I’m using this phone for about 7 months. The specs of the phone is in the info and hence I don’t discuss them here. Simply, the phone is a great option for those who need more specs with less money.
Fingerprint sensor
Upto me, the striking feature of the phone is the fingerprint sensor. It’s little bit difficult to unlock the phone using patterns or passcodes. Especially during traveling and rush moments. So I prefer fingerprint option and it’s the major reason to buy this phone and to reject redmi 3s which has about 1000 rupees less than prime. The fingerprint option can be used to unlock applocks too. Inbuilt applocker option is available in the phone. So the social media apps and other private apps like gallary can be kept secret easily. The drawback of fingerprint option is, someone can open our phone by merely taking our fingers while we’re in sleep or by forcing. It’s not a possible way, I just pointed as a drawback.
Camera
Camera of the phone is satisfactory. Good focusing, good light adjustment, good colour balance. Auto ISO option and autofocusing option works really good. Zooming power of the camera is low, the picture gets distorted while we take a photo after zooming.
Battery
The phone has 4100 mAh battery, which is enough for many days as per the usage. Usually I use the phone in 4G and VoLTE mode all the time and display brightness in adaptive mode and I get the battery for around two days. The charging process is also fast. Use the spacified charger only, because most of other chargers are about 1A, where 2A charger is needed for good charging process.
Multicolour notification LED
There’s a multicolour LED in the home button space, which is visible only when it lights. The colour of the light varies as per the notification. It helps us to know whether we’ve a missed call, message, low battery like that. The LED colour option of WhatsApp and other apps also works perfectly in this phone. By using the custom notification option in the WhatsApp, we can know who texted us by merely looking at the LEDs. This multicolour LED is a great option. When more than one notification arises, the LED indicates the last notification and I didn’t noticed any option to select priority of notification.
RAM, Internal memory, Graphics, performance
I used to play Asphalt 8 and it runs smoothly even in high graphics option. 3 GB RAM is enough for most people and in normal operating mode a maximum of 1.7 GB RAM is used. The phone has 32 GB internal memory, we get 26 GB memory to use and the rest goes for the operating system and built in applications. I didn’t have any stuck in the phone yet.
Display brightness, read mode
The great feature I noticed for this phone is the most dimmable display brightness. Unlike other phones, the brightness can be lowered to a very low level, which is very helpfull in the night. Also, built in read mode option is availble which really helps to reduce eye strain during night reading.
Sound reception, Noice cancellation
The phone has highly satisfying sound reception. The other feature is the noice cancellation technology using two mics, one primary mic at the bottom of the phone and the other secondary mic at the top of the phone. This is helpful while we call somebody from public spaces. But during audio and video recording, this is an evil sometimes, because we miss many sounds. I didn’t found any option to switch off this nice cancellation option yet.
Infrared transmitter
Most of us holds a phone while watching television like that and we don’t need to hold an extra remote during the time. We can use the phone itself as a remote for TV, settop box, music systems, fan, AC etc. Built in remote app is availble in the phone.
User interface
The redmi has a great user interface named MIUI which makes the phone really use friendly. Built in apps like applock, remote, QR scanner etc are great examples. We can use same app in two different accounts. That’s, for example, we can use two whatsapp easily without using any other app. The other feature is, an option for creating second space. That’s, we can make this single phone into two virtually. This tool helps to give the phone to the children or any second user safely without any tension. The phone can be switched to one handed mode easily by swiping the home button to either left or right. These all are the key features of MIUI and many other features also are there like pocket mode etc.
External appearance
The phone is very slim and attractive with light weight. The 5 inch screen makes the phone easy to handle with one hand. The case can’t be open. It has two SIM card slots, one of them is a hybrid slot. That’s, either SIM or SD card can be inserted. One slot is 4G and the other is 3G when both SIMs are in use. The phone has a metallic body which get scratch if roughly handled.