Review of Xiaomi Redmi 4A
The Redmi series has anchored Xiaomi in the sub-Rs. 10,000 segment in India. The company launched its first Redmi smartphone, the Redmi 1S, in India in August 2014, and it was received well here. At a recent event, Xiaomi stressed how the Redmi 1S "was a phone way ahead of its time" and claimed that the new Redmi 4A is exactly the same.
That might be true, because other phones in the series including the Redmi 2 (and Redmi 2 Prime) in 2015, and Redmi 3S (and Redmi 3S Prime) in 2016 have impressed us consistently. These models have also been regular fixtures in our lists of the best smartphones under Rs. 10,000.
Xiaomi has already had one big success in 2017, selling over a million units of the Redmi Note 4 within a record 45 days of its launch. The Chinese company hopes to keep that momentum going with the Redmi 4A, which brings features such as VoLTE and a 13-megapixel rear camera to the budget segment. Will the new Xiaomi Redmi 4A be as big a hit for the company? We try to find out in our review.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A design
One of the first things you notice when you hold the Xiaomi Redmi 4A in your hands is that despite looking a lot like metal, the body is actually polycarbonate. The rear panel has separate segments at the top and bottom that mimic the antenna bands seen on metal-bodied Redmi models.
The new smartphone closely follows the design language of previous Redmi phones, and buyers in this price segment won't be disappointed. With a relatively small 5-inch screen, the Redmi 4A is compact and therefore easy to use with just one hand. The volume rocker and power button are easily accessible on the right side, while the hybrid SIM slot is on the left. The charging port is on the bottom, and there's a 3.5mm audio jack and infrared emitter on the top.
From the rear, this phone looks strikingly similar to the Redmi 3S. The Mi branding and the speaker grille at the back, are identical to those on the Redmi 3S. There is no fingerprint reader on the Redmi 4A, which isn't a surprise considering its price tag.
The phone has slightly curved edges, though we would prefer the overall shape of the Redmi 3S, which is more rounded and fits better in a palm, in our experience. On the Redmi 4A, the sides meet the edges with only a slight curve. However, the rear panel of this phone has a matte finish and offers a slightly better grip.
At roughly 132 grams, the Redmi 4A is lighter than the Redmi 3S which weighs 144 grams. Xiaomi announced at the India launch that the Redmi 4A is the "lightest Redmi ever." Notably, both models are 8.5mm thick. The Redmi 4A has been launched in three colours - Dark Grey, Gold, and Rose Gold. We received a Dark Grey unit for review.
The Xiaomi Redmi 4A comes with a charger, Micro-USB cable, warranty card, user guide, and SIM eject tool. As with other Xiaomi products, the Redmi 4A's retail box doesn't include a headset, which might be disappointing for some users. The retail box flaunts a "Made in India" tag. At its launch event, Xiaomi stated that 95 percent of its phones are now manufactured in India.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Features: 7/10
Xiaomi Redmi 4A comes with a 5-inch HD display and houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC with a quad-core Cortex A53 processor clocked at 1.4 GHz. The graphics portion is taken care of by an Adreno 308 GPU. The chipset is paired with 2 GB RAM. It comes in 16 GB and 32 GB storage variants. We got the 16 GB model to test, which gives around 10.3 GB of usable space. You can expand the storage using a microSD card by up to 256 GB.
The Xiaomi Redmi 4A comes in a hybrid dual SIM configuration (micro SIM + nano SIM), supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS and BDS. It comes with a micro USB port for charging and data transfer, and there is no support for fast charging.
Thankfully it bundles in an FM radio as well. On the camera front, you get a 13 MP rear camera, along with a 5 MP selfie camera. All this is powered by a non-removable 3,120 mAh Li-ion battery.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Display: 7/10
The Xiaomi Redmi 4A comes with a 5-inch IPS LCD display with a 1280x720 pixel resolution. While the colours look good and the viewing angles are fine, you do notice dithering on the text when you are using WhatsApp and other apps. This is particularly noticeable when the text size is selected as 'Small' from the settings menu.
While watching videos, the sharpness and colour reproduction is quite good. Changing viewing angles only affects the brightness to an extent, but I didn’t notice any colour shifting. Sunlight legibility could have been better; you have no option but to boost up the brightness. Overall, the display is quite good for this segment of phones.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Software: 7.5/10
The phone comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 8 skin atop it. This was the same combination seen on the recently launched Redmi Note 4. The MIUI 8 skin has some minor additions over the MIUI 7, such as a smaller clock widget on the home screen, a redesigned notification and status bar (the status bar looks a lot more artistic on the MIUI 8), redesigned weather app and more.
There aren’t many changes at a functional level, but just a minor revamp on the design front. One thing that stood out was the way the screenshot thumbnail floats on the top right hand corner of the screen after you take a screenshot. Taking a screenshot (holding down on the volume down and power button) would take a wee bit longer than usual. There is a definite lag one notices with the animations and when launching apps.
It features an app called Second Space which has been out since last year. The app basically lets you create separate profiles for different use cases. For instance, you can have one mode for work and one mode for office — with different wallpapers, app icon arrangement, et al. It replicates another instance for you.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Performance: 6/10
This is an entry level phone, so as far as the regular tasks are concerned, it does not falter. The Snapdragon 425 SoC paired with 2 GB RAM fulfills all the needs of an entry level user. But the software glitches are noticeable on quite a few occasions. For instance, there were many instances when after getting done with a call, despite hitting the red coloured end call button, it would require two-three presses for the call to end. The response tends to be a bit delayed at times. I'm sure it's nothing that a future update cannot resolve.
There is lag when switching between apps and while opening some heavy apps. Gaming is fine for casual games, don’t bother with heavy titles such as Asphalt 8: Airborne. Apart from the lag, it will also take up a lot of space on your phone — remember, you have only 10.3 GB usable. You can add a microSD card, thankfully.
The phone does not heat much, unless you are running heavy apps onboard. At no instance during the testing did we notice any app shutting down due to overheating.
In terms of benchmarks, there are no surprises here. The call quality is excellent and I faced absolutely no issues with that. The loudspeaker is quite poor though, you will be better off with a pair of good earphones.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Camera: 6.5/10
The Xiaomi Redmi 4A comes with a 13 MP rear camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 5 MP front-facing camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The camera interface is similar to what we have come to expect from Xiaomi phones. There are a lot more filters to choose from, with some interesting ones such as Tunnel and Mirror. The manual mode only lets you adjust white balance and ISO. In the video mode, you only get the time-lapse mode (no slow motion recording).
In terms of image quality, there is definitely a loss of sharpness when you are pixel peeping, and it is prominent around the edges. But for sharing on social media websites, the images are good enough. The HDR mode is not on by default, as it is with higher end Xiaomi phones. HDR mode when on, takes a couple of seconds to process the image.
Also, over processing of images is noticeable in low light conditions, thereby giving them a waxy feel. Shooting post sundown is a challenge and the Redmi 4A is not really able to handle it well. But then again, this is an entry level smartphone, and for this price, you are getting quite a decent shooter, one that can put phones priced at twice the MRP to shame.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Battery: 8/10
There was a time when entry-level phones had not so impressive batteries, but not so anymore. Large capacity battery phones are coming in at increasingly affordable prices. The Xiaomi Redmi 4A for instance, packs in a 3,120 mAh battery, which is quite some capacity. The iPhone 7 Plus in comparison packs a smaller battery. Add in the fact that the 4A is powered by a low-power Snapdragon 425 SoC and the fact that is has an HD resolution screen.
Together, this means that you can easily extract a work-day's worth of battery life out of the Redmi 4A. A battery charged around 12:30 AM lasted me till 6.30 PM on the next day, which is quite impressive. PCMark for Android gives around 12 hours 32 mins, which is again impressive.
In fact on a light day I was even able to extract over a day and half worth of battery from the Redmi 4A.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Verdict
The new Redmi 4A definitely raises the bar for smartphones at this price level, and we expect it to be very popular. At Rs. 5,999, the Redmi 4A offers a lot of features, especially VoLTE support. Camera performance is decent, and the polycarbonate body, 3120mAh battery, and software are all satisfactory.
It will be interesting to see how well the Redmi 4A performs compared to the Redmi 3S which is still available at Rs. 6,999. For just Rs. 1,000 more, users can get a metal body, better Snapdragon 430 processor, and more battery power if they choose to buy a Redmi 3S instead.
The Redmi 4A seems to be targeted at first-time smartphone buyers, and for that audience, it seems like a decent option.
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