It’s raining smartphones!! Chinese smartphone Xiaomi has again taken center-stage to introduce to us its budget powerhouse of a device, which it is calling the ‘Redmi Note 3S‘. This new smartphone is a sub-budget offering in the price bracket of 7k and 9k, and is expected to be available exclusively on Flipkart, starting 9th August.
This new smartphone release follows in the footsteps of its elder brethren in the Redmi Note series, specially the Note 3. Even Xiaomi’s VP Hugo Barra acknowledges the same at the launch event and says, “Redmi 3s draws inspiration from no other than Redmi Note 3”.
The Redmi Note 3S weighs only 144 grams and comes encased in a premium and beautifully crafted aluminum body with curved edges. It features a 5-inch HD display(a little disappointing, but okay for the price), and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, clocked at 1.4GHz. Under the hood, it packs a combo of quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.1 GHz Cortex-A53 chipset, and an Adreno 505 GPU for heavy-graphic and gaming needs.
Talking about the camera department, the Redmi Note 3S packs in a 13 megapixel rear shooter with a f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus. The rear camera also comes along with a dual-tone flash and can record 1080p full-HD videos. While the front camera is still a measly 5-megapixel with a f/2.2 aperture, but is capable of shooting videos at 1080p(that’s awesome). It also has additional features such as Beautify, and face recognition. The camera placement in Redmi Note 3S has changed, and it has now been placed at the top left(as in an iPhone 6s).
In addition to this, the phone packs in a massive battery of 4,100 mAh and can last upto two days on a single charge. It hosts a hybrid SIM card slot, that supports all Indian LTE and VoLTE bands out of the box. It is also important to note that Xiaomi is one of the only smartphone manufacturers that offers 4G capability on both SIMs.
The smartphone runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with MIUI v7.5 on top, but is expected to receive MIUI 8.0 update on 23rd August. Other connectivity options include bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, glonass, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, IR blaster and MicroUSB.
The new sub-budget Redmi phones will be available for purchase in two different variants — Note 3S and Note 3S Prime. The Note 3S variant packs in a 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM combo and will retail at Rs. 6,999/- while the Note 3S Prime packs in a 3GB RAM and 32 GB of internal memory and will retail at Rs. 8,999/-. The Prime variant of the smartphone will also come with a fingerprint sensor that is non-existent in the vanilla Note 3S model.
You will have the option to choose from three different color variants(as seen in previous Redmi models) — Dark Grey, Gold, and Silver. You also have the option to expand your storage upto 128 gigs using a MicroSD card.
The two variants will be available for purchase on Mi.com and Flipkart starting August 9th and even though it is again gonna be a flash sale — you don’t need to register for the same, says Hugo Barra. Xiaomi’s new smartphone offering will compete against the recently launched Lenovo Vibe K5 Note and other Chinese manufacturers.
