Xiaomi redmi 4 prime review: long live the battery king

“midrange, on a budget”

Xiaomày Redmày 4/Prime Specifications

Big thanks to Gearbest for providing this đánh giá unit. I used the Xiaongươi Redmi 4 on Fivị in Toronto.

Xiaomày Redmày 4 Hardware

Xiaongươi has left behind the traditional Redngươi 3/Redmày cảnh báo 3 designs in favour of the more elegant curved baông xã designs as seen in the Redngươi Pro, Mi chú ý 2, và the Mi 5s. The curve sầu on the toàn thân is less pronounced on this Redngươi 4 compared to other non Redmi/Redmày lưu ý devices & is a move in the right direction. The Redmày 4 is slightly thicker (8.9milimet vs 8.5mm) than the Redmày 3 but still feels thinner because of the curved baông chồng.

I can easily use this device with just one hvà which is welcome, not many 5” devices with specs worth their salternative text are released anymore. The build chất lượng is expectedly top notch, with the same matte metal finish found on the Redngươi chú ý 4 & the Mi5s, screaming chất lượng without trying lớn dive sầu towards the floor every other second.

The back of the phone features the camera (which thankfully doesn’t protrude out), the flash & the fingerprint sensor.

Xiaongươi has done a bang up job with the build quality here, not many phones can clayên ổn that honour in such a budget phone with the Ulefone Metal coming khổng lồ mind, but the processor on that was somewhat old.

“Top notch build quality”

Xiaomày Redmi 4 Display

This is the first Redngươi device lớn feature a 1080p screen, và it definitely looks good. Colours are deep và the screen is sharp. There is still a difference between the screen on the Redngươi 4 and more expensive sầu displays, but the difference is small.

I feel that Xiaomày could have left the resolution at 720p with all the benefits that would bring; longer battery life, a better gaming experience, và less SoC usage. You might not think there is a huge difference between 720p & 1080p, but 720p only has around 900,000 total pixels while 1080p has over 2,000,000 pixels, meaning that the SoC has to lớn work almost exactly twice as hard on 1080p.

Nevertheless, the screen looks great. Maximum brightness is around 450-500 nits which is easy enough khổng lồ see in sunlight, but not as easy as the Mi5s with 600 nits. Minimum brightness is also good. There is also Gorilla Glass as well.

Xiaongươi Redmày 4 Audio

The speakers are located beside the MicroUSB plug, & they produce some very loud sound, not as loud as the Mi5s, but definitely more than loud enough. Quality is a little below average, with bass almost nonexistent and passable mids and highs.

However, I’m trying my best not to be harsh here as this phone has an MSRP of $130, which is almost 3 times cheaper than the Mi5s & 5 times cheaper than the Mi chú ý 2.

Xiaomày Redmi 4 Battery

Who would have sầu thought that the battery in the Redmày 4 could surprise me any further. The Redngươi 3 had insane battery life, easily getting 6 hours of battery life with 25% left. However, the Redngươi 4 managed to lớn top that & not by a bit, but by miles.

With this new Redngươi 4, I was able to get 9 hours of screen on time with 25% left, and with that increase, battery life has officially crossed from insane to lớn out of this world. There is nobody in this world that uses their phone for 9 hours a day daily, and if you vày, this phone is the perfect device for you.

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It was also able to get 10 hours of screen on time over two days (5 hours each day) with about 3% left at 8pm on the second day. Battery here is ridiculous. I spent almost 96 hours testing this darn battery in various configurations & I desperately need sleep!

I also did some lab testing with the battery (vày I even need to?), và the phone was able khổng lồ browse the web for almost 16 hours straight & it could play bachồng video clip for 19 hours in total. Who would have thought that the new Snaprồng 625 was that power efficient? I wanted lớn vày more battery tests but because each battery test took up the better part of a day I was not able khổng lồ perkhung more tests on this incredible battery.

It’s still using the old MicroUSB connector which is annoying. Heavy & ultra heavy users (lượt thích me) can easily go two days without charging, while light & medium users can definitely go four days & possibly even a week without charging.

“The battery is not of this world”

Xiaomi Redmày 4 Software

Still not a fan of MIUI, và I’ll be repeating that for every single Xiaomày phone I review. There is MIUI8 over top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow and the included SnapLong 625 chugs along quite well. I know I usually talk about Antutu at the end of this section, but this SoC as high or higher than some Helio P10 chipsets. Benchmarks bởi vì not directly translate inlớn everyday performance, but in this case real world use backs it up.

General use, swiping between screens, và opening and closing apps was all very fast a fluid. Sure, its a tad slower than Snaprồng 821 devices, but not by much. The Snaprồng 625 coupled with 3GB of RAM makes it a very capable multitasker as well. This phone is no gaming powerhouse, but it can play most of the games on the play store with good framerates when the settings are on lowest.

Benchmarks vị not directly translate into everyday performance, however real world use yielded some strange results. There was noticeable stuttering when swiping, opening and closing apps và this is most likely because of the software. There is no reason why the 625 should stutter in basic tasks at all & hopefully Xiaomày releases a fix for this.

The 625 is also no gaming powerhouse, yes it can play intense games, but definitely not on highest. The GPU is weak enough to notice some lag if you try playing intense games on highest settings; you’ll have sầu to bump the settings down lớn medium or low.

The rear mounted fingerprint sensor works very well và is fast, accurate & well situated. I’m able lớn reach for it easily every time. However, I’ve become extremely accustomed to lớn front mounted fingerprint sensors so it was a little bit of a transition.

Xiaomi Redmày 4 Connectivity

I found the choice of network bands strange for a company trying khổng lồ sell them outside of Trung Quốc. There are actually less FDD-LTE bands and more TDD-LTE bands which are mostly useless outside of Asia. That being said, I was still able to lớn get svào 3G and LTE connections here in Canadomain authority, but pay extra close attention to the network bands & make sure it works on your carrier.

WiFi, Bluetooth không dây and GPS all work well, I found that Công nghệ Bluetooth range on the Redmày 4 is actually farther than the Lenovo Z2 Plus, my daily driver. There is also an IR blaster which at this point is kind of useless. There is a microSD thẻ slot that supports microSD cards up khổng lồ 128GB as well.

Xiaongươi Redngươi 4 Camera

The camera does surprisingly well in great lighting conditions. After seeing the videos and photos of the Mi5s & Mi cảnh báo 2, I was prepared to be disappointed, but I was pleasantly surprised. There is more than enough detail in each shot & colours are reproduced nicely. In great lighting conditions, photos are slightly less vivid và detailed than what is found on the more expensive Xiaongươi models but still more than adequate.

The camera takes photos incredibly fast as well, not as fast as the Mi5s, but competitive. However, move sầu lớn low light và the picture quality drops much faster than the Mi5s. The front facing camera takes average photos, và low light brings out a lot of noise & grain. The video clip camera can shoot up khổng lồ 1080p đoạn Clip và Clip quality obviously doesn’t match up khổng lồ pretty much any decent 4k shooter, but its definitely good for a full HD camera. Colours are markedly less vivid compared to the Mi5s though. Low light Clip shooting is actually kind of bad, not only is there noise and blown out colours, but đoạn phim starts getting quite shaky.

Xiaongươi Redngươi 4 Verdict

Xiaomày has had a lot of time lớn refine the Redngươi. Each successive Redmày was a big jump from the previous one, but the Redmi 4 Prime is the biggest one yet. Starting at $130, it has made the leap from a budget, low over smartphone into a midrange one, competing quite easily against Helio P10 phones.

As a budget phone kind of guy, this phone represents the epitome of what I consider to be the most consumer-friendly phone, striking a perfect balance between price, specifications, & user experience.

Yes there are imperfections (a subjective sầu one being the fact that I dislike MIUI), the speaker is barely average, and the camera has disappointing low light performance. But the Redmi 4 Prime does so much to lớn advance our mindmix of what a budget phone can contain. It keeps other phone manufacturers on their feet, và in the over, the consumer benefits.

Xiaomi has done a great service lớn anyone purchasing this phone as they have sầu improved on already amazing battery life, giving heavy users two days of battery life which is completely unheard of. This is definitely my top piông chồng for a budget device going forward & I highly recommend it to lớn anyone looking for an amazing device for less.

Note: November 26, năm 2016, even though this phone was released by Xiaomày at $130, reseller prices rise lớn around $200 which is ludicrous. Average resale prices hover around $160-$180, & at that price, you might as well purchase a Redngươi Note 4 instead. However if you can find the Redmi 4 Prime for $130 or cthua thảm lớn that, that is the best budget device you can get.

I would like lớn thank Gearbest for sending out this Đánh Giá unit, & if you would lượt thích to lớn buy one, you can bởi so here.