Worth the upgrade?
Xiaomi is all set to launch the successor to the highly successful Redmi Note 3 in India on January 19. The smartphone's distinguishing feature is its 2.5D 5.5-inch fullHD display and its premium full metal build. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 was a huge success, especially in China and India and the Note 4 aims to build upon the success of its predecessor. In fact, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 held the title of best budget smartphone in our books for quite some time.
Hardware
The Redmi Note 3 is powered by the Snapgradon 650 processor paired with 2/3GB of RAM and the Adreno 510 GPU.
While the Chinese version of the Redmi Note 4 comes with a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 processor, the Indian variant will reportedly sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 SoC as Xiaomi has been banned from selling MediaTek devices in India due to a patent dispute with Ericsson.
Additionally, the Note 4 comes with 2/3GB of RAM and the Mali T880 MP4 GPU.
Storage
The Redmi Note 3 comes with 16/32GB of internal storage which can be expanded with the help of a microSD card (pf upto 128GB). The Note 4 comes with 16/64GB of internal storage which can also be expanded via a microSD card.
While the lower end variant of both smartphones come with the same 16GB of storage, the Note 4 comes with double the amount of storage as found on the Note 3 on the higher end variant.
Display
Both the Redmi Note 3 and the Note 4 comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920x1080) display. The Note 4 however, gets brownie points over its predecessor for having a 2.5D curved display.
Connectivity
On the connectivity front, both devices support 4G LTE, GPRS, 3G, 2G, GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, Bluetooth 4.1 and microUSB for data transfer and charging.
Software
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 runs Xiaomi's latest MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which comes with a host of updates which we have detailed here . While the Redmi Note 3 launched with MIUI 7, MIUI 8 is now available as an OTA update for the same.
Cameras
On the imaging front, the Redmi Note 4 comes with a 16MP rear camera with a dual LED flash and a 5MP front shooter. The Redmi Note 4 kicks things up a notch with a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera with a wide-angle lens that Xiaomi claims has a field of view of 85 degrees.
Battery
The 16GB variant of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes with a 4,000mAh battery unit, while the 32GB variant comes with a slightly larger 4,050mAh battery unit.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 on the other hand comes with a slightly larger 4,100mAh battery.
Other Features
The device also comes with an infrared sensor and a fingerprint sensor at the back of the device, right below the rear camera. What is interesting to note is the fact that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 was Xiaomi's first device to come with a fingerprint sensor.
Price and Availability
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is available in India at a price of Rs 9,999 for 16GB + 2GB variant and Rs 11,999 for the 32GB + 3GB RAM variant.
The Redmi Note 4 was launched in China in August 2016 and is also available in two variants. The lower end model with 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM is available in China for a price of CNY 899 (Roughly Rs 9,000) and the higher end variant with 64GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM has a price of CNY 1,199 (Roughly Rs 12,000).
Xiaomi is set to launch the Redmi Note 4 in India on January 19. It is unclear at the time whether the company will be launching both variants in the country.