Xiaomi Redmi 4A: specifications and reviews

The Redmi series positioned Xiaomi insub-150-dollar segment. The company launched the first smartphone line in 2013, and it was well received. According to Xiaomi, Redmi 1 "was a phone ahead of its time, and the same is true for Redmi 4A."

Perhaps this is true, since othersthe phones of the series consistently left a good impression, constantly appearing in the lists of the best smartphones cheaper than $ 150. In 2017, Xiaomi has already achieved great success, selling more than 1 million units of Redmi Note 4 for 45 days after the launch of the model. The Chinese manufacturer hopes to keep this figure with the Redmi 4A phone, which brought such functionality as VoLTE and 13-megapixel camera to the budget segment. Will the model become another hit of the company?

Design

One of the first things to noticeusers, holding the Redmi 4A, - the material of the case. Despite the resemblance to the metal, in fact it is made of polycarbonate. On the back panel, there are segments on the top and bottom that simulate the antenna strips of the metal models of the ruler.

The smartphone clearly follows the style of itspredecessors, and buyers will not be disappointed. A relatively small 5-inch screen provides the compactness of the Redmi 4A, so the phone is easy to use with one hand. The volume control and power button are easily accessible on the right side, and the slot for the hybrid SIM card is placed on the left. The charger port is at the bottom, and the top is the 3.5 mm headset jack and infrared emitter.

According to reviews, the characteristics of Xiaomi Redmi 4A 16GB andRedmi 3S are strikingly similar. The logo Mi and the lattice of dynamics are identical. The smartphone is not equipped with a fingerprint scanner, which is not surprising given the price. The phone has slightly curved edges, although the model would have fit the 3S design, more rounded and more comfortable for the hands. The edges of the front panel only slightly bend to the side surfaces of the smartphone. But the back of the phone is matte finish and better grip. At a weight of about 132 g, 4A is lighter than 144 g of 3S. Xiaomi Company, presenting the model, stated that it is "the lightest Redmi". It is noteworthy that both models have a thickness of 8.5 mm. The smartphone is available in three colors: dark gray, gold and rose gold.

The phone is powered by a non-removable battery, which, according to the company, can provide 7 days of standby time.

Equipment

The smartphone comes with a 1-amp chargerdevice, standard microUSB cable, warranty card, user manual and SIM-card extraction tool. As with other Xiaomi products, the retail box lacks a headset, which may disappoint some users.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped with a 5 "display with a resolution of 720 x1280, which corresponds to a pixel density of 296 dpi. The company claims that the screen can reproduce 72% of the NTSC color gamut. The display is bright, and the color rendition is adequate. According to users' reviews, the screen of the smartphone Xiaomi Redmi 4A 16GB Gold by characteristics is not inferior to the models of competitors and provides a normal perception of the content even under direct sunlight. The text and images seem to be sharp, and the video looks good. Also, the smartphone offers a read mode that makes the image more pleasing to the eye, and also allows you to adjust the color temperature through the Settings application.

What really caused surprise wascolor accuracy. Even the standard mode right out of the box provides an average ΔE of 4.5 with a maximum of 7.8. The white is too strong, which makes the screen slightly cold, but nevertheless it is quite accurate. Fine tuning of some display parameters leads to even more impressive results. The use of a warm color regime leads to the fact that the average value of ΔE is only 2.8 at a maximum of 6, which is mainly explained by the dispersion of white and gray. Reducing the brightness from a maximum of 475 nits to 200 nits significantly corrects white and provides a very impressive average value of ΔE = 2.4 and a maximum of 4.8.

In general, the quality of the display is inferior to the models morehigh class. Compared to 4A, the characteristics of the Redmi Note 4 with a 5.5 "screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 and a pixel density of 401 tons / inch look more attractive.

Connectivity options

In addition to 4G with VoLTE, the smartphone supports Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 801.11 b / g / n, GPS / AGPS and GLONASS.

Hybrid slot with two SIM cards simultaneouslycan accept one micro-SIM card and a nano-SIM or micro-SD card. When 2 SIM cards are used, the main one supports 4G calls and work with data, and the second one can work only in 2G-networks. From the sensors there is a gyroscope, an accelerometer, proximity sensors and external illumination.

Software

Redmi 4A works with the graphical interface MIUI8 on the Android 6.0 platform. The model inherited many functions of the previous phones of the line. For example, Double Apps allows users to create two copies of any application (for example, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.), and Second Space provides separate storage of business and personal data. The Second Space feature also provides the ability to have two Google accounts.

The smartphone is capable of making screen shots,such as a web page, completely, even if partially not visible. Other functions of the MIUI interface are the child mode, which allows you to block programs, the floating quick access button and one-hand mode that compresses the display size.

The phone application in MIUI 8 has also been improvedand by default shows the caller ID. It is worth mentioning and Mi Mover, used to move data from another device Mi. In Themes you can choose wallpaper, ringtones and fonts. However, users would like to see less useless software, since the smartphone has only 16 GB of memory. This includes Scanner, Mi Community and Mi Picks. The phone also comes with more appropriate applications for Facebook, Amazon Kindle, WPS Office, Makemytrip and Flipkart.

Cameras: reviews and features

Xiaomi Redmi 4A 16GB is equipped with a 13-megapixel mainsensor with a 5-element lens and a relative aperture f / 2.2. The camera has an LED flash, supports backlighting, HDR, panorama, serial shooting and face detection. The owner can use a lot of filters in real time. The 5-megapixel camera has a diaphragm f / 2.2. You can record video at 720p and 1080p at 30 fps. The cameras of the 4A and Xiaomi Redmi Pro models are almost identical in characteristics. Only in the last model the rear sensor is paired with another 5-Mp image sensor.

The main phone camera with sufficientillumination allows you to take good pictures with decent colors. Frames made in the afternoon have more details. According to feedback from users, the focus on the objects of shooting is fast enough, but from time to time it does not cope with close-up. Some photos contain a lot of noise.

Rear camera of smartphone Xiaomi Redmi 4A 32 GB oncharacteristics is not entirely suitable for shooting under artificial lighting: the images are too noisy. Photos taken in low light conditions display a large number of details, although they are rather grainy. The front sensor is capable of capturing clear and detailed selfies, which can be used in social platforms, although a weak light is not very suitable for this. The camera application is simple, and the owners liked the fact that access to the modes and other settings is within one touch.

Performance

The characteristics of the Redmi 4A are due to the 4-core 1.4-GHz chipset Snapdragon 425 and the GPU Adreno 308.

According to the owners, they are pleasantly surprisedcharacteristics Xiaomi Redmi 4A 16 GB. Multitasking delays do not cause, and the phone easily cope with switching between multiple applications. Although the smartphone allows you to enjoy streaming video and movies, the 5-inch screen seems too small, because today users are used to large sizes.

Games are difficult, but you can do welltime in Asphalt 8 and Dead Effect 2. They can hang at startup if other applications are running in the background. According to user feedback, about 900 MB of free memory remain available, so more RAM could improve the performance of the device. The GPU is not designed for anything other than the graphical interface. Even a low resolution does not save a low frame rate. 5.7 fps in the GFX 3.0 Manhattan test are simply unplayable.

The amount of internal data storage is 16 GB,of which approximately 10 GB of usable space remains to install applications and data. This means that you will have to use a memory expansion slot and a microSD card with a capacity of up to 128 GB.

Testing smartphone performanceshowed the results worthy of its price range. The characteristics of Xiaomi Redmi 4A 16 GB provide it with 36110 points in AnTuTu 6, 16693 in Quadrant, 3684 in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme and 13 fps in the GFXBench T-Rex test. In GeekBench 4, the phone dials 1670 points in a multi-core test and 658 in a single-core test.

Compared to 4A, the characteristics of Xiaomi RedmiNote 4 look more convincing. In the AnTuTu 6 test, the higher-end model scores 61,616 points, which is due to the use of the more powerful 2-GHz Snapdragon 625 processor.

Functionality

The infrared radiator of the smartphone allows you to control various household appliances and is compatible with various set-top boxes and televisions.

The phone supports all kinds of video formats, including HEVC and MPEG4, as well as popular audio formats AAC / eAAC +, PCM, FLAC, MP3 and WAV.

One of the main advantages of the smartphone isVoLTE support (and the ability to connect to mobile networks in areas with weak signals.The quality of calls is decent, users can talk for a long time at the expense of the small size and weight of the device.

Audio

The speaker is loud enough for a smallroom, but you should not expect that the Redmi 4A features this element will be better than that of higher-end phones. The headphones are not supplied with the device, but the sound quality check showed decent results. Various sound settings are available in the system menu.

The smartphone shows excellent output purity when connected to an active external amplifier. The level of its volume is above average, and the quality is better than can be expected for such a price.

Even more impressive is the fact thatheadphones have almost no effect on the clarity or volume of the output. In fact, a modest smartphone provides better output power for headphones than most modern phones that do not even closely match the cost of Redmi 4A.

Battery Specifications

A non-removable battery with a capacity of 3120 mAh in a testHD-video works 12 hours 35 minutes. With intensive use in the real world, the Redmi 4A easily lasts more than one day even without activating the power saving mode. The latter, when the battery charge falls below 20%, provides another 8 hours of limited use. In this case, you can release a certain application from restrictions on the use of battery power. A complete restoration of the energy reserve of the phone takes less than 2 hours. Fast charging is not supported, but at such a low cost it will not become an obstacle to purchase.

Less efficient processor, maximizeusing all its 4 cores to cope with the load, plus a reduced capacity compared to 4100 mAh from the Redmi 4 Prime and Note led to a decrease in the average battery life from 119 to 67 hours.

Conclusion

Redmi 4A features have raised the bar forsmartphones in this price range, and one should expect its huge popularity. At a cost of about $ 100, the model offers many features, the most important of which is VoLTE support. The efficiency of the camera is decent, polycarbonate body, 3120-mAh battery and software are satisfactory.

Redmi 4A, it seems, is designed for those who buy smartphones for the first time, and for this audience it will be a worthy option.