Xiaomi Redmi 4A review : A Verdict
Verdict
At a price of Rs 5,999, the Xiaomi Redmi 4A is an exceptionally competent smartphone. With specifications such as 13MP rear camera, a 3,120mAh battery and VoLTE support, it offers a lot of features. It'll surely give tough competition to peers such as Xolo Era 2X and Coolpad Mega 2.5D, which are priced in the same bracket.Top
Xiaomi Redmi 4A mobile features a
5.0" (12.7 cm) display and runs on Android v6.0 (Marshmallow) operating
system. The device is powered by a Quad core, 1.4 GHz, Cortex A53 processor
paired with 2 GB of RAM. As far as the battery is concerned it has 3120 mAh.
Over that, as far as the rear camera is concerned this mobile has a 13 MP
camera and the front snapper is powered by a CMOS image sensor.
XiaomiRedmi 4A review: Raising the bar
Komal Mohan | Gadgets Now
a handful of years of its existence, Xiaomi
has become quite well-known for bringing all-rounder smartphones at competitive
prices. And even though all of the Chinese company's smartphones have been
generally well-received, its budget Redmi line-up has been especially popular.
Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi 4A in India. The entry-level smartphone was introduced in China last year and became the top-selling handset during the country's Singles' Day sale.
The Indian smartphone market has a plethora of options in the budget segment (Rs 7,000 - Rs 15,000). But the entry-level segment doesn't really have that many (good) options, and that gives the Redmi 4A a golden opportunity to conquer the market.
So at a price of Rs 5,999, does the Redmi 4A manage to stand out? We played around with the budget smartphone for a few days, and here's the rest of our review.
Design and display
Even though majority of the smartphones today come with metallic construction, the Xiaomi Redmi 4A has a plastic body. It has a polycarbonate matte-finished back with a 13MP rear camera and LED flash at the top left corner, and the Mi branding and speaker grille at the bottom. The back is exactly the same as the previously-launched Redmi 3S. However, there's no fingerprint sensor on the Redmi 4A. We believe this might drive away some potential users, as even the most basic of smartphones come with fingerprint scanners these days.
Having slightly curved edges, the 4A has the volume rocker and power buttons on the right, and the SIM slot on the left. The bottom edge has a microUSB port and the top has a 3.5mm audio jack. The front is dominated by a 5-inch display. The screen has three capacitive (non-backlit) keys and an LED indicator below it, and the earpiece and 5MP selfie-camera above it.
Talking about the display, the Redmi 4A has a 5-inch HD display of 720x1280 pixel resolution and 296ppi pixel density. In our time with the device, we found the display to be good enough for an entry level smartphone. It has accurate colour reproduction and impressive viewing angles. The sunlight legibility is good too. The display has a 'Reading Mode' which eliminates all the Blue light, reducing eye strain. You can also change the strength for Reading Mode and also select the apps in which you require it to be activated.
All-in-all, we found the design of the Xiaomi Redmi 4A to be quite likeable. At the given price, it offers great looks, a good display and is lightweight too.
Performance and camera
Xiaomi Redmi 4A is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor coupled with Adreno 308 GPU. It offers 2GB RAM along with 16GB of internal storage. The storage can be expanded via microSD cards of up to 128GB in size.
The Redmi 4A runs Xiaomi's MIUI 8 skin based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The interface is clean and user friendly. But there is no app drawer and all apps are placed on multiple home-screens. The device offers a 'second space', which enables users to have different profiles with separate wallpapers, apps, files and photos. Other MIUI-specific features include a Child Mode that lets users lock apps, a hovering 'Quick Ball' button which provides quick shortcuts and a One-Handed Mode that shrinks the display to one corner of the screen.
The phones comes pre-loaded with third-party apps such as Facebook, Amazon Kindle, MakeMyTrip that can be uninstalled.
Just like majority of other Xiaomi smartphones, the Redmi 4A comes with an IR blaster that can be used to control home appliances such as TV and ACs. The pre-installed Mi remote app enables users to add multiple remote controls for different appliances and use them from the phone itself.
During our testing, we found the overall performance of the Xiaomi Redmi 4A to satisfactory. The phone handled multi-tasking to random app switching without any heating issues. Audio quality is also quite good.
As for the network reception, it was good during our testing. The phone handled calls even in areas of problematic coverage.
Coming to the battery, Xiaomi Redmi 4A's 3,120mAh battery easily lasted us more than a full day on a single charge with moderate use. This included playing games and browsing social media for a few hours, all while staying connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
We ran Antutu and GeekBench 4 tests on our device. While the phone scored 32,588 in Antutu Benchmarks, the single-core and multi-core scores on GeekBench 4 were 626 and 1611 respectively.
On the connectivity front, Redmi 4A offers Hybrid dual-SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and microUSB.
Moving on to the cameras, Xiaomi Redmi 4A has a 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash. There's also a 5MP front-facing camera for selfies. The camera app is pretty basic and supports HDR, burst mode, and face recognition and panorama, among others. Users can apply live filters at the time of clicking photos and the manual offers advanced features with controls for things like shutter speed and focus. Other features of the app include a Face Beauty mode for better selfies.
The photos that we took using the Redmi 4A's rear camera were decent. They pack fair amount of detail and colour reproduction is good too. The front camera is average though. Images taken in well-lit conditions are good, but the same can't be said about low-light shots. The camera is capable of recording videos at both 1080p and 720p videos at 30fps.
All in all, for an entry level smartphone, the Redmi 4A's camera experience is good.
Post a Comment