Yes, not a tablet but now and then I do review interesting mobiles from China. I’ll admit I’ve taken a liking to Xiaomi’s recent products, this company is really setting the standard for price-performance ratio with it comes to mobile phones. And their Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro is the latest mobile to do so yet again. It features the new 2016 Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 Hexacore, which can turbo up to 1.8 Ghz, GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage. Unlike the Redmi Note 3 MediaTek Helio X10 I reviewed, this one now support microSD cards and has an improved Samsung S5K3P3 ISOCELL 16 Megapixel sensor over the 13MP one.
You get some great specs for the $215 starting price:
- Premium metal build
- Bright 1080p 403 PPI screen
- Large 4000mAh battery good for 9 hours of screen on time. (depending on the task)
- Dual Band 4G/LTE
- FM Radio
- 5MP front facing camera with 1080p video
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 six core CPU max turbo 1.8Ghz
- Adreno 510 GPU up to 600Mhz
- 2/3GB of Ram
- Fast eMMC internal storage of up to 150mb/s reads and 50 mb/s writes.
- 16MP (S5K3P3) camera with hardware 4k video support (using Google Camera)
Pros:
- Amazing performance for the price
- Great battery life over 9 hours on screen time and a PCMark work result of over 10 hours.
- Bright and vivid 1080p panel looks sharp and has good viewing angles
- GPS works well
- Audio quality is very decent. Calls, loudspeaker and 3.5mm headphone jack output
- 78,000 Antutu score is a new record for this price range
- 1500 single core score in Geekbench 3 is impressive, beats the Snapdragon 810 and my Exynos 7420 (Note 5)
- Premium build and specs at a non-premium price.
Cons:
- Camera performance in low light is very poor
- 1080p video quality is average. (But still one of the better ones at this price point)
- No NFC
- No faster quick charge 3 support, but the chipset supports it.
- Stock camera app doesn’t support 4k but the hardware does.
- MIUI is full of Chinese, Needs a Global ROM Asap without Chinese.
Overall this is an impressive phone with amazing performance for the price tag. Its performance beats many 2015 model flagship mobiles that cost a good three times the price. The only negatives of the mobile I can find are it has no NFC support and the camera is rubbish in low light conditions. But in good lighting takes a very decent picture. This is going to be one hard mobile to beat for the price, things are only getting better in the low-end category in 2016.
I’ve very interested in seeing what the new snapdragon 820 will be capable of if this 650 is anything to go by…
16MP Camera samples:
Redmi Note 3 Pro video samples, 1080p and 4k using Google camera.
Roie Sofer
Hey @Chris
Thanks alot. Great Review.
I am considering purchasing one of the three:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 – 32GB
or the new one you had a review about: Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 64GB (no pro version)
or – the Redmi Pro 64GB
Which one do you think is better deal?
Thanks alot
Chris G
I would get the redmi note 3 pro still or the Redmi Note 4.
Roie Sofer
Thanks alot @Chris
Do you know to tell what is the “big” difference between those two ecxept memory issue?
Thanks again
Roie Sofer
HI @Chris
Any idea about my question?
Thanks
Chris G
I don’t know anything about a memory issue? Battery life, price, and rear camera are better with the Redmi note pro 3
JOHN
has the the no sound issue in Modern Combat been resolved?
Fezan Owais
Hey Chris Can you also review Elephone p9000 and compare it to Note pro. I want to get one of them but not ssure which one of them
James Gambill
Get the redmi note 3 pro , I have a elephone p9000 I’m using right now I’m selling it for the note 3 pro.
Arif Milis
Hi, how you compare redmi note 3 pro vs the helio x10 version? Its performance, heat and battery? Because of different processor. Thanks.
Chris
Hi Chris, could you do a follow up review of this with the global rom installed as it looks like it was released today.
Aman Khatri
Can Qc 3.0 be enabled at a later stage via software update?
Radu Alexandru
Hi Chris, please tell me what to buy for my wife : Meizu mx5 or this phone ( Xiaomi redmi note 3 pro 32gb ) ??? He wants a good camera and a good battery for the phone.
MADHAN KUMAR C
@Chris: Hi Redmi Note 3 pro is officially gonna launch in my India by this coming March 3rd,so can u pls check on box & confirm whether Redmi Note 3 pro supports CDMA 1x,Evdo REV A/B as advertised because in my India Operators like RCDMA provide us grt value for money CDMA 1x calls & EVDO REV A/B data services,thanks in advance!
Chris G
Hi, sorry the box doesn’t say just TD LTE. OR it’s in Chinese. When Xiaomi release it in Inda I’m sure it will support the major networks there.
MADHAN KUMAR C
It’s OK Chris,thanks for the heads up!
Erik D
Too bad it doesn’t support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 even though it would be possible with the Snapdragon 650 SoC. Does it support QC 2.0 at least?
Chris G
Yes it does, takes approximately 3 hours to charge that 4,100mAh battery.
Erik D
Hmm… Seems like it actually doesn’t support QC 2.0 according to the Mi Forums. A 3 hour charge time would also be very slow for a compatible device. http://en.miui.com/thread-224873-5-1.html
Chris G
Thats for the info, qc 1 then. I did notice it would charge at a slightly higher rate with my QC 2.0 charger vs the stock one.
highwind
The main problem of this phone is the locked bootloader and how Xiaomi handles (or rather not handles) unlocking requests…
I had the Mediatek version for about 4 weeks and after registering and applying (which is basically a very hard “patience trial” while giving out virtually every bit of personal data I usually never would give a company like this), I was finally able to receive the “unlock permission” after 3 weeks of wating… but that DID NOT LET ME UNLOCK THE PHONE at all!!!
The unlock program always counted up to 50% and then gave me an “unable to verify device” error and from reading through the MIUI forums, that was a quite common error and nobody was able to solve it and no official word from Xiaomi either!
So stuck with the abomination that MIUI is, I sold the phone a week later because it was just unuseable for me…
And to add, the problem with the locked bootloader should be MUCH WORSE on the Qualcomm version:
With Mediatek atleast you can use SP Flashtools to flash “mildly modified” ROMs on a locked bootloader phone (so I atleast was able to get a rooted, multilanguage enabled an chinese debloated MIUI ROM on the phone)
With Qualcomm there IS NO SP Flashtools (and also nothing compareable I am aware of) so you are completely stuck with official stable/dev ROMs!
Hardware and built quality might be 9 or even 10 / 10 on this phone
Software and user support simply is 0 / 10
For people withing asia and liking MIUI this might not be a problem, for everybody else it is a nightmare…
Chris G
Mentioned in my review MIUI, best to get Nova or Apex launcher. And the Chinese apps and Chinese everywhere is annoying. With a global Rom English and no Chinese it will be much better, but not sure when it will be out.
highwind
Another Launcher does indeed help, but (atleast for me) it doesnt fix every shortcomming of MIUI
Regarding “Global ROM” there might be another problem:
Most of the Mediatek RMN3s that where sold/shipped internationally (usually from the common resellers: banggood, geekbuying, gearbest, etc.) did come with a “customized” ROM which was easily recognizable by the “double zero” in the version number (for example 7.0.13.0 would be an offical stable ROM, 7.00.13.00 isnt an official but “customized”). Those ROMs were installed by the resellers to offer additional languages but these ROMs are NOT updateable as they are non official (the internal update app always gives “cannot verify package” error when you try to update to a official ROM)!
With the Mediatek version that wasnt too much of a problem, because you could use SP Flashtools to flash official/updateable ROM even though you had an locked bootloader.
But with the Qualcomm version, again, you do not have SP Flashtools which could cause a huge problem if such a “customized” ROM is installed on the phone again, because you cannot easily get rid of it and install official as long as the bootloader is locked and you cannot unlock your bootloader without having official ROM on the phone either…
I am quite curious on how Xiaomi will handle this, if it becomes a problem
nowa
Interesting! Chris. How would you say this camera compare to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3?
Chris G
A slight step up from the Redmi Note 3, but not that much better. Still bad in low light.
Anshuman
Thanks a lot for this review! Will purchase it ASAP once it launches in India. Does this have a separate microsd slot or is it one of those stupid Hybrid SIM slots?
Chris G
Hybrid slot, so either one MicroSD card + Micro Sim or 2 x Micro SIMs.
dusan
Hi Chris
thanks for your detailed review.
I have watched your video review of the brand new Xiaomi Note 3 Pro 32GB (that one which comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 64bit Hexa Core 1.8GHz CPU) many times already since. I looked onto your additional comments as well.
I aim to buy this one at some chinese e-shop (to be specific “everbuying.net”)
There is 1 thing which is preventing me from buying this and that is if there really is a micro-sd card support or not.
l could not help but to figure this out straight so I asked this one question straight to XIAOMI support ([email protected]) now listen to what they replied to me “Please kindly note that the Redmi Note 3 doesn’t support to insert SD card for external storage.
Sorry for the inconvenience brought to you, and you could feedback to us if you need further assistance.”
What would you think about it ?
Does that one which you reviewed there in your video this option – to use sd card in it (instead of the 2nd sim card of course) ? – if so, did you check this functionality please ?
Looking forward to hear from you
thanks, regards
dusan
Erik D
Dusan: The Redmi Note 3 Pro definitely comes with a MicroSD card-compatable hybrid slot. The XIAOMI support apparently gave an answer concerning the slightly older Mediatek version called Redmi Note 3. The word “Pro” is really important here.
Chris G
@dusan Hi the Redmi Note 3 doesn’t support MicroSD’s, but the Redmi Note 3 Pro does. THis is where the confusion comes from.
Anshuman
Regarding lack of 4k recording, apparently the Mi4c also lacked the same at launch but it was later added via an update. Hopefully this will hold true in this case as well especially considering the recently launched LeTV Le1s sports it and the Note 3 Pro is expected to be pricier than it. Then again they might reserve this feature for higher end phones…
Chris G
We can still record 4k for now with Google Camera. Until Xiaomi adds support in the camera app.
Anshuman
Could you please confirm whether there any overheating concerns or not? In particular with regards to gaming and 4k video recording. Most reviews will overlook this aspect or at the most run one of the popular benchmarks which are mostly too short in duration to be effective in this regard. Cortex A72 (while much apparently much improved in comparison to A57 as borne out by Kirin 950,albeit on 16nm FF) on a 28nm HPM process does not inspire much confidence. Atleast Qualcomm could have gone with the newer HPC+ like Mediatek. Ironically the lower tier SD 625 is on a 14nm FF process!