Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro: The Best Buy 2016 Ending
Xiaomi in the last period has been able to bring out really competitive smartphones both in price and in features, satisfying the most varied market bands. And to finish the year 2016 in beauty has been able to give us a new best buy, the Redmi 4 Pro. I thank the store HonorBuy.it for sending the sample, which we remember ship from Italy with 24 months warranty and all-Italian assistance.
MATERIALS, HARDWARE AND ERGONOMICS
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro has a entirely unibody metal body with the exception of the upper band and the lower line, placed on the back, which are made of plastic to facilitate reception of the integrated antenna. On the whole frame we have one double milling gloss that increases the grip. The design differs from its predecessors, such as the RedMix 3S, as the rear camera is positioned perpendicular to the fingerprint sensor and the system speaker is placed at the bottom of the smartphone, ensuring full and clean audio with no penalties in the case the phone is resting on a table or sofa.
The left side houses the carriage of the two SIMs, one in micro format and one in dwarf format, or you can extend the internal memory with a micro SD card. On the right side we find instead on / off button and volume balance both in metal. In the lower part we find the input for charging in standard micro USB format with OTG support, and two symmetrical grids that house the system speaker and the main microphone. The upper part is dedicated to the entrance for the earphones, IR transmitter to control Tv and Set Top Box etc. as well as the second microphone for noise reduction. The back of the smartphone hosts the fingerprint sensor reliable 10 times on 10, which can also be used to lock some applications, dual-tone LED flash and the camera with digital stabilizer, da 13 Megapixel f / 2.2.
On the front of the smartphone we find the secondary camera with resolution 5 Megapixel, a little RGB notification led, ear capsule and the various brightness sensors, proximity etc .. Finally, the touch keys are designed on the body but are not backlit as per tradition for the Redmi series but still have the vibration feed.
The Redmi 4 Pro button heart is the processor Snapdragon 625 octacore with frequency to 2.0 Ghz coupled to one Adreno GPU 506. Also to help with the performance of the device we find Ram 3 Gb e 32 Gb internal memory expandable up to 256 Gb.
DISPLAY
The panel mounted on the Redmi 4 Pro is a unit from 5 inches with resolution FHD 1080 × 1920 pixels 441 PPI of type IPS. The colors appear bright and well balanced as the direct visibility under the sun is very good, with the possibility to calibrate the colors and the respective saturation by software even if I never felt the need to do it. In the test photo the grid of the pixels confirms the excellent construction of the panel.
Compared to the XmiumXS Redmi but the display is less brilliant and the oleophobic treatment is perhaps the bad note as it retains very much the fingerprints and dirt in general. However, the panel has excellent sensitivity and reactivity thanks to the 10 touch points with which it was designed. Finally at software level there is the reading function useful for the night as the view tends to less fatigue.
BATTERY, AUDIO AND RECEPTION
The Redmi 4 Pro battery has a 4100 mAh which gives a record range of well 2 days and a half with moderate use while "go down" to more than 1 day and a half with heavy use, using 3 e-mail account with push notifications, whatsapp, telegram, facebook, wifi, 4g connection and various switches to the 3g network with a record result of about 10 hours on screen turned on.
The recharging takes place in about 2 hours and 40 minutes with the possibility of setting the various energy savings present by default in the MIUI 8. The device hosts two sims supporting 4G LTE networks on both slots. The audio on call is of excellent quality and the speakerphone performs its work very well giving a well balanced sound in the mid-high frequencies. Even our interlocutor does not complain of any problem thanks to the presence of the function Volta. Listening to music is pleasant thanks to the position of the speaker that allows you to direct the sound stream as we want without ever being asleep.
Last but not least connectivity to Bluetooth 4.2 A2DP / LE, Wifi 802.11 a / b / g / n, WiFi direct, WiFi Hotspot, and GPS / A-GPS / Glonass: the latter has never given signs of loss of signal and the fix is carried out in a few moments.
SOFTWARE
The operating system on which the Redmi 4 Pro is based is Android 6.0.1 with proprietary interface MIUI 8 Stable 8.0.6.0 version. Needless to talk about the strong customizations of the system that makes Xiaomi devices even more unique. Icons, quick toggles, notifications drop-downs, menus etc .. enjoy a deep presence of style thanks also to the presence of the various themes downloadable from the MIUI store, which give us a new terminal for each application of the same.
The smartphone sent by HonorBuy.it comes to us already provided by the Play Store so you can download the applications that most interest us, but personally to take advantage of the various Google services I had to resort to the installation of the APK GAPPS MIUI, downloadable from here, for example, you can synchronize Google contacts with your phone. The Rom is perhaps a little tricky for users who want a terminal ready to use but despite being one of the first ROM for this device I never found problems related to failure to receive notifications or imputations of the phone.
Certainly soon will come out ROM optimized for our country released by the team MIUI.IT, but I emphasize that aside from the only presence of the English and Chinese, and the various Chinese telephones installed on the terminal in my phone it lends itself as it is also to less "aware" users, but not least the news of the release of the Roma XIAOMI.EU, with the presence of the Italian language. I purposely wanted to use only the system apps, and even the internet browsing through the stock browser was pleasant even if the text resize function was missing. The only customization of software I made was the installation of the Google keyboard because I was not really with the system that in any case returned a good feed to the touch.
Basically, Redmi 4 Pro is a phone that has nothing to envy to the more expensive brothers and sisters the coupled Snapdragon 625 and Adreno 506 it also gives a remarkably enjoyable gaming experience and no lag. I have never found any metal body heating of the device even in stressful situations such as gaming sessions or downloading heavy files. Unfortunately video-level MKV files and UHD encoded files are not supported but formats in 4K are played with no fatigue. Lastly, there is also the possibility of awakening the device with the double tap on the screen, useful function if for example we just want to give a quick look at notifications or time. There are also new features introduced by MIUI 8 such as Quick Ball, Second Space and the ability to clone applications in order to have for example two independent Facebook accounts, Whatsapp etc ..
BENCHMARK RESULTS
CAMERA AND MULTIMEDIA
The rear camera of the Redmi 4 Pro is a drive from 13 Megapixel f / 2.2 with sensor Samsung S5K3L8 which offers various shooting modes including the manual mode, panorama function, face beauty mode, and perspective mode. There is also l'HDR that works very well, while the image format is available both in 4: 3 and in 16: 9 but the various resolutions can not be chosen except through the final quality of the image that can be set in High, Normal and Low.
Il flash led dual tone it helps a lot in low light conditions even if the edges of the photographed subject are slightly grainy. Overall the camera takes good quality shots with a high speed useful for the famous point and shoot. The front camera with sensor Omnivision OV5670 returns very good and decidedly quality photos with the possibility in addition to the self-timer to use the voice shutter function. Also noteworthy presence of multiple filters which allow original shots as well as the presence of photo retouch tool to give them more originality. Videos are shot at maximum resolution FHD 1080p and digital stabilizer it increases the final quality, and you also have the capability of the function Time Lapse. The thing that particularly surprised me is the audio capture during the recording phase which is high compared to the standards of the market segment in which the Redmi 4 Pro fits.
PROJECTED IMPACT
As already announced at the beginning of the review the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro comes out full marks getting the best buy end of 2016, compared to the market band in which it is located. Every aspect that has been examined has raised positive and absolutely impressive impressions does not regret the purchase nor to dream of other devices with significantly higher prices. The present software is a first release but the world of "geeks" is already working to optimize it according to the needs of our territory. Excellent camera, excellent materials, very high quality display and a competitive price. I am really satisfied with this terminal that I can recommend as a purchase through the store HonorBuy.it is Ship directly from Italy within max 72 hours and without any customs cost. Always from Italy you can receive assistance as well as one of 2 years warranty.
A greeting from Emanuele.
Very interesting.
I love CyanogenMod.
If this device is supported I will consider it.
I am currently watching the 3 Note pro but it does not convince me much.