Gadgetory

after last year's release of the redmi note 3 it was only a matter of time before xiaomi unveiled the redmi 3 hey what's up guys this is Bailey Stine with Android authority and you're watching our full review of the xiaomi redmi 3 the redmi 3 takes many of the same design elements found on the redmi note 3 and fits them into a smaller 5 inch form factor the redmi 3 is all-metal curved unibody design not only offers a premium look but with its smaller form factor and pronounced curves feels great in the hand this time around xiaomi has added a sort of non textured pattern finish on the rear of the redmi 3 which looks to be a pretty good addition in comparison to the milk threes design on the top right you'll find both the power and volume keys which offer excellent tactile feedback xiaomi has also included their now standard IR blaster on the top of the device for controlling televisions and other household appliances which can be used with either the pre-installed remote app which offers limited non-chinese device support or with the third-party apps such as peel Smart Remote which arguably works even better especially for those outside of China although the redmi 3 sports a 5 megapixel front-facing camera you unfortunately can't really rely on it if you're counting on capturing quality selfies there's no capacitive key backlighting at the bottom but there is a multicolored notification LED which is certainly nice to have with the downsize from 5.5 inches on the note 3 to 5 inches on the 3 there also comes a resolution drop from 1080p to 720p 720p is definitely still respectable for both the size and the price of the redmi 3 and perhaps most interestingly the redmi 3 seems to offer better contrast and saturation than the note 3 on the other hand there does appear to be a minor amount of color shift when viewing the display at certain angles also while the adaptive brightness feature worked very well during our testing we found it difficult to view the redmi 3 display in direct sunlight which may be problematic for some users under the hood we have an octa-core qualcomm snapdragon 616 processor which offers fairly good performance save for some occasional hiccups like unresponsiveness while typing and the dreaded choppy animations there's also 2 gigabytes of RAM which should be enough for most users looking for a phone in this price category the redmi 3 is able to play most games reasonably well thanks to the adrenal 405 but bear in mind that some high-end games will exhibit frame drops and slow load times however even some games like asphalt 8 run with very little lag so your experience may vary the redmi 3 boast 802 11 and Wi-Fi GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 all of which work just as we had expected it also has a number of cellular bands onboard but you keep in mind that if you are in the US you will be limited to HSPA+ i'm ET in all areas and HSPA+ on t-mobile in most areas it is an unlocked dual SIM device however with one of the SIM slots available for expandable storage up to 128 gigabytes speaking of storage you'll beginning 16 gigabytes of internal storage onboard which should be enough for the majority of users we were pleasantly surprised to find that the redmi 3 is rear speaker is actually fairly loud lv 8 while having a moderate amount of distortion the biggest drawback is arguably its rear facing position which can make the audio sound muffled when the phone is set on a flat surface we were most impressed with the redmi 3 s incredible battery life which we consider to be unprecedented for this form factor there is no doubt that the 4100 milliamp hour battery 720p display and conservative processor up the phone reach very high screen on times even after 2 days of use virtually every user will have no problem achieving a full day of heavy use and then some while light use could translate to 2 to 3 full days without a charge the redmi 3 is 13 megapixel f 2.0 rear camera is able to produce reasonably good looking images despite a lack of dynamic range and tendency to over sharpen HDR does help quite a bit but it also takes a few seconds and often makes images look less realistic the u.s. camera app offers a good amount of manual control while still being pretty easy to use you can adjust things like white balance and ISO and manual mode or use a variety of other modes like panorama out of the box the xiaomi redmi 3 runs xiaomi zni ui7 on top of android 5.1.1 lollipop although some have frowned upon its iOS like design we generally enjoyed our time with me UI and we're very happy with the overall amount of polish that can be found throughout the UI feels easy to use but also offers a commendable amount of customization and extra features which will appeal to android enthusiasts not only does it offer features like car according and scheduled battery profile changes but it also allows users to change things like the notification LED color and the size of the one handed mode display we should mention however that getting Google Apps in the Chinese ROM is an extra step and a global variants along with a global ROM has yet to be released also Xiaomi has decided to start locking the boot loaders and many of their devices to our dismay the complicated process for unlocking the bootloader in order to override potentially malicious reseller roms with stock roms is deplorable Xiaomi is requiring users to apply for unlocking privileges and await an acceptance or denial response which Xiaomi says can take up to ten days to receive to be clear we are in favor of the more secure locked boot loaders but we feel that shelby's process for unlocking only invites malware to be preloaded on devices leaving China as users will now have a very tough time removing it in addition we are not expecting any Android OS updates for this phone which may disappoint some users however we should also note that me UI does receive updates of its own which are released relatively frequently the xiaomi redmi 3 is now available in silver gray or gold within China for $6.99 rum and B or about $108 do keep in mind however that resellers tend to markup that price from anywhere from 140 to 160 dollars for that price it's very difficult to complain about the redmi 3 after all it's one of the best phones that we've used in this price category and it's excellent design great software and crazy good battery life greatly overshadow its flaws while its mediocre camera lack of u.s. 4G LTE support and locked bootloader troubles may be disappointing the redmi 3 provides a level of value that we simply have not come to expect at this price point with that said unless you have an unusually tight budget one a smaller form factor or really need the extra battery life we recommend its older brother the redmi note 3 with its higher resolution display faster processor still great battery life and a fingerprint reader for only $30 more in China and even less through resellers thank you so much for watching our video review of the xiaomi redmi 3 if you have any questions about this device or anything else Android related feel free to hit us up on snapchat to have a chance at being featured in our upcoming snapchat Q&A show finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage is we are your source for all things Android