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Redmi 3S Prime – The pocket sized dynamite – Review

Xiaomi has been very consistent in coming up with new mobiles across all segments and also improving its existing product line in every segment. The Redmi 1s was a path breaking mobile that was disruptive in pricing and sales figures. Since then the Redmi lineup of mobiles has been getting rock solid successors. This year, Xiaomi has announced the Redmi 3s and 3s prime. In this post, lets talk about the Redmi 3s prime and figure out, if it is a worthy member of the great Redmi family tree.

Design

The Redmi 3s has a metal body and it has plastic on the top and bottom of the chassis for the antenna housing. It is a 5 inch device which is ergonomically, optimal size for a mobile. The 13 Mp camera is at the rear with a single LED flash. The fingerprint sensor and the speaker grills can also be found on the back. The battery is sealed in the body and is not user replaceable. The bottom has a micro USB port and mic. The top has the 3.5 mm jack, infrared port and noise cancelling mic. The mechanical buttons are all lined up on the right and the hybrid SIM tray is on the left. The 5MP camera is on the front and the navigation keys are not back lit.

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The mobile feels very sturdy to hold and the size is perfect for single handed operation. It looks like Redmi Note 3 mini in many ways. The mobile has an aesthetic apeal and stylish look. It looks and feels premium. In my opinion, this is the best size for a mobile phone.

Display

The mobile has a 5 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen capable of 720p resolution. Under display setting, the saturation and warmth of the display can be changed. But the standard preset had a yellow tinge to it and the cool preset was over cool with a blue tinge overdone. There is no perfect white setting. The display has good brightness levels and contrast on indoors. The ambient light sensor is very slow and it failed to adjust the screen brightness and contrast at multiple occasions, when outdoors. This is one of the least usable display under direct sunlight. I had to switch to manual brightness control under direct sunlight. Outdoor visibility is one of the best features for Mi devices, but since Mi Max, I am seeing a depreciation in that feature.

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Hardware

The Redmi 3s is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. The Redmi 3s is a mid-range mobile and it displays superior performance. Games or apps, the 3S prime handles anything that is thrown in it. It handles resource intensive games with ease and the good news is that it does not overheat. The UI is handled smoothly and never did I notice any lag or stutter. It is good to see a 3 GB RAM in a mid range mobile and I hope other mobile manufacturers follow this.

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Telephony was good on the mobile and I had no issues using the 4G VoLTE SIM on this mobile. Network latching was spot on and the call quality was perfect. The fingerprint sensor was fast and accurate. Its placement at the back is also ideal for the finger to reach. It unlocks the mobile from the sleep screen if a valid print is detected.

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The loudspeaker is good enough for calls on speakers and occasional music. Overall, the Redmi 3s is a solid performer in the price range and I would call it a “pocket dynamite”.

Geekbench score

Check out the entire specification and benchmark score here.

Software

My favorite UI, MIUI is on version 7.5 in the Redmi 3s. The base android version is Android 6.0.1. The device will soon get MIUI 8. Right from the lock screen to the settings section, everything is optimized for better user experience. The MIUI has a few pre-installed third party applications or bloatware as we affectionately call them. It comes with a few native apps that are feature centric like the security app, Scanner, Recorder and Mi Remote. Mi Store, Flipkart, Amazon store, Kindle app, WPS office and Swiftkey are pre-installed 3rd party apps. The hardware handles the UI smoothly and MIUI is optimized well for the hardware, like any Mi device.

Camera

The Redmi 3S prime has a 13 MP primary camera and 5 MP front facing camera. The primary camera has PDAF focusing mechanism while the front camera is a fixed focus camera arrangement. The Camera UI is the same we have seen in any MIUI device and we have covered it in detail already.


As far as the camera output is conserned, the Redmi 3S prime is a decent shooter in this price range. It shoots sharp images under ample daylight. It has limited dynamic range and this is more evident when shooting with bright and dark areas in the same frame. HDR comes to rescue and the Redmi 3S prime clicks fairly decent HDR images. This is a not a good camera while shooting under low light as it gathers a lot of noise and the images is soft and shaky. The images from the front camera is also similar in terms of quality. I found the front camera practically useless under challenging light conditions.

But then you are paying Rs 8999 and for the price paid, the Redmi 3S offers very good camera performance.

Battery

The mobile is powered by a 4100 mAh battery. For a mobile with such a huge battery, it is still a slim and sleek device. Xiaomi has managed to get a powerful battery in a small size by increasing the density of the battery. With the Redmi 3s prime, I get about 2 days of battery life. But the mobile take painfuly 3.5 hours to charge from 10 to 100%. Stress testing the mobile gave me 31 hours of intensive usage. On a continous video loop test the device lasted for 8.5 hours. On an average I get about 4.5 hours of screen on time under normal day to day usage.

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Verdict

For Rs 8999, you get a premium looking metal body design, a decent camera and display and a dependable battery life. The Redmi 3S has good harware and software synergy and ultimately resulting in a good user experience. The camera performance is not great under low light and the display is not great under direct sunlight. If you are a frequent traveler and looking for a dependable budget mobile with great battery life, the Redmi 3S is the one.

Giridhar

A Technology evangelist, Giridhar reviews gadgets and mobile applications. He is also a passionate photographer and a user experience designer by profession.

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