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 has released quite a few great affordable smartphones lately. Firstly, we have the recently reviewed Redmi Note 3, which turned out to be one of the best in class. This time around we have a just released very affordable Redmi 3. Find out if it is any good in our full Xiaomi Redmi 3 review.

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

Xiaomi Redmi 3 VIDEO Review:

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: UNBOXING

The device comes in a nice looking little box and the contents include a charging plug, USB cable, SIM ejector pin and some documentation.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: SPECS

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

When it comes the design, we are looking at a very compact phone as it has a 5” display and it is similar to the iPhone 6s in terms of the overall footprint.

Speaking of display, we have just a 720p panel, which was chosen to keep the low cost of the phone. It is not a bad panel though as it is quite bright, it has good viewing angles and natural colour reproduction. However, it is not as sharp as 1080p panels and you can notice that immediately. Also, the colours could look more vibrant to my taste.

On the front we have a 5MP selfie camera and some other usual stuff, and on the bottom there are 3 capacitive buttons, which are, however, not backlit. A funny thing is that Xiaomi implemented a notification LED light right below the home button (not on the top side of the device like the majority of phones).

The backplate is made of metal (except for the top and bottom parts for antennas) and it has some nice looking diamond shape patterns, which also hide most of visible smudges.

As far as optics, we are looking at 13MP camera with PDAF and a single LED flash.

On the bottom there is just a speaker grill.

The buttons are located on the right, they are also metal-made and have a good tactile response.

The left side is where you can find a dual SIM card slot, where one slot also doubles as an optional microSD card slot for storage expansion up to 128GB.

On the top there is a headset jack and the IR blaster to control devices like TV and on the bottom you can find the micro USB port.

Overall, I’m really happy with the design of the Redmi 3. It feels nice in the hand, it is very compact and almost all-metal design makes it look like a premium phone. However, the backlight for capacitive buttons would have been nice.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: UI

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Xiaomi Redmi 3 comes with MIUI 7.1, which is built on top of Android 5.1. As usual, there is no app tray and all apps sit on the home-screens.

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If you are not yet familiar with the MIUI, it has tons of customisation options, which include a wide choice of themes, wallpapers, fonts and so on. You can select from a few pre-installed ones or simply go to the online theme store where you will find thousands of different themes to suit everyone’s taste. Also, you can highly customise the LED light, assign different tasks to capacitive buttons and so on.

MIUI 7.1 runs fast and fluid most of the times. There were just a few minor hiccups but they are not even worth complaining about. Overall, I’m happy with the way the user interface works on a daily basis especially if you consider a feature set and customisation options it offers.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMACE

Xiaomi Redmi 3 has a pretty good hardware as it sports an octa-core Snapdragon 616 chip with the clocks speeds of up to 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

Although the phone is far from being the synthetic benchmark champion but it performs really well in 3D gaming.

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.

Finally, the phone does not heat up much even after 30 minutes of gaming.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 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 Review: CAMERA

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The MIUI camera app is fast and easy to use and there are a few shooting modes and settings to play with. However, I don’t like that picture taking and video recording modes are separated.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Camera Comparison:

The 13MP camera takes pictures very fast thanks to PDAF system. But what about the image quality?

Daylight images turn out to be pretty good. There is a reasonable amount of details, colour reproduction is very accurate and most of the pictures look pretty sharp.

However, some of the pictures have softer focus on the corners or in some parts of the image or uneven focus throughout the image. Also, I had a few slightly blurry shots meaning that auto-focus is not always reliable.

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When it comes to indoor and lower-lit environments, it is a hit or miss situation. Most of the times, the Redmi 3 will take a good and sharp looking image but other times you may face some camera’s struggles like less details than expected, uneven focus or even blurry shots. In addition, sceneries I took pictures of didn’t look that good on the camera’s viewfinder and thus I used tap-to-focus technique in a lot of shots to be 100% sure about the correct object the sensor focuses.

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As far as night shots, they do not impress. There is a low amount of details and a lot of noise in each and every picture. To be honest, they looked a lot better on the phone than on the computer’s screen.

1080p video is not bad for the phone this cheap. However, the footage looks a bit shaky and the camera could capture a bit more details. See a video review for a video sample.

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As for selfie shooter, it will do the trick for social media but I suggest you taking images in good lighting conditions.

All in all, the Redmi 3 has a decent camera for daylight images but it becomes inconsistent in lower-lit situations and it kind of disappoints at night.

On the other hand, maybe we shouldn’t be so picky for the phone this cheap, right?

Download full resolution camera samples 

Xiaomi Redmi 3 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 Review: BATTERY LIFE

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The Xiaomi Redmi 3 has a huge 4100mAh non-removable battery. It sounds really impressive considering a 5” 720p display and it delivers in real life.

In fact, the battery is one of the best in class. I could not squeeze the battery out in one day even on heavy usage that involved gaming, installing lots of apps, watching a lot 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 has a fast charging feature. It took me just over 3.5h to charge the phone. While it is not the fastest charging time I’ve seen, it is not a bad result for the battery this huge.

Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, another affordable yet awesome Xiaomi. The Redmi 3 costs just $107 in China which is simply ridiculous. As always, you would need to pay extra for third-party resellers if you want to order the phone in the West and it will cost you less than $150.

Still, I believe the Redmi 3 is well worth the price. You are getting a very compact phone with a premium metal design, good build quality, quite a powerful hardware, good gaming performance, feature-rich user interface and some other good stuff.

The battery life is definitely one of the selling points here and the Redmi 3 is definitely for those who use their phones day in, day out.

However, while the screen is definitely good for a 720p panel, we would love to start seeing 1080p displays even on the cheapest devices.

Also, the camera is not bad for daylight images but it faces various issues with less lighting and there were times that it really disappointed.

Last complaint would be non-backlit capacitive buttons but it is definitely not a deal breaker.

At the end of the day, the Xiaomi Redmi 3 is a very easy recommendation especially for those on a budget. It brings a powerful hardware and it does most of the things right without breaking your bank. Some features may be even improved with future software updates, some may not but you have to keep in mind that you are not paying a fortune for this device.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Review – The Best Cheap Smartphone Got Better? appeared first on Gizmochina.

Like tradition, Xiaomi is teasing many features of the upcoming Xiaomi Redmi 3 budget smartphone before it’s launch tomorrow. However, this time around, the company and its executives have given away almost everything about the smartphone. Today, Lin Bin, Xiaomi’s co-founder confirmed that the Redmi 3 will be priced at 699 Yuan ($106).

Given the placement of the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and the pricing strategy followed by the company for its previous budget smartphones, we were estimating the phone to be priced at around $100. But with co-founder confirming the price tag of 699 Yuan, there’s hardly any surprises left about the device.

Apart from the price tag, Xiaomi has also confirmed that the phone will feature a large 4100mAh battery. This makes the device a killer deal in its price segment, as there are hardly any 5-inch phones out there that can boast of such a large battery. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about the phone being too thick as it will reportedly be just 8.5mm thin.

As for the battery life, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun had said that according to his personal use, the phone last for two days easily and sometimes even for 3 days. Also, the phone is said to come with a pretty good standby time, as a recent screenshot from the CEO showed that the phone was still at 94% after 18 hours. Not bad for a budget phone that costs $105.

Other specifications confirmed by the company include Snapdragon 616 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM with MicroSD card slot that supports cards up to 128GB, 13MP rear camera with PDAF that focuses in just 0.1 seconds, 5MP front camera, MIUI 7, dual SIM dual standby and an all metal body with a unique plaid design.

The Redmi 3 will reportedly come in, at least, two color options, silver, and gold. Both the colors have been revealed by the company in the recent teasers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r70ijsD_3Ic

The phone will be available for purchase starting tomorrow in China. Xiaomi is yet to reveal the availability details of the device in international markets like India.

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Specs & Price Confirmed, Will Go On Sale Tomorrow appeared first on Gizmochina.

A few hours ago, Kevin quoted a post from the Xiaomi co-founder Lin Bin, stating that the Redmi 3 comes with Snapdragon 616 inside. The new Snapdragon 616 chip is the upgraded version of last year’s Snapdragon 615. The chip comes with the same octa-core Cortex A53 cores but the clock speed is increased from 1.5GHz/ 1.0GHz to 1.5Ghz/ 1.2GHz. GPU is still Adreno 405. What’s new is the baseband which is the latest X5 LTE modem.

If the company keeps the price as low as 699 Yuan ($106), then Redmi 3 with Snapdragon 616, 2GB RAM and a unique plaid design metal body will turn out to be a pretty good deal.

Xiaomi has already confirmed the phone’s release on January 12. You can read more about it from our previous coverage.

So, what would you prefer, Snapdragon 616 or Helio P10?

The post Xiaomi Redmi 3 Will Most Likely Feature Snapdragon 616 appeared first on Gizmochina.