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Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime Review

There has been stiff competition from the sub-Rs. 10,000 segment, and most of smartphones launched lately within this price band have great specifications. This year particularly has been a good website for Indian consumers trying to find budget phones, as companies are racing to make available more on the cheap.

Xiaomi, which includes had a great run inside the Indian smartphone market using the well-received Redmi Note 3 (Review) and Mi Max (Review), is maintaining the pace with a brand new smartphone priced below Rs. 10,000. The Xiaomi Redmi 3S and Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime will be the company's latest tries to strengthen its position inside the segment, plus they both also tout the 'Made in India' label. Since its debut in India couple of years ago, Xiaomi has were able to earn a history of offering great smartphone hardware at cheap pricing, and the new models making the effort to stay true to that formula.

Both the Redmi 3S variants sport all-metal bodies and pack large batteries. We got our on the job the Redmi 3S Prime, which provides more RAM, more space for storage, plus a fingerprint scanner for any small price increase. Does the brand new Redmi 3S Prime offer great value, or can it just possibly be a smaller version in the Redmi Note 3? We try to learn in our review.

Look and feel

When we first saw the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime, it looks like a mini Redmi Note 3 from practically every angle. Xiaomi phones have learned to look quite similar in design. For the company, this might be a method to establish a linear look throughout its product portfolio but sadly and this Samsung did two years ago which consists of Galaxy smartphones, and now we weren't fans of the move for very long.

In this situation, the front with the Redmi 3S Prime is practically identical to that in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, apart from the placement on the sensors across the display. We get capacitive Home, Back, and Recents buttons right below the display, and also the sensors and front camera looking at either side on the earpiece just above it. To some extent, this phone also looks inspired with the Mi Max which features an immense 6.44-inch display. However at 8.5mm thick, the Redmi 3S Prime is not as sleek since the more premium Mi Max (Review) and that is just 7.5mm thick.

The rear panel packs the key camera featuring its LED flash, both placed within the upper right corner. The back even offers the fingerprint scanner placed inside the middle. There are thin lines running over the top and bottom with the back with the Redmi 3S Prime, which we've got also seen before about the Redmi Note 3 and Mi Max.

The speaker grille is a the bottom on the back. The physical buttons for volume and power are around the right, even though the hybrid SIM slot is for the left. The phone accepts one Micro-SIM and another Nano-SIM or microSD card for storage. Unfortunately, which means users should choose between an additional SIM plus a microSD card.

There is definitely an infrared emitter and also a 3.5mm audio jack about the top. The bottom features a standard Micro-USB port as well as a microphone. The Redmi 3S Prime sports an all-metal body meaning that the device itself feels premium regardless on the price tag it carries. At 144 grams, the Redmi 3S is slightly heavy to get a budget device, even so the curved sides help it become easy to grip. The extra weight can safely go down to the large battery in the smartphone.

One in the major differences between your Redmi 3S along with the Redmi 3S Prime will be the former doesn't such as a fingerprint scanner. The round sensor at the trunk is very easy to reach and utilize. During our review period, we'd no trouble unlocking it at any time while using the fingerprint scanner. The 5-inch screen makes this phone an easy task to use with one hand, and that is what we did most on the time. We discovered that typing was particularly comfortable.

The Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime ships with power adapter, a SIM eject tool, along with an instruction leaflet. Just like the Redmi Note 3, the Redmi 3S gives bundled earphones a miss, that will be disappointing for a lot of buyers.

Specifications and software

Under the hood, the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime both pack the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 (MMB29) processor, with four cores clocked at 1.1GHz and four cores at 1.4GHz, with an integrated Adreno 505 GPU. Apart through the fingerprint sensor, really the only differences involving the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime would be the amounts of RAM and storage. The Redmi 3S features 2GB of RAM with 16GB of inbuilt storage, as the Redmi 3S Prime has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

At time of their launch, Xiaomi claimed how the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime would be the first smartphones while using all-new new Snapdragon 430 SoC shipping in India. Both models support expandable storage having a microSD card (around 128GB).

The 5-inch IPS display carries a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. Our Redmi 3S Prime review unit's screen was vibrant with sunlight visibility not suffering whatsoever. Xiaomi's Sunlight Display hardware feature, that your Redmi Note 3 sports but is absent within this smartphone, might have further improved legibility under sunshine. The brightness levels within the Redmi 3S Prime were good and colours never looked oversaturated. The viewing angles about the Redmi 3S Prime were also decent as well as the display for parts was fairly sharp and reproduced accurate colours.

For connectivity, the Redmi 3S Prime (and Redmi 3S) support 4G with VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, and Micro-USB. The Redmi 3S Prime is compatible with all LTE bands in India like the FDD LTE Band 3 and Band 5, and also TDD LTE Band 40. Xiaomi notes that after using two SIM cards within the Redmi 3S Prime simultaneously, the principal SIM will support 4G (calls and data) as you move the second SIM will support 3G only.

Another notable feature on the Redmi 3S Prime is its large 4100mAh battery. There's a 13-megapixel rear camera with features like PDAF (phase detection autofocus), f/2.0 aperture, HDR mode, 1080p video recording, plus an LED flash. You also have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera which assists to 1080p video recording.

The device runs MIUI 7.5 which can be based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The skin is really a slightly latest version of what came with all the Redmi Note 3. Unfortunately, you'll not see many Marshmallow features including Now on Tap. The company is anticipated to roll these characteristics out within the next MIUI release.

The dropdown shade is divided into app notifications and quick settings toggles, and thankfully it isn't really cluttered. The option to retort directly from an email notification is slightly confusing. In most Android Marshmallow phones, pulling on the notification expands it, but MIUI, users require to use two fingers, comparable to how you zoom in with an image. In our case, the vast majority of our efforts to expand the notification applying this gesture failed, and that we had to make use of both our hands to utilize it reliably. This was annoying at some level.

On long-pressing your home button, the device launches the Google Now cards automatically. Long pressing the Recents button at your home-screen offers options to add widgets, move icons, affect the wallpaper, and select from animation effects. The Child Mode previously seen about the Mi 5, Mi Max and Redmi Note 3 (Review) is additionally available.

As usual with Xiaomi phones, there isn't a app drawer and many types of icons are placed about the homescreens. Some in the pre-loaded apps include SwiftKey, Amazon, Amazon Kindle, WPS Office, Flipkart, and Facebook. There's also Theme Centre rendering it easy for users to turnover through new themes, wallpaper, and ringtones; Security, which clears RAM and allows you to manage installed apps; Mi Remote which will take advantage on the IR emitter to regulate appliances; and Mi Store, that you can buy more Xiaomi products.

Users get 5GB of free storage whenever they register for any Mi account. We were particularly surprised to discover some with the software enhancements through the premium Mi Max - such as one-handed mode and Quick Ball shortcut menu - included from the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime likewise. Both these functions were introduced for the Mi Max to simplify usage as it was included with a 6.44-inch display.