We were really happy about the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and we even called it the best cheap phone at the time of our review and we suggest you checking it out. 

The device had a lot to offer for a very low price. It seems that Xiaomi wants to take cheap phones to a new level with the Redmi 3 Pro. We have all the great features of the Redmi 3 but the company added some significant upgrades to the device. Learn more in our Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro review.

Thanks to Giztop for providing us with the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro for a review.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro VIDEO REVIEW:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6xpKmhde0[/embedyt]

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

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: UNBOXING

The packaging is the same as the one that came with the Redmi 3. The contents of the box include a power plug, USB cable, instruction manuals and SIM ejector pin.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: SPECS

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: DESIGN

As for design, nothing really changed except for the fact that Xiaomi added a fingerprint scanner on the back. It is very accurate and it works straight from the standby mode. 

Once I first picked the phone up I noticed that the build quality is slightly better than the Redmi 3.

There is no major difference but the buttons have a slightly better tactile feedback and there are absolutely no moving parts on the device (the Redmi 3’s back cover moved a little bit if pressed harder).

Other than that, we have the same button placement, the same ports, camera and it is the same phone in terms of the design as the Redmi 3 except for a fingerprint reader.

One thing is that the gold model looks much better to me than the silver model of the Redmi 3 we reviewed previously. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

A hardware department is where the Redmi 3 Pro has improved. Well, it uses the same octa-core Snapdragon 616 chip with the maximum clock speeds of 1.5GHz. However, now we are getting 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage via the microSD card slot. 

As expected, gaming performance is good. Asphalt 8 runs perfectly on medium graphics and there were just a few minor skipped frames on the highest graphics settings, so you may enjoy playing even the most demanding games on the Redmi 3 Pro.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: BENCHMARKS

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: UI

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro comes with MIUI 7.2, which is built on top of Android 5.1. Hopefully, Xiaomi updates this phone to Marshmallow soon.

The UI looks the same as on any other Xiaomi phone. As usual, there is no app tray and all apps sit on the home-screens.

If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customization options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. 

Also, you can highly customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons, do various tweaks and personalise the phone in a lot of different ways. 

All in all, MIUI 7.2 runs fast and fluid most of the times and I didn’t really have any hiccups or lags. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: MULTIMEDIA 

Watching full-HD content is a blast as videos in different formats play smoothly. The sound via earphones is pretty good with a loud volume output and clear sound for a budget device.  

As far as the loudspeaker, it is pretty good too. While it is definitely not the best but it has a reasonable amount of depth and it does not sound tinny like a lot of cheap phones. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The 13MP camera takes pictures very fast thanks to PDAF system.  Also, I see a slight improvement over the Redmi 3 and that is thanks to the updated software.

The camera has become more consistent with the daylight shots and it does not struggle with focusing. If you take pictures in good lighting, you can achieve some great results. The images are sharp and detailed almost every time you take a photo.

The only downsides are that sometimes there is a softer focus on the corners and the dynamic range was off in a few shots.

The indoor and low-light shots have less detail and more noise but they are still not bad for the phone this cheap if we compare the Redmi 3 Pro to other devices in this price range. 

The selfie camera is pretty good for social media needs.

Download a 1080p video sample

The video quality is good but not great. The level of detail is decent but there is some noise in the video, the footage could have more sharpness and the lack of OIS leads to a kind of shaky footage. Well, I believe it is too much to ask for OIS in a budget phone anyway. See a video review for a video sample. 

Download full resolution camera samples

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options work great. Call quality is okay and signal reception is excellent. Also, Wifi, GPS and Bluetooth are working fine. However, I was disappointed as the phone does not support 5GHz Wifi connection.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: BATTERY LIFE 

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro has a huge 4100mAh non-removable battery and it performs just like the regular Redmi 3. 

In short, battery life is fantastic. I could not squeeze the battery out in one day even on heavy usage that involved gaming, installing lots of apps, watching a lot of videos, taking pictures, browsing the web and so on. 

I was able to achieve over 7 hours of screen-on time with max. auto brightness setting of the screen. That means that you can achieve even more impressive results if you reduce the brightness or don’t use the phone that heavily like I did during my testing period. 

Finally, Xiaomi claims that the Redmi 3 Pro has a fast charging feature. However, it took me just over 3.5h to charge the phone with the original charger. That means that you would need to buy a fast charger separately to charge your phone fast. 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review: CONCLUSIONS

So here it is, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro, an upgraded model over the Redmi 3. 

It has preserved great looks of the Redmi 3 and it even sports a better build quality. Right now the phone feels more solid in the hand. Also, the addition of a fingerprint scanner, which is fast and accurate, is a great feature to have in a compact phone. 

You are not going to see a major difference in terms of UI or gaming performance with the additional 1GB of RAM or more storage space but these specs make the Redmi 3 Pro a more solid and future-proof phone.

The daylight image quality seems to have become more consistent  and that is thanks to software optimisation. However, don’t expect any stellar results in low-light scenarios.

Some may agree, some may not but if you asked me, I would have loved to see backlit capacitive buttons on the Pro model. Also, while the 720p display is pretty good, the 1080p panel would have better justified the Pro moniker. 

All in all, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro is a very solid device and it is very hard to beat it in this price range. It brought some welcome features and slight improvements over the Redmi 3 and it is highly recommended to buy if you are in the market of great affordable smartphones. 

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Review appeared first on Gizmochina.

We were really happy about the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and we even called it the best cheap phone at the time of our review. The device had a to offer for a very low price. It seems like that Xiaomi wants to take cheap phones a new level with the Redmi 3 Pro. We have all the great features of the Redmi 3 but the company added some significant upgrades to the device. Learn more in our Xiaomi Redmi 3 unboxing and first impressions article.

Thanks to Giztop for sending Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro for a review

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro: UNBOXING

The packaging is the same as the the one that came with the Redmi 3. The contents of the box include a power plug, USB cable, instruction manuals and SIM ejector pin.

The main specs of the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro include a 5″ 720p display, octa-core Snapdragon 616 chip (up to 1.5GHz), 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage via the microSD card slot, 13MP camera on the back, 5MP shooter on the front, 4100mAh battery (non-removable), fingerprint scanner, dual-SIM support.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro: DESIGN and FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Once I first picked the phone up I noticed that the build quality is slightly better than the Redmi 3.

There is no major difference but the buttons have slightly better tactile feedback and there are absolutely no moving parts on the device (the Redmi 3’s back cover moved a little if pressed harder).

We have the same buttons and ports layout.

One of the major addition is a fingerprint scanner. I set it up initially and it works absolutely fine. It is fast, accurate and it automatically wakes the phone up from the standby mode and unlocks the device.

The initial impressions on the Redmi 3 Pro are nothing but positive. The device is compact, feels great in the hand and that gold colour review unit we have looks gorgeous.

We have spent just an hour with the device but everything is running fast and fluid. Keep in mind that the Chinese version does not have Google Services pre-installed but it is very easy to do that.

We will be using the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro and testing it very carefully as always. Stay tuned to Gizmochina for a full review.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro in pictures:

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Unboxing! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi officially announced the Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro smartphone during the company’s press conference yesterday. The Pro version will be an updated model in the low-end Redmi lineup, with the biggest upgrade being the fingerprint sensor. The design of the phone, especially with the fingerprint sensor, reminds us of a smaller variant of the Redmi Note 3.

Just a day after the launch of the device, the Redmi 3 Pro is available to purchase on OPPOMART. The phone is now up for pre-order on the website for a price tag of $169.99. Considering the official price tag of the phone is 899 Yuan ($139), this price isn’t too bad.

In the specs department, the Redmi 3 Pro doesn’t disappoint. Apart from the fingerprint sensor at the back of the device, the Redmi 3 Pro comes with larger memory modules. The model features 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, an upgrade from 2GB  + 16GB on the standard Redmi 3 model. Further, the storage is expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD.

The display remains the same as before, a 5-inch 720p screen. As for the processor, you get Snapdragon 616 octa-core chip under the hood. Other features of the phone include a 13MP rear camera, 5MP front facing shooter, 4G LTE support, dual SIM dual standby and a large 4100mAh battery. Finally, for software, the phone runs on MIUI 7 based on Android 5.1.

At the moment, the phone is available in gray, gold and silver colors on Oppomart. You can check out more details about the device from the link given below.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro Now Available For Pre-order On OPPOMART appeared first on Gizmochina.

If you ever thought that you wanted a fingerprint scanner on a budget smartphone, Xiaomi has just the answer for you. The company has just released the Redmi 3 Pro model, which is an updated version of the existing Redmi 3. Given that the phone comes with a bump up in specs as well as price, this won’t be a replacement, but rather it will sell alongside the existing Redmi 3.

So, what’s new in the Redmi 3 Pro? Well, first up, the company has integrated a fingerprint sensor at the back of the phone. It’s similar to the one we saw on the Redmi Note 3 model. The second major upgrade is the RAM and the storage. Xiaomi has increased the RAM from 2GB to 3GB and doubled the storage from 16GB to 32GB. Further, you still get MicroSD card slot on the device for storage expansion. So, you don’t have to worry about memory on your device (supports 128GB MicroSD cards).

Rest of the specs have remained unchanged. So, you get the same 5-inch 720p screen, with Snapdragon 616 octa-core chip, Adreno 405 GPU, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front-facing camera, 4G LTE support, dual-SIM dual standby and a large 4100mAh battery. There are four different colors for the Redmi 3 Pro, namely gold, grey, white and rose gold.

While it doesn’t replace the Redmi 3, what it does seem to threaten is the Redmi Note 3 2GB RAM version that retails for the same price in China. Apart from the display, which is a 5.5-inch 1080p panel, rest of the specs are quite similar to the Redmi 3 Pro. In fact, RAM and storage are higher on the Redmi3 Pro (3GB + 32GB vs 2GB + 16GB). Other specs of the Note 3 include Helio X10, 13MP camera, dual SIM, and a 4000mAh battery. Screen and RAM seem to be the deciding factor between the two, i.e. whether you want a larger and more beautiful display, or whether you want a larger RAM and storage space.

Anyways, the similarity in the specs and the pricing of the Redmi 3 Pro and Note 3 may not be of as much concern as I think. But what’s your take on the new phone?

The post Xiaomi unveils Redmi 3 Pro With 3GB RAM & Fingerprint Scanner For $138 appeared first on Gizmochina.