Redmi Note 3 at a glance
Aluminum body
5.5-inch, 1920x1080 IPS LCD
Qualcomm Snapdragon 650; 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 + 4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 510
2GB RAM with 16GB storage/3GB RAM with 32GB storage; microSD support
Dual SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, IR, microUSB
16 megapixel rear camera with PDAF, f2.0 aperture, dual LED flash
5 megapixel front camera, f2.0 aperture
Fingerprint sensor
4050mAh battery
Android 5.1.1 with MIUI 7
Compared to Redmi Note 3 ( Helio X10)
microSD ( occupies SIM 2 slot)
Higher resolution camera ( 16MP vs. 13MP)
Better Snapdragon 650 chipset with faster processor and more powerful graphics
Camera
The Redmi Note 3 has a 16 megapixel camera on the back with phase detection autofocus, f2.0 aperture, two-tone dual LED flash and 1080p video. On the front is a 5 megapixel sensor with f2.0 aperture. Camera UI
The image quality of the rear camera was a bit underwhelming. Images have a fair bit of noise in them, which coupled with the over-sharpening made them unpleasant to look at when zoomed right in. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 ( Snapdragon) camera samples
Dynamic range was also unimpressive and the camera frequently blew out highlights. The built-in HDR mode only helps boost shadows but does nothing for the highlights, so you just end up with an overall brighter image. There is also noticeable purple fringing around high contrast areas. Colors were good, however, and the overall detail, while not particularly noteworthy, was alright. The focusing is quick but quite often tends to miss the mark, which is usually hard to tell on the display while you’re shooting but something you notice later while looking at the image up close. HDR off • HDR on
Video wasn’t great either. The phone seems to be upscaling a lower resolution video, which is clearly visible when shooting still subjects, as you can see the jagged edges of a low resolution file being played back at a higher resolution. Colors also look flat in the video and the dynamic range is even worse than on photos.