Xiaomi launched the Redmi 3s in India recently, a budget phone in the very successful Redmi lineup. As per the stats from Xiaomi, they have sold around 110 million Redmi phones across the globe making it one of the company’s most sold devices. Redmi 3s will be competing against some of the mid-range phones in the market even though the pricing places it in budget smartphone category.
The device will be launched in 2 variants – Redmi 3s and Redmi 3s Prime. Both the devices are very identical to each other in except for 2 things. The former does not have fingerprint scanner and only has 2GB RAM where as the latter allows you to use fingerprint and also has 3GB RAM and double the storage.
Both the devices feature a stylish full metal body which is first for a budget phone from Xiaomi. On the right hand side we have the Power/Lock button and volume rocker which provide good tactical feedback, on the left side we have a hybrid sim slot that accepts two sim cards or a sim card and microSD card. At the top we have noise cancelling microphone, IR Blaster and the 3.5mm audio jack whereas at the bottom there is a microUSB port along with primary microphone. The back of the phone sports a 13MP camera with PDAF (first on a budget phone) with a LED flash, a fingerprint scanner on the Redmi 3s Prime, Mi logo with some certification info followed by the loudspeaker. On the front there is a 5inch HD display (720p) above which there are couple of sensors and the 5MP front camera, capacitive keys at the bottom for navigation which are not back-lit.
The devices are powered by Qualcomm’s latest budget chipset Snapdragon 430 which features an Octa-core processor consisting of eight A53 cores clocked up to 1.4GHz paired with Adreno 505 GPU which takes care of graphics. We have 2GB or 3GB RAM depending on the variant and 16/32 GB internal memory that can be extended up to 128GB. The phone runs on a humongous 4100mAH battery which can easily keep the phone up for at least 2 days with heavy usage given the screen’s 720p resolution and the low power consumption by the processor.
Camera:
There is a 13MP rear camera with 5-piece lens, f/2.0 aperture and PDAF which is capable of shooting 1080p videos. For selfies we have the 5MP front camera which has various beauty modes and face recognition, also capable of 1080p videos.
We were overall impressed with Redmi 3s which has a good build, smooth performance and decent camera. The device currently runs on MiUi 7 which will updated to MiUi 8 on August 23 along with other Mi devices. Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime will be initially available exclusively on Mi.com and Flipkart with no pre-registrations. Redmi 3S Prime will be available at INR 8,999 starting 9 August from 12 Noon onwards, and Redmi 3S will be available at INR 6,999 starting 17 August.
