Xiaomi Redmi 4A first impressions: Priced at Rs five,999, this looks as if a terrific alternative

Xiaomi Redmi 4A doesn’t sport a metal-unibody design like the Redmi 3S, 3S Prime; instead it has a polycarbonate body, though with a metal finish.

Xiaomi, which is now the number two smartphone vendor in India, is out with a new phone: the Redmi 4A. The company has so far launched two smartphones in India for 2017, and both are under its budget Redmi brand. The Redmi Note 4 was launched in January 2017, and Xiaomi claims to have sold 1 million of these phones in over three months.

Redmi 4A is an even cheaper smartphone from the company, likely to boost sales further. Based on the presentation, Xiaomi is pitching this as a successor the Redmi 1S, rather than the Redmi 3S that launched last year.

This is also a Made in India phone, just like the Redmi 3S series. Whether this will mean better supply for the new phone remains to be seen. Usually Xiaomi’s phones are sold out within minutes of going on sale online, which puts an issue for a lot of interested buyers.

Redmi 3S Prime was a hit from the company, and priced under Rs 9,000. The new phone is priced even lower at Rs 5,999, but sadly this one comes in only one variant 2GB RAM+ 16GB storage.Here’s our first impression of Xiaomi’s latest phone in India.

Design, Display: Redmi 4A doesn’t sport a metal-unibody design like the Redmi 3S, 3S Prime; instead it has a polycarbonate body, though with a metal finish. Overall in terms of design, it looks very familiar to the Redmi phones we’ve seen in the past, and given the 5-inch form factor, this is a very compact device.

Dimensions of the Redmi 4A are 139.9 x 70.4 x 8.5 mm, and the phone weighs 131.5 g. We got the Dark Grey colour variant for review, and this one looks very subtle compared to the usual gold-colour variants we’ve reviewed in the past.

We got the Dark Grey colour variant for review, and this one looks very subtle compared to the usual gold-colour variants we’ve reviewed in the past.

For a budget device, the Redmi 4A still looks pretty good, and compact. It’s not slippery, and this is a very light-weight device. The display on the Redmi 4A is a 5-inch HD LCD display. The display quality feels similar to the one on the Redmi 3S Prime, and despite the HD resolution, this one is more than adequate for regular usage which includes social media, gaming, etc.

Processor, Performance: Redmi 4A comes with 2GB RAM+16GB storage, which is expandable to 128GB. The phone runs Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core processor clocked at 1.4Ghz, coupled with Adreno 308 GPU.The previous Redmi 3S phone ran the Qualcomm 410 processor, though there was a 3GB RAM version as well.

So far, the Redmi 4A has been a smooth performer. Games like Asphalt 8 ran easily on the phone and multitasking has not been an issue so far. We’ll have more on the performance after our full review.

So far, the Redmi 4A has been a smooth performer. Games like Asphalt 8 ran easily on the phone and multitasking has not been an issue so far.

Camera, Battery: Redmi 4A comes with a 13MP rear camera, and a 5MP front camera, similar to the Redmi 3S setup. The camera results are acceptable in daylight, and we didn’t face shutter lag as such. We’ll have to test out the camera more in low-light to see how it performs overall.

On the battery front, Xiaomi has not packed this one with a 4000 mAh battery like it did with the Redmi 3S. The Redmi 4A has a 3120mAh battery, and we still have to run battery tests on this. However, we have been using the SIM with 4G, and it lasted the weekend without any charge. But this was with no usage for one day, still not bad for a budget smartphone.

On the battery front, Xiaomi has not packed this one with a 4000 mAh battery like it did with the Redmi 3S. The Redmi 4A has a 3120mAh battery.

On the connectivity front, this phone has 4G VoLTE, supports Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi 802.11 b / g / n 2.4G WiFi as well. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 8 on top.

Final Thoughts

At first glance, Redmi 4A doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade, especially if you compare to Redmi 3S. But as Xiaomi said at the end of their launch presentation, this is not the successor to the Redmi 3S series.

With the Redmi 4A, the processor is an upgrade sure, but then this one has a plastic build, which doesn’t quite compare to the Redmi 3S phones. Also there’s no fingerprint scanner either or a bulky battery as the USP here. The Redmi 4A’s price is the USP and at under Rs 6,000, this phone might seem like an attractive option to many.