Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi just announced its first smartphone for India in 2017. The smartphone comes in two storage variants and at different prices. The base model of 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage has been priced at Rs 9,999 and the premium model with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage will come at a price of Rs 12,999. The smartphone will be on sale as Flipkart exclusive from January 23 from 12 pm. It can also be availed at the company’s website, Mi.com. Xiaomi has introduced a new colour variant, that is matte black, apart from the earlier gold and grey colour devices. There is no need for a pre-registration to buy this device. Earlier Xiaomi had put out teasers on Twitter a few days before, which confirmed that it will be announcing the Redmi Note 4 for India. The smartphone will be released by Hugo Barra, the company’s global vice president. Here are the reasons why you should buy or not buy the smartphone:
Why buy:
Display & Build
Xiaomi’s device, though not a revolutionary designed smartphone, still looks great and way better than other budget phones. The build quality is quite sturdy, safe and dependable. The speakers are the bottom this time around, along with a micro USB slot. It also has both the options of nano SIM and micro SIM. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 has a display of 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) with 2.5D curved glass and 401ppi pixel density. So, it is great for watching videos, reading ebooks and playing games even in daylight conditions.
Battery
Xiaomi stays true to its bigger battery promise, as the new device comes with a huge 4100 mAh battery, which according to the company is 25 percent better than the Redmi Note 3. So, use the device all you want, and it can still give you a minimum of a day’s running time.
Performance & UI
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 has a display of 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) with 2.5D curved glass and 401ppi pixel density. The new smartphone runs Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is powered by a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 coupled with Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, which is expected to improve performance and reduce battery consumption. So, from gaming to heavy tasks, the phone can relatively handle them all. Moreover, you can also tinker with the software as it has MIUI 8 user interface with cool customisation options.
Why not buy:
Camera
With the feature of PDAF (phase detection autofocus), the phone has a 13-megapixel rear camera and the option of f/2.0 aperture. It can record 1080p videos at 30fps. The front camera of 5-megapixels, which according to Xiaomi, can click wide angle shots extended to 85-degrees. But still, it underperforms in low light conditions. There is too much noise and light reflections in the picture when clicked without proper lighting. Though the HDR feature is a bit redeeming. But then, a camera has never been the USP of the Redmi Note series. When it comes to video, this device still does not have 4K support which many in this range have. Additionally, there is no OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) support as well.
Charging & USB Type-C
While the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 has a great battery with a whopping 4100mAh power, but ironically it does not have fast charging support. This essentially means that the phone will take a lot of time to be fully charged. So, it is up to the users that they can spend the time to avail the day and half of recharge. Meanwhile, Redmi Note 4, though reliable, is a very boring device. It could have done with the addition of USB Type-C support. It is not that it cannot afford to bring it in this device, as it already did it in China with the Redmi Pro.
Written with inputs from Financial Express