The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is one of Xiaomi's trump cards to capture the low-mid end market for 2016, being the successor of one of Xiaomi's most popular phones, the Redmi Note. Featuring some very enticing specs at a price that is unbelievable, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 seems to bring most of the right ingredients to become the king of the low end.

But can its real world performance do justice to its beastly specifications? Or is there a catch in this too-good-to-be-true deal? Read along as we find out if the Redmi Note 3 "Pro" can put its money where its mouth is.

Here's a quick look at the spec sheet for the Redmi Note 3:

Dimensions

150 mm x 76 mm x 8.7 mm

Screen Size

5.5"

Weight

164 g

Screen Type & Resolution

IPS LCD, 1080 x 1920, 401 ppi

Primary Camera

16 MP, f/2.0, PDAF

Secondary Camera

5 MP, f/2.0

Chipset

MediaTek Helio X10 MT6795"Pro": Qualcomm Snapdragon 650

CPU & GPU

2.0 GHz Cortex-A53, x8; PowerVR G6200"Pro": 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53, x4+ 1.8 GHz Cortex A-72, x2; Adreno 510

Storage

16GB/32GB Internal;expandable upto 128GB

RAM

2GB/3GB

Battery

4000 mAh Li-Po, non-removable

NFC

No

Android Version

MIUI 7.2,based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop

SIM

Dual, Micro SIM

Fingerprint Scanner

Yes, Rear

IR Blaster

Yes

USB Port & Charging

Micro USBQuick Charging as per QC 1.0

Supported Bands

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900HSDPA: 850/900/1700/1900/2100LTE: Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/38/39/40/41

Contents: IMG_20160414_162221

Design, Build Quality

Xiaomi is no newbie in the smartphone making game, and the Redmi Note 3 is a tribute to the expertise the company has acquired over the years. Moving over the plastic builds from the Redmi Note 2, the Note 3 features a metallic build that grants it a nice heft and leaves no stone unturned in hiding away the true price of the device. No way you can say this is a cheap device, because it certainly does not look cheap.

On the face of it, the Redmi Note 3 would appear as a device sporting a metallic unibody build. The marketing materials sure do point to this as they smoothen out and make the back appear to be made of one material. But, the phone is not all metal and glass. The top and bottom ends of the Note 3 are definitely plastic, but the combination of plastic bits to the metallic back that Xiaomi went for does not easily give it away. The main metal body bears a cool, smooth finish; while the plastic has a glossy finish which is less slippery. This works in the device's favor in two ways: one, Xiaomi has a way to incorporate the antennae needed for radio communication without resorting to plastic band lines; and two, this texture difference makes the device less slippery than an entirely flat, metallic phone would be.

Speaking of flat, the back of the Redmi Note 3 is not entirely flat. It does bear curves at the edges, and these help with the grip of the device considering that it has decent thickness to it, along with a bit of height. In my case, the curved back and rounded corner help in holding the phone, resting on the palm for one handed use.

While we are on the topic of the back of the device, the back also features the rear camera module in the center, with the dual tone LED flash placed horizontally below it. Below these, you will find the fingerprint scanner inset significantly, making it very easy to find without looking at the back. In comparison, the camera module lense as well as the glass on the LED flash are flush with the back, making them vulnerable to scratches. On the bottom end of the back, you will find the Mi logo, along with some self-declaration to comply with Indian government rules. Below this, you will find a drilled grill pattern of which the middle 50% open up to the speaker on the inside.

IMG_20160423_123924

There is also a tiny obtrusion just below the speakers, on the plastic bottom cap. Xiaomi mentioned that this was intentionally placed so that the speakers are not muffled when you place your phone on the back, but in my experience, the device did not show any noticeable gap between the phone and any flat surface because of this lip. It's barely there, and it does not make any difference, positive or negative. Fortunately, it also does not cause any rocking of the device in any direction.

IMG_20160414_143952

Unlike the back, the front bears a very minimalistic look. You get the speaker grill deep inset on the top, along with the ambient light and proximity sensor beside it and the front camera and notification LED following it along. The 5.5" FHD LCD display sits in the middle, and three backlit capacitive buttons are below it. You can remap these to a certain degree for other actions, so you get some choice in the matter even though you can't disable them entirely in lieu of the navigation bar. The front is so clean, you see only see a black slab of glass in the first glance. Focus, and then you can make out the various elements. I really like such a super clean and smooth look for my devices, but your subjective opinion may differ and that is alright.

Interestingly, the Dark Grey color of the Redmi Note 3 does not bear the black border bezel around the display, since the entire front of the device is black. This gives a very uniform color and a clean, distraction-free look to the device that I really appreciate. Bezels are necessary, I get it, but it is the choice of coloring which decides if it becomes a distraction or something you'd never notice. In contrast, the Silver and the Gold color variants have matching colored front, but with the black bezel border around them. If these are a distraction to you, I would suggest to opt for the Dark Grey color variant which has an all-black front.

Moving on to the sides of the device, you get the microphone hole and the headphone jack on the top left and the IR blaster on the top right. The left side bears only the slot for the hybrid SIM + micro SD card combination, and is otherwise devoid of any buttons or marking. The bottom side bears the primary microphone hole and the micro USB connector on the left (and not on the middle, as a lot of phones tend to go for). The right side of the device gets the volume rockers towards the top and the power button below it. These have the same texture as the rest of the metal back, so you may occasionally have an issue hitting the correct button in the first try. Otherwise, these are good stiff with a sufficient press and have absolutely no wiggle or sideways travel to them.

Before we move on, the box contents of the Redmi Note 3 are very minimal. You get a standard USB to micro USB data cable, a power adapter rated at 5V/2A of output, a SIM removal tool and some documentation. An important message in the documentation, relating to the SIM slots, is that the Redmi Note 3 does not support dual-4G. If one SIM has 4G/3G/2G, the second SIM will only be restricted to 2G. Also to mention, the Redmi Note 3 does not have NFC in it.

IMG_20160414_161749

For its dimensions, the Redmi Note 3 has a very typical setup as you come to see in 5.5" phones. The phone is a tad bit smaller than the OnePlus One, and is almost as thick. But the Redmi Note 3 bears a larger battery, an improvement of over 1,000 mAh in pure capacity as compared to the OnePlus One. As a result, it feels more dense and heavy even though the phone is just 2 grams heavier than the OnePlus One. The curves on the phone make it feel more smaller than the difference in pure dimensions, and the Redmi Note 3 can be used one-handed better than the OnePlus One.

The Redmi Note 3 is one of the best built phones I have owned. Holding the phone, you certainly do not feel as if this is a $150 phone. It kills all the other devices in my collection, considering how much this phone retails for. With a weight of 164 grams, the Redmi Note 3 is a tad bit heavier than the OnePlus One (162 grams), but bears slightly smaller device dimensions overall and a 33% increase in battery capacity. As a result, the Redmi Note 3 feels really solid in the hand, but not blocky either due to its curved side profile. There is no creaking or noticeable bending, no noticeable gaps, no other hardware issues. It's just a well built phone altogether, a rarity for phones from Chinese manufacturers (although our review unit was manufactured in India as part of Xiaomi and the Indian government's "Make in India" initiatives).

The Redmi Note 3 has an air of confidence to it. You can hold the phone without a case and not be terrified of dropping it. It is not a "tough" phone, but it certainly has that air to it. It is slightly slippery as smooth finish metal phones tend to be, but I haven't had any incidents of it slipping out of my hand or off the table or any slight incline. Overall, I am very satisfied with the package Xiaomi has put together in terms of build quality and design and have no significant complaints.

Software UI & Features

The Redmi Note 3 bears MIUI 7.2.3.0 based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. We have done an extensive, comprehensive review of MIUI 7 on the Redmi Note 3, so check that out!

I did find some smaller annoyances after the review section. Mainly, I could not find any setting to turn off Android's Spell Checker, and that the brightness slider compulsorily needs the finger to be at the current level before the slider can be dragged, which can be difficult to do when you can't see what is on the screen.

Continue to Page 2 -- Performance

Performance and Memory

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 actually comes in two processor variants. At first, there was the MediaTek Helio X10 based variant, which was a good low/mid end performer by itself. Bearing an octa-core setup with 8x Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.16 GHz, the Helio X10 MT6795 is based on MediaTek's 28nm manufacturing process and claims to be "true octa core" i.e. employing all eight of the cores for the most intensive of tasks. At the $150 price tag of the Redmi Note 3, the Helio X10 makes a very good choice as compared to going for the other mid/low end processors like the MT6753, MT6755 Helio P10 or even going for the infamous for its thermal throttling, the Snapdragon 615.

Now, the Redmi Note 3 on the Helio X10 would not have been a bad choice for a starter smartphone. But, Xiaomi went and tried to one up itself by going for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 in the same chassis! Xiaomi still refers to this model as the same Redmi Note 3, but the fans started calling it the Redmi Note 3 Pro. We will still stick to the official name of the device as on the box, but append it with the SoC wherever needed.

The Snapdragon 650 is a hexa-core SoC. If you go by pure numbers, the Helio X10 has more number of cores (eight), but the Snapdragon 650 has a much better setup within six cores. The Snapdragon 650 (28nm HPm process) runs on a dual cluster setup, with 4x Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.2GHz and 2x Cortex-A72 clocked at 1.8GHz. The A53 cluster is meant for light-weight and regular-working tasks, which is a good choice keeping in mind its efficiency as compared to the A72's. The A72 cluster comes alive when you need to push the device, outputting more power with lesser heat generation than a cluster of A53 would have by themselves. The result? You get the best of both low power consumption for daily tasks as well as raw performance when you need it.

The Snapdragon 650 was earlier called the Snapdragon 618, but Qualcomm decided that it was too much of a change from its predecessors to really be part of the same SoC group. From the theoretical point of view, the rename is well justified. Afterall, the popular Snapdragon 615 which is seen on a lot of phones from 2015 like the Motorola Moto G3 Turbo, Moto X Play, ASUS ZenFone Selfie, HTC Desire 820 and others, is an octa-core processor but with a dual cluster setup composed of Cortex-A53's only! The Snapdragon 615's setup is 4x Cortex A-53 clocked at 1.7 GHz and 4x Cortex-A53 clocked at 1 GHz. The lower clocked cluster was to be relied upon for daily tasks, while the higher clocked cluster was intended for performance scenarios. In reality, the Snapdragon 615 suffered from heavy thermal throttling because of such a setup (particularly since these are low-power cores), as the phone would start degrading in performance as soon as it starts hitting a certain heat threshold, which it tended to do very frequently and quickly.

The Snapdragon 650 improves not only from its predecessor and its competition, but it actually improves upon Qualcomm's yesteryear flagship SoC's! The Snapdragon 650 is claimed to be better than the Snapdragon 808 as well as the Snapdragon 810 (overall, and when accounting for throttling), and it is not even a top-tier flagship SoC by itself!

When compared to the Snapdragon 808, the CPU setup is the same core setup, but the GPU on the 808 is worse with the Adreno 418 handling this end of things. In comparison, the Snapdragon 650 sports the newer and better Adreno 510. When compared to the Snapdragon 810's 4x Cortex-A57 plus 4x Cortex-A53, the SD 650 still has the upper hand with its A72 cluster for performance. Not to mention, the SD 810 was infamous for its heating issues and was often relegated to being a poor upgrade from the SD 808 itself (which was bad because of its bad GPU but was better on the CPU setup). Both of these, the SD 808 and the SD 810, were manufactured on a 20nm process, but still drew plenty of flak for their performance.

So far, we have pointed out only theoretically that the Snapdragon 650 can perform. But can it perform? The answer to this is, yes, it definitely can.

The Snapdragon 650 backs its theoretical performance claims with some impressive benchmark scores as well.

The Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant handles low effort scenarios perfectly, and does very well with more extensive tasks as well. The SD 650 breezes through just about anything you throw on it. As someone who has owned mostly low and mid end devices, the performance on the SD 650 is the best I have personally owned so far. To think, this device costs $150, a fraction of any of my other devices, including the ones from Chinese OEMs. Daily tasks never show any hiccups, outside of multitasking (which we will touch upon more in a while). There is no stutter in the UI anywhere, no frame drops, no jerking: it just works and continues working even with 50 apps installed. MIUI is aggressive on multitasking, but I have had 3 IM apps, my email client and several other apps that rely on periodic syncing or GCM push, and the phone still never breaks a sweat anywhere.

And when you do start pushing the phone, such as scenarios like benchmarks, the Snapdragon 650 continues on its impressive form. The benchmark scores are very good for a low end, and competitive in the mid end. You can compete with some of yesteryears flagships on benchmark scores, if that is your thing. Through all of these benchmarks, the Redmi Note 3 remains as cool as it was when it started. There is no heat buildup on the phone chassis, and because of this, there is no thermal throttling. To attest to this, the benchmark scores are very uniform (with minor unavoidable variations) on repeated attempts and do not skew for or against thermal throttling.

When it comes to GPU, the Redmi Note 3 Helio X10 variant bears the PowerVR G6200 while the SD 650 variant bears the new Adreno 510. Our review unit is the SD 650 variant, and the Adreno 510 in it does not disappoint. It is one of the latest GPU to come from Qualcomm's stable and delivers beastly performance for the target price point of the SoC.

There are no frame drops on games for the most part. Even heavier titles like Need For Speed: No Limits and Modern Combat 5 have no trouble hitting their capped 30 fps during actual gameplay. The Snapdragon 650 flies through all games, and the Redmi Note 3 is a pleasure to game on. This is one of the best smartphones at 5.5" that you can purchase right now if you are on a limited budget but would still like to game. I can churn out an hour of NFS: No Limits, and the device barely gets warm. Less intensive sessions show no signs of noticeable heat generation, an aspect of the device I was very surprised with. I fully expected the phone to get hot, considering its price tag and the heavy work it would be put through, but it just works and works. I am grasping at straws to have anything to complain about in the gaming aspect of the device, because it is easily the best device I have personally owned that could be such a joy to kill time on. And I am not even considering the price of the device when I say this.

However, the multitasking performance on the Redmi Note 3 is its Achilles Heel. It is that one point on the device that is an absolute let down, no matter which side of the fence you come from. Our review unit is the 2GB RAM variant, and it is outright horrible for multitasking. The problem is so bad that I could not run GameBench (used above for measuring performance in games) along with a game for 15 minutes to get an estimate for battery life: GameBench would close within 2-5 mins of the game running. And this happens with most of the heavy titles. You can have Ingress and Music playing in the background, but if you go to the Music app, Ingress will close. If you choose to reply to an IM, Ingress or any other game will close completely (instead of minimizing, as several games tend to do). Even outside of games, you can at most switch between 3-4 apps before the first one resets! If you start with a clean slate (i.e clear all apps), you can reach around 8 apps before you start seeing webpages getting reloaded and apps losing their positions.

Part of the blame falls on the 2GB of RAM on the device -- this is one of the defining "low end" characteristics in this otherwise pseudo-mid end device. The other part of the blame lies on MIUI and its aggressiveness with how it handles memory. Right out of the box, the 2GB RAM variant hovers around 1.3GB of RAM blocked by system processes and preloaded apps, so it's a very cramped room to begin with. There's also preloaded "RAM cleaners", but thankfully, these are not preconfigured as well. Nonetheless, the combination of less hardware memory with how MIUI likes things in the background (it doesn't), defines the lowest point of the Redmi Note 3. The 3GB RAM should be able to perform better, but I doubt it can compete against any of my other devices that run an OS closer to stock Android.

The theoretical performance of the Redmi Note 3 SD 650 variant is strong, and the practical performance backs it for the most part. This device is a beast, and Xiaomi has managed to tame it well for the average user. Whether you are someone who games for hours on end, or whether you want something to let you call up your children, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 can and will deliver. It's Single Tasking game is very strong and up to point, but the 2GB variant did skip Multitasking Day.

Continue to Page 3 -- Display, Audio & Camera

Display

The Redmi Note 3 boasts of a 5.5" IPS LCD display with an FHD 1920 x 1080 resolution, giving it a pixel density of 403 ppi, which is very standard and average in the current market but nothing to complain about really.

Redmi Note 3 on the Left, OnePlus One on the right. In the last image, the Elephone P8000 is on the left, Redmi Note 3 in the middle and OnePlus One on the right:

The display itself on the Redmi Note 3 is of good quality. Although color reproduction on the device is good and there is no shifting except at extreme angles, color saturation is a notch above average for LCD displays when compared to my other devices. You can tweak a few settings for the display, mainly display temperature and contrast levels, but the default settings will be sufficient for the average consumer.

The Redmi Note 3's strong points in the display department lie with its maximum and minimum brightness. The maximum on the Redmi Note 3 is high, while the minimum is very low. The combination of these extremes gives you a wider spectrum of display brightness to peruse. The maximum brightness on the device, and even the auto brightness settings, make the phone comfortable to use outdoor. The minimum on the device is simply fantastically low, so much that you do not need any other external filter at all in the night (although MIUI also has a reading mode for filtering out blue light). The minimum beats my OnePlus One, and is quite impressive to say the least.

Not to be mistaken, this is still a LCD display and not AMOLED, so the benefits of pure blacks and higher color saturation are elusive. But for $150, the display on the Redmi Note 3 is not the part of the phone that Xiaomi skimped on.

Audio

Audio experience on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has been a satisfactory experience overall. The headphone jack up top can do justice to most starter earphones and headphones, delivering crispy clarity up to mid volume levels. Xiaomi's software implementation in MIUI has presets to choose from if you have earphones from Xiaomi, but my observations were limited to the standard vanilla profile.

The speakers on the Redmi Note 3 are on the back. The "lip" obtrusion on the back, intended to help keep the phone up from the desk, does not make any difference, since the speaker experience with the screen up is muffled and distorted. Loudness, however, is not a problem when you hold the phone in your hand since it is adequately loud for personal viewing. Noisy social environments may have you struggling, since the highest volume settings are unfavorable to the quality of audio.

Calls on the Redmi Note 3 are perfect though. Whether they be on the loudspeaker, through the front earpiece or from the audio jack, I faced no issues in any scenario. The Redmi Note 3 has two microphone holes, one at the top and one at the bottom, and they are sufficient for your calling needs. Assuming both the parties are under ideal network conditions, you should not face any problems with call quality, call volume or noise. Further, since the phone also performs very cool most of the time, you would have no problem gaming for an hour and then picking up the phone to your ear for a call. If you use your phone for calling, the Redmi Note 3 serves the purpose as every smartphone should.

Camera

The Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant bears a 16 MP rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture. This is unfortunately the area where the price of the phone becomes apparent. The sensor on this device is Samsung's ISOCELL S5K3P3 and is complemented with PDAF for focusing. I have reviewed several ISOCELL-based cameras on smartphones in the past, such as the OnePlus X and the Elephone P8000, and the camera on the Redmi Note 3 shows several of the same limitations as found on those earlier devices.

ISOCELL sensors perform decently under good lighting conditions, and take a big hit when the lights are not in your favor. This sensor is like a déjà-vu from my previous devices, as the only improvement I can see is with focusing. Focusing is particularly snappy in good lighting, and photo capture is almost instantaneous (and a quick 1s in HDR). Under poor lighting, the sensor can figure out the presence of objects, but it fails to capture an image that would be worth sharing on social media. There's noise and abnormal loss of detail when you zoom in. Dynamic range in standard mode is poor, and in HDR, it just helps out with shadow areas while butchering lighted areas. In some images, I could see tinting towards the edges, which seems like a software issue as this is not constant and difficult to reproduce. The front selfie camera works well for portraits, with a few beauty mode settings thrown into the mix.

For videos, the Redmi Note 3 can capture 1080p content at 30fps, but bears no forms of stabilization (no OIS, nor EIS). Further, there does not seem to be any forms of noise cancellation either, so videos tend to pick up a lot of wind gusts and background noise as can be apparent in the video sample below. Colors also appear washed out with poor saturation. Overall, the video experience is very atypical of a phone in the low budget category.

The camera UI on the Redmi Note 3, and MIUI by extension, is robustly built with a lot of features for the average user, albeit not too many manual options for those who care enough.

On the main screen, you get a big shutter button on the right, with gallery and video recorder options above and below it. There are three quick settings for flash, HDR and front camera. The flash Quick Setting changes to Beauty Mode options when you switch to the front camera. The front camera can also be accessed with a sideways sweep. Sweeping up while in landscape in the rear camera capture mode. Swiping down brings out a host of filter options to be applied before capture, including some fancy filters like Sketch, Mosaic, Blur and Mirror. Swiping up on the main camera pane brings out different shooting modes, like Scene Mode, Fish Eye, Tilt Shift and even Manual. Speaking of manual, the default non-manual mode only allows you to control the brightness of the image after focus by circling around the focus area. The Manual Mode lets you choose White Balance and ISO levels, but that's about that. We wish there were more manual controls in the Manual Control mode.

Overall, the camera experience on the Redmi Note 3 would suffice the needs for basic consumers. You can get interesting shots thanks to the filters present in MIUI, but the hardware itself is nothing to write home about. However, for a $150 device, it does a comparatively good job.

Continue to Page 4 -- Battery Life/ Charging, Future Proofing & Development, Conclusion

Fingerprint Sensor

The Redmi Note 3 bears a fingerprint sensor on the rear of the device in a circular form factor, and as we have come to expect from sensors even in this price range, it works very well. Once you get used to the positioning and depth of the sensor relative to the phone's body, unlocking the phone with your index finger would become second nature. The phone is particularly quick in recognizing fingerprints in any orientation, and does so with the screen unlocked. The fingerprint sensor implementation is on Android 5.1.1, so MIUI has leveraged other ways to make use of the fingerprint sensor like using it to lock access to external apps.

To be honest, the Redmi Note 3's fingerprint sensor and functionality are very good, but most Chinese phones have nailed this aspect of the phone, so this is not the feature that sets it apart from other phones with fingerprint sensors. Is it 100% accurate? No, there are some instances (difficult to reproduce due to inexplicable variables) where the sensor just spazzes out and would keep declining the fingerprint in succession. During these outbursts, even if you tried n number of times, the scanner will not recognize until you either let the screen timeout and relock the device, or you manually enter the PIN/Pattern/Password. Such outbreaks are thankfully very rare and far in between, so this is an anomalous behavior instead of the norm.

Battery & Charging

If you purchased the Redmi Note 3 and expected average battery life, then you couldn't be more wrong. In a good sense! The Redmi Note 3 is an absolute beast when it comes to battery life. The Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant packs in a non-removable 4,000 mAh battery, which is above the market average for phones of this size. And the Redmi Note 3 just shines!

Let's look at all the ingredients involved in the Redmi Note 3: you have the Snapdragon 650 with its 4x Cortex-A53 cores for power efficient working cases, you get a standard 5.5" FHD LCD display which is a tried and test combination for displays but with very wide range of screen brightness, there's a substantially large capacity battery in terms of physical size, and then there's MIUI 7 on Android 5.1.1. which follows a heavy hand with regards background applications. This cocktail combination makes for impressive battery life!

We asked users on our Twitter to guess the phone when we posted the above screenshot with the almost 16 hour battery life. Most guesses that came in were for phones that were advertised as heavy battery phones, mainly devices that go above the 5,ooo mAh capacity mark. But this was achieved on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant. The insane 15 hour 52 mins benchmark score represents the time estimated by PCMark on minimum brightness with WiFi and cellular data switched off, but cell network operating as normal. PCMark had to run for approximately 14 hours to loop a bunch of tasks designed to test the efficiency of the device's performance, as well as see the impact on battery. We see some impressive results on maximum brightness and WiFi and Sync turned on as well, as PCMark estimates the Redmi Note 3 to last 8 hours of repetitive cycle of work.

[One thing to note, the gradual rise in temperature that PCMark displays is because of change in room temperature during the course of the day and is not caused by the device or any of its internal factors.]

Benchmarks aside, the Redmi Note 3 is as good in battery in real world usage as you would expect. I easily ended my work days with 50%+ battery left without compromising my workflow. The backup in the battery gives a level of confidence, knowing that 10 mins of some game won't kill your device. I never needed the charger anywhere in the middle of the day, and I realized that I may be able to squeeze by another day of usage if I ever forgot to juice up in the night. Night standby drain is never more than 1-2%. These figures are what I used to achieve on other devices after employing Xposed modules and apps to minimize battery drain. But on the Redmi Note 3, MIUI 7 on Android 5.1.1 did all of that without needing to dabble into the mod side of things, just as any normal user would use the phone.

When it comes to charging though, the Redmi Note 3 is not so fantastic. The device ships with a 5V/2A charger for charging equivalent to first generation Quick Charge. You also do not get wireless charging, so you are stuck with conventional forms of powering up this humongous battery. The battery goes up by 11-12% charge every 15 mins from a dead state, taking more than an hour to reach 50%. After that, it starts tapering off again, with a complete 100% charge taking more than two and half hours. It is a good thing that the battery lasts as it does once charged up, otherwise this would have been a very harrowing process to undertake everyday. We wish there was some form of quicker charging, but considering the budget range of the phone, we will not hold this against it.

Rootability & Future Proofing

When it comes to future proofing, Xiaomi has a very different way of doing things. Even in 2016, the Redmi Note 3 is launched with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. When you look at it as a pure number game, the Redmi Note 3 severely languishes behind, since a lot of Chinese competitors are releasing phones with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. But, the Redmi Note 3 is still updated very frequently.

So what is this update that happens frequently but the device still remains on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop? That is MIUI for you.

Screenshot_2016-04-27-02-26-01_com.android.settings

Even within my two weeks of usage of the device, I have already received a huge 1GB OTA for MIUI for build LOHMIDA from build LOHMICL. This update still did not upgrade my base OS, and is significantly large for a simple bug fix collection. The update notification did not offer a changelog which was frustrating, and my usage on LOHMICL was a matter of hours before the notification arrived, so I had not much of a chance to play around pre-update.

Now, if you analyze, the common reasons on why users want to upgrade from Lollipop to Marshmallow is to get the refined design language in Android 6.0. There's the Fingerprint API that allows OEMs to easily support a fingerprint scanner without having to build their own framework. Then there's Doze, which promises great standby battery life. And there's also the wish to be on the latest of Android Security Patches, just so that you are not exposed to vulnerabilities from versions ago.

And with MIUI, you get a lot of these already on MIUI 7, or simply don't need them to begin with. The UX of MIUI is completely different, MIUI already has a fingerprint framework in place (though Android 6.0's API would be superior since it opens up the fingerprint sensor to external app usage). Battery life is already top notch with MIUI and the Redmi Note 3. And for security updates, the LOHMIDA build puts the Redmi Note 3 at February's security patch level, which is better when compared to any other Chinese device on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

But this still does not excuse the device not being on Android 6.0. The Xiaomi Mi 5, which is Xiaomi's flagship for 2016 and released a few months later, comes with MIUI 7 on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. Xiaomi has had a few months to update the MediaTek and Snapdragon variants of the Redmi Note 3, but there seems to be no word on the update. With MIUI 8 around the corner, there might be a jump directly onto MIUI 8 (which will very likely be built atop Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow). But since no official update or statement is available for the update, there does not look like there will be much activity on this end. After all, it is natural for the company to concentrate more on their flagship and recent releases rather than on a starter phone so to speak. We do hope that the phone will receive two years of update support within MIUI as well as within Android versions.

With the status of the official updates being a question mark as of now, we move on to unofficial updates. How is the development scene of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3?

Not bad, actually. However, a few issues in the past continue to plague the device, and as such, the overall development scene elicits a mixed bag of feelings.

Starting off, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 does have a its own forum place on XDA-Developers. This sub forum serves as a common resting area for both the MediaTek variant (Hennessy) and the Snapdragon variant (Kenzo). Development areas for the versions are segregated in an attempt to avoid confusion, while thread OPs are advised to follow a naming scheme when the device variant matters. The software (ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries) are not interchangeable, so a distinction was strongly needed.

So, with the forums existing, how does one start modding the device? This is where the roadblock and the development choke point exists: the unlocking procedure. We highlighted the issue in a previous article, where we mentioned what the problem was, and why it was flawed. The same scenes exist now: you need to apply for a bootloader unlock code from Xiaomi, and getting one can take a few weeks.

Yes, the bootloader can be unlocked relatively easily if you read the official forum guide on unlocking the bootloader. The problem is with requesting for the unlock code. I made a mistake of not applying for the unlock code as soon as I got the device, but I did end up applying for a code almost a week ago (April 20, 2016 at 1.30 am IST). As of writing this, (April 28, 2016 at 12.30 am IST), I have yet to receive permission from Xiaomi to unlock my bootloader. This certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth for someone so used to root and Xposed, and definitely is an area where the Redmi Note 3 lacks from the POV of an XDA'er.

Once you do have the unlock code, all you have to do is download and install the Mi Flash Unlocking tool and press unlock. And that's it. This point is straightforward and quite easy frankly, but its reliance on the step before it makes it unlikely that one would have the forethought to apply for a bootloader unlock 10 days before planning to unlock.

Of course, this is XDA. So an unofficial bootloader unlock method also exists. There are several of these guides in the XDA forums, and they are a tad bit difficult to follow. I had to read it a few times to correctly understand the procedure, so I reckon that first time Android beginners would find that it makes no sense and might be intimidated by the complicated nature of it. The procedure involves flashing a Fastboot ROM through Mi Tool with your phone in edl mode, which then lets you unlock the bootloader with a fastboot oem unlock-go command. After that, it is easier as you have to flash TWRP through fastboot and you are on your way.

Once you install TWRP, any future OTAs will fail to install on the device. You will have to edit the zip to make it flashable on your device. This, along with the possibility of a Marshmallow-based stock ROM OTAs in the future, have made me stay away from trying out the unofficial methods. Other forum members have had varying degrees of success depending on how well they followed instructions, with a good majority having unlocked successfully.

The 3rd party ROM and kernel scene for the Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon variant looks good. There is official TWRP 3.0 for the device, and I could see WIP builds for unofficial CM 13 and CM 12.1 as well as a few other popular AOSP based ROMs. Seeing that the Snapdragon 650 variant is about two months old, the development progress looks good for a low-end device. There are bugs in the builds, but the fact that you can remove MIUI completely from the device gives me hope on running the latest version of Android without needing Xiaomi's help.

Kernel source code for the Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant has also been released by Xiaomi. Developers have successfully compiled (bootable) kernels from it as well.

Final Thoughts

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant is one of the most powerful low end devices in the market right now, if not THE most powerful sub-$150 device. Even if you ignore the price for a while, the Redmi Note 3 is an all-round package for the average consumer. It packs in just about everything that an average consumer could care for.

You get a well built metal phone, a good 5.5" display, a fingerprint scanner that works for the most part. These are things that you can easily find in other Chinese devices and are not what sets this phone apart. What does set it apart is the powerful Snapdragon 650 processor inside, the humongous battery and the insane battery life, the MIUI UX which is far more polished than what it started out as. Then there are a few smaller extras, such as the IR Blaster which is something that even flagships skimp out on, the thermal efficiency of the device, and an overall smartphone package that will suit and work for the average consumer.

But, as is with every phone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is not perfect. It has its limitations: a mediocre-at-best camera experience, poor multitasking capabilities, lack of NFC and quick charging. And then there's MIUI, which you can subjectively detest as well, just as you can grow to like it. The 3rd party developer scene for the device is also a mixed bag, so there's no clear consensus on the hackability of this phone.

The strongest point of the phone is not that it is a complete package. The strongest part of the phone is its price. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant retails in the Indian market for Rs. 9,999 ($150, €133) for the 16GB Storage | 2GB RAM variant, and Rs. 11,999 ($180, €160) for the 32GB Storage | 3GB RAM variant. For this price, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 absolutely slaughters the competition. There is no device in the Indian market right now that I could recommend which one-ups the Redmi Note 3. Sure, some devices are better in some respect than the Redmi Note 3, but they then lose out unfavorably in several other areas.

Some of the Redmi Note 3's competition include low end devices like the LeEco Le 1S (comparatively inferior Helio X10 SoC, smaller battery, but USB Type C and costs Rs. 10,999 ($165)), and some of the previous low/mid end devices like the Motorola Moto G3 2015 (outdated Snapdragon 410 SoC, several other limitations but upgradeable to Android 6.0 Marshmallow and costs Rs. 10,999 ($165)). Even if you start moving upwards in the budget, towards devices like the Motorola Moto G3 Turbo (Rs. 12,499; $190), the OnePlus X (Rs. 14,999; $225) and start going beyond these as well, you would be hard pressed to find a package as convincing as the Redmi Note 3.

There is one last catch to the device: flash sales. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 is sold in India through the flash sales model via Xiaomi's website. As expected for such a strong value smartphone, the phone has been selling out in mere seconds in the last few flash sales, making it naturally very difficult to get your hands onto this smartphone. We hope that Xiaomi is able to scale up its supply to account for the demand of the device and get away from the flash sales model which is a very harrowing process for a potential consumer.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon 650 variant bears all the right ingredients to please all the needs and expectations of a consumer opting for sub-$200 phone. In fact, the Redmi Note 3 stands shoulder-to-shoulder to even the mid end of the market. This phone is truly Xiaomi's trump card in capturing the Indian low end market, and if they can expand their supply while the demand is still raging hot, they might just be able to.

From my end as a reviewer, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 gets a thumbs up as a device to be recommended to the average Joe in early 2016. This also makes for a good choice for an international XDA-Developers Member if they can work past the probable lack of 4G LTE bands for their country and at the roadblocks in the developer scene; and can actually purchase the Snapdragon 650 variant. However, I would not recommend going for the base 2GB RAM model if you can avoid it. The 3GB RAM variant with the Snapdragon 650 SoC is the phone you shouldn't mind loosening up another $30 for.

I'll continue to enjoy the Redmi Note 3, but I wish my bootloader unlock code was here already.