Recently we reviewed the Xiaomi Redmi 4A and was incredibly impressed with the smartphone. The handset boasts all the useful features and required specs at a low price. With its premium design, excellent battery life, and quad-core CPU the device can fill the void for those who want more out of their smartphone at less price. Does the budget phone (NRS 14,999) with its attractive design and an HD display make a compelling entry-level device? Let’s find out in our complete review.
Design
As far as the design is concerned, the dual SIM device (Nano-SIM/Micro-SIM, dual SIM standby) weighing 131.5g made me quite confused whether it is of metal or plastic. But sadly it doesn’t have a metallic body. The reason it fooled me is because of its metallic paint and texture, however, you start realizing it isn’t metal after a while. On the top edge of this device, it houses an audio jack and infrared sensor as well, while the volume and power button are on the right edge and SIM and microSD card slot on the left. The phone comes with the micro-USB port on the bottom and is flanked by the microphone and a good speaker on the lower back side. The hardware buttons feel quite comfortable but we don’t find a fingerprint sensor on the back.
Display
The 5.0-inch device sports 720p IPS LCD display. The screen is pretty standard and decent, producing appropriate colors and contrast with good clarity. The display is fine for general multimedia and gaming with enough brightness. The phone has very thin black bezels around the screen but has no effect on the overall experience. The screen performs just fine and is enjoyable to some extent.
Camera
Redmi 4A features 13MP rear Camera with flash and a 5MP front-facing camera. In bright and sunny condition, the camera performs decently well but in low light, the image quality is not that good. The front facing camera struggles due to its low megapixel count and doesn’t capture as detailed images even in great lighting. However, the phone snaps great close-up shots from its rear camera with decent landscape quality. The video quality is alright, exhibiting better color and sufficient details than other phones in this range. Although the device doesn’t sport a great camera, it’s definitely the best you can get for NRs. 14,999.
Performance
The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, 1.40 GHz quad-core processor along with Adreno 308 GPU. The device is backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card. The device offers good multitasking support with about 5-6 app running in the background without any problem. The phone runs high-quality videos smoothly and handle casual gaming with ease. Games like Clash of Clans, Subway Surfer and such run without any hiccups, while running high-end and graphic intensive games like Asphalt and 3D Sniper showed some sign of lag. Here are some basic benchmarks to compare with other phones on the market.
Software
The device boots on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and has MIUI 8 installed in it. The device also contains snapdragon 425 CPU which is surprisingly fast. While operating the device I didn’t notice any lag — swiping through home screen and opening apps such as messaging, dialer, phonebook, and calculator felt quite smooth. Considering heavier apps like Facebook, Instagram, Google or during heavier multitasking, it takes a slight hit. The UI experience for me was not bad and is respectable enough to perform in day to day use.
Battery
The smartphone comes up with Li-ion 3120mAh non-removable battery. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t support fast charging, however, no phone in this budget supports fast charging. The battery lasted me for 3-4 hrs during continuous usage with multimedia and mild gaming and stands for a whole day with lighter apps in use.
Conclusion
Xiaomi Redmi 4A is not the best smartphone but it’s good enough for the price when you consider the alternatives. The handset offers an okayish experience, plastic body device with metallic texture is great to look at with a beautiful display, and a fantastic audio experience. All in all, we can say that the Redmi 4A offers decent specs and can be considered as a competitor for the best budget smartphone in Nepal.
