Xiaomi has won over the hearts of Indian budget-conscious buyers by offering pocket-friendly and feature loaded smartphones. It has swamped the market with its previous launches e.g. Redmi 1s, Redmi 2 and Redmi 2 Prime etc. Now again they are all set to roll the eyeballs of Indian smartphone market towards its upcoming Redmi 3S. The Redmi 3S is coming with its two versions in India: The cheaper version costs Rs 6,999 and has 2GB RAM+16GB storage, while the other one is Redmi 3S Prime which costs around Rs 8,999 and has 3GB RAM + 32GB storage and a fingerprint sensor.
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The Chinese company is trying to wrap up all the price points to make the best phone in this budget category, and in a market like India where every single penny matters; others are also following the same strategy. So is the Redmi 3S/Redmi 3S Prime worth the hype? Is this the ideal pocket-friendly phone that you can buy to fulfill your requirements? Let’s find out!
- Design & Built: Bigger size is not the prime focus for Xiaomi’s new launch Redmi 3S prime and Redmi 3S. Redmi 3S prime is exactly like Redmi note 3, which is scaled down to fit in the compact and cute body like Redmi 2 and that makes it quite handy and comfy. Phones with 5-inch displays are very rare to find these days and Redmi 3S Prime falls into this rare category.
The Redmi 3S Prime has a full-metal body except the top and bottom ends, which are made of plastic with brushed metal finish. The design of Redmi 3S works in its favor. The phone is very light (weighs only 144 gms), but besides having a compact and lighter body the phone packs a much bigger and better battery.
- Display: Redmi 3S has 5-inch HD IPS LCD display with a 720×1280 pixels resolution. Colors appear rich and vibrant — a little warm by default but you can adjust the colors with inbuilt manual mode and can achieve better results. There’s also an in-built reading mode that automatically turns the display colors to the warmer side for night-time reading.
- Unfortunately, “sunlight display technology” is missing on this phone. So if you are carrying this phone out on a bright sunny day, you have to adjust the phone in different angles to see the display screen. Despite its low brightness output somehow the phone manages to give a better result than its competitors falling in this price range.
- Software and Performance: Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime has 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor paired with Adreno 505 GPU, has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage and the other version which is Redmi 3S, has 16GB storage and 2GB RAM. You can also extend the storage up to 256GB.
The phone doesn’t heat up at all like Redmi Note 3 while using. Yes, somewhat the issue has been fixed in the updated version of the software. Multitasking is not a problem with this phone; it can even handle the heavy graphic games without any crashes.
Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow along with the company’s MIUI 7.5 UI layer. The interface itself is quite smooth, clean and user-friendly. However, there is no app drawer. That is why all the apps are placed on multiple home-screens.
Redmi 3S Prime has an IR blaster through which we can control the home appliances such as TV and ACs with ease. The pre-installed ‘Mi remote app allows users to add multiple remote controls for different appliances and operate them from the phone itself.
- Camera: Xiaomi Redmi 3S is packed with the 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash & 5MP front camera. The camera on the phone performs brilliantly in the bright light. It is fast and responsive with good color quality. However, low-light performance is still an issue with the phone.
- Battery: Battery of this phone is like the cherry on the cake, the top highlight of this phone. It has 4,100 mAh battery that refuses to die. Many phones in this price range have come which claimed a long battery life and they could not live up to that commitment. But in Xiaomi’s case, battery lives up to that claim.
Should you buy it?
If you are in the market with a light pocket and seeking for a low budget smartphone packed with updated features then you should consider Redmi 3S as a good option. It feels good, looks good, has long-lasting battery life and performs much better than the other phones in this price range.
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Not Bad, Right!! You can go for Redmi 3S prime. But few people may think at this point, why they don’t go for Redmi Note 3 which costs Rs. 9,999/- and better display screen by paying only Rs. 1000/- more than the Redmi 3S prime. You can definitely go for Note 3; it totally depends on your budget, how flexible it is.
Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.