By now, we all have heard of xiaomi. If you haven’t, you will know. You may check out their website here at www.mi.com.my
So, two months ago, i’ve posted about my new baby rosy (note 3) which is my personal phone and then I was using my old s3 as my work phone which ended up with issues. (it kept restarting by itself non-stop like it’s on loop) so i couldn’t do much work. Hence decided to sell it off and get a cheaper decent phone. I was actually looking at the asus zen5 or zen6 which was cheaper and also decent enough. Until one day i say xiaomi’s ad on Facebook and just randomly clicked knowing the mi3 is out of my budget cz it’s at least 769MYR. but, when i went into the website i saw that they actually had the redmi note at only 509. no joke!
So i started looking at the specs, checking our reviews everywhere and even on youtube comparison and etc etc. Even asked my friends who had the mi3. So on Hari Raya they had their opening sales which usually [apparently] 5000 units will be sold out within minutes or even seconds! So i decided to give it a shot.
well, I WAS DAMN LUCKY! Actually when i was reading up some reviews they had some trick to do it quick. You have to pre-sign in earlier and make sure you’re on the page. And start refreshing 5 minutes before the opening time. cause who knows your clock may be later. LOL. And while i was refreshing i was just staring at the “out of stock” button. Once it changed to “add to cart” i quickly clicked it. And oh yea. i wrote all my details onto notes then i just copy paste into the form. LOL.YES I BOUGHT IT.
Okay, anywhere. Here is the review.
So asides having the brand name, it has an 8 core processor at 1.75GHz and other technical stuff that apparently is just faster than a cheap phone.
The battery capacity is 3100mAh.
Now, some people have asked me why didn’t i get the mi3. Asides the budget, it’s also the size and the battery. I guess after you are using a note3, any other phone smaller would just look small.
So the redmi Note comes in
5.5inch display
IPS by the whole assembly process
1280×720
multitouch
5.5inch display
IPS by the whole assembly process
1280×720
multitouch
see a comparison between note3 and redmi note
It runs on Android optimised with MIUI [Miui is amazing. I think i'll need another post about just that]
Full Specs of the Redmi Note
Now, what are my thoughts about it?
1. I was damn excited and i was waiting for it the whole week. It took 5 working days to arrive to me despite the Hari Raya holidays. well, Chinese don’t really bother about Hari Raya and no holiday for them right?
2. It reminded me of my iPhone 3gs. The plastic back cover along with the curvy edges. And yes, the removable back cover is a plus point.
3. I like the over MIUI system. It’s like iOS combined with Android. you could see in the image above how the redminote arrangement and the apps and theme format is like the iPhone. Where you can place widgets like the Android.
4. The no home screen button (replaced with a touch button) is very different to me. Interested indeed.
5. It has a very nice grip and the resolution of the screen is amazing.
6. I wouldn’t say this is an AMAZING phone and start telling you what special features it can do. But i can say “it’s like an iPhone, just bigger and cheaper“. So what is it that you are looking for in a phone? If you want all those fancy stuff like air gesture or smart stay or hologram or finger print scanning or air command and all that, you better stick with samsung. But ask yourself, how often do you actually use those?
7. Battery life is amazing. Despite it being my WORK PHONE. from 9am till 7pm i still have 50% battery after whole day of texting, calling, what sapping and internet browsing as well. (see comparison below)
See how the display of the theme and apps are? Like iPhone right? LOL. Well, I took this screenshot at 11.33pm at night as you can see. And see the green line above? That tiny green horizontal line. That’s my battery bar. LOL. So you can see it shows about 50% or maybe more. Could be like 55%. You can have the option of having the standard battery icon with the percentage. But this was different. LOL.
Even with the note3’s extra 100mAh at 3200mAh, at the end of the day, 11.33pm at night, i only have 16% left of battery usage. Wel, previously i thought even having 16% was amazing enough. But now the redmi wins. This is also because samsung has a lot of features like air command, air gesture, motion gestures and all those, If you turn those off the battery wouldn’t be used up so quickly as well. (extra tip for you)
The thickness of the phone isn’t too bad. It weighs 199g and has a depth of 9.4mm
I’ve got a colleague who actually asked me “eh? Can use in malaysia meh?” cause she thought that xiaomi’s phone being a china phone would be in chinese and there wouldn’t be any english or it would be insufficient. but no she’s not. So her question might come across some of your minds. It’s the same as any android or iOS phones. it runs on google play store. cause it is actually on ANDROID, it’s just that the default theme is modified.
Many people have also asked me “eh! Nice to use ar?” My answer? yes, and it’s sufficient enough for a phone compared to many others. I haven’t even gone through the camera as well. having it at 13mp back and 5mp front? That’s 5megapixel for selfie!! my note3 is only like 1.9 or 2mp for the front. So like i said previously, if you’re not looking for air gesture or whatever function then why not? You could even get this for your younger sister or your parents.
So what do you think? If you have any questions feel free to ask. :)
