked-in theming engine, where you can choose from a lot of themes, fonts, wallpapers and so on.

Also, you can go to the so-called second space, which is as Xiaomi says “like having two devices” at the same time. In other words, it is like having two accounts on the same phone.

Finally, the phone is pretty fast and fluid on the daily basis and I didn’t see any lag of stutter.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.

When it comes to the image quality it is good yet not great. The Redmi 4 can take some good-looking daylight photos with a decent amount of detail, nice colour reproduction and sharpness. The dynamic range adjustment is not always perfect but the HDR does an okay job bringing the detail back to the shadows.

The image quality is not as good in lower-lit situations. Most of the shots look soft, there is a low amount of detail and the colours look washed out.

The night image quality is even worse. I don’t really want to say that “we may see a software update to improve the quality” but as of now, the photos don’t look good.

The selfie images will look okay on social media but in general, they could have more detail and sharpness.

The 1080p video looks pretty good for a cheap phone. A few complaints would be that the continuous auto-focus is a little jumpy and the footage may look a little shaky as there is no video stabilization built-in.

Download full resolution camera samples

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: CONNECTIVITY

As most of the Xiaomi phones, the Redmi 4 ships with a dual SIM card tray that also doubles as a microSD card slot.

The call quality is okay, GPS is very accurate but I found that the Wifi download speeds are a lot slower than usual. I hope Xiaomi will address this issue with the software update.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The battery life can be summarized in a few words – one of the best on the market.

The 4100mAh unit will easily get you 2 days of heavy usage or even 4 days of lighter use, which is just an insane result. Seriously, it is very hard to kill this battery!

In case you need to recharge it, the phone supports fast battery charging feature but it does not ship with the fast charger. I was able to fully charge the phone in about 2 hours with the supplied charger.

Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Xiaomi Redmi 4 is yet another great budget device on the market. In fact, it is one of the best you can get at this price point but it doesn’t mean it is a perfect phone.

The device has a top-notch built quality and nice design, the internal hardware components assure a good UI and gaming performance and the camera can take decent daylight pictures. Also, the battery life is just insanely good.

However, even at this price point, we want to see the backlit capacitive keys and a better low-light camera performance. Also, the Wifi download speeds were pretty low every time I wanted to download an app from the Play Store.

At the end of the day, the Xiaomi Redmi 4 is still one of the best budget phones you can buy at the moment but make sure to consider if the previously mentioned shortcomings are important to you or not.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 4 Review (MIUI 8 Global ROM) appeared first on Gizmochina.