Redmi 3 announced with 13MP camera & massive 4100mAH battery at 7000INR

Xiaomi surprised Industry watchers and fans alike by quietly taking the wraps of the newest iteration of their Budget phone the Redmi 3. In a crowded marked where fingerprint scanners, High resolution displays under the 10k price mark (read Lenovo K4 Note and Coolpad Note 3) are making disruptive waves the quiet release of the Redmi 3 seems to be acknowledgement of sorts that this phone is not a gamechanger many were hoping it would be.

And yet the Redmi 3 marks a series of firsts for Xiaomi as well as the budget phone Industry such as:

Budget build quality gets a new definition with the slim and metal build of the Redmi 3

1) Premium Metallic Build Quality:

The phone boasts of an all metal back which comes with a unique metal build with a design pattern boasting of unique pattern of 4166 stars etched together to give a lattice design effect. The new metal body will come in Fashion gold, Classic Gold, silver or grey colours

Lattice metal design on the Redmi 3 is surely eye catching

2) Battery of 3 days with a 4100mAH battery:

The Redmi 3 boasts of close to 3 days of Battery life with normal usage thanks to its massive 4100mAH battery which despite the heft with fit in a rather slim 8.5mm profile of the device. 

The Redmi 3 will also have 5V/2A fast charging extending talk time by as much as 80%. thanks to Optimizations to MIUI 7 this would roughly translate to a 25% more usage from the Redmi 3 on a single charge compared to the Redmi 2 which is a big boost to the users planning to upgrade to this device

 

3) 13MP Camera with PDAF and Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 chipset

The Redmi 3 also has an upgrade to its optics as it now has a 13 mega-pixel camera with PDAF fast autofocus (like the Redmi Note 2 and 3) with F2.0 aperture. This is a big update over previous Redmi rear cameras which were at 8MP. The front camera is a 5 mega-pixel F2.2 camera for better selfies.

The device is also powered by an all new Snapdragon 616 chipset which makes the Redmi 3 now even bettery a deal than the Mi 4i. However the rest of the features are not greoundbreaking namely

Redmi 3 Full specifications

• 5", 1280*720 HD display with front screen protection
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 octacore chipset, Adreno 405 GPU
• 13MP primary camera with Phase Detection Auto Focus and 5MP secondary camera
• Dual hybrid SIM slots
• 4100mAH battery with fast charging supported
• 16GB inbuilt memory (expandable upto 128GB via hybrid SIM slot) and 2GB RAM

The misses are omnious as you do not get a fingerprint scanner, Dual SIM's and expandable storage (due to the hybrid SIM Slot) and Snapdragon 615 had proven to be a toaster of a chip and the 616 is yet to prove its worth.

But at a launch price of $106 (roughly translating to 7000INR) and MIUI, Xiaomi plans to lure then budget seeker with a Midrange offering with some aces up its sleeve. 

Is it worth for an Redmi 2 user, we would say yes. But then we would also prefer a Redmi 3 Prime with an extra gig of RAM and 32GB internal storage at under 10K. What is your take readers? eveolutionary jump or another laclustre product from Xiaomi?