Xiaomi today announced the Redmi 3, an all-metal, 5-inch Android smartphone retailing at about $107 (initially available only in China) that continues its legacy of selling impressive devices at disruptive prices. It comes just six months after the plastic Redmi 2 launched, and sees the battery nearly doubled from 2,200mAh to 4,100mAh. Its larger cousin, the 5.5-inch Redmi Note 3 ($140), was unveiled in November.
Regarding Apple comparisons, let’s just say that both phones seem to have taken more than a few design cues from the iPhone 6 — something Apple probably wouldn’t let slide easily if the company ever decided to enter the U.S. market. (Read: expect lawsuits.)
While I’ve historically been a Xiaomi fan and have dished out my own money on its phones in the past, it’s true that the Chinese upstart is starting to feel like just another smartphone maker in a crowd. Perhaps the company is growing up and its rapid-growth period — at least in smartphone shipments — is starting to plateau. Xiaomi does make other products, however, they certainly represent a very minority part of its business/revenues.
Xiaomi sold 61 million smartphones in 2014 however, kept mum on 2015 numbers, leading several to question whether it missed its own internal target of 80 million units for the year. Its attempt to grab a substantial foothold in India doesn’t appear to have quite worked out yet, either.
That’s despite Xiaomi’s homegrown rival, Lenovo, sitting comfortably as one of India’s top-five smartphone players alongside the likes of Samsung (as of data from Q3 2015). As time will prove, India’s an important market for Xiaomi to win in. At home, Huawei is starting to outgun Xiaomi by all appearances.
Let’s talk specs real quick.
The Redmi 3 packs a 720p display and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor. Its 16GB of internal storage is expandable up to 128GB with a microSD card, and the 2 GB of RAM is generous enough. As I mentioned at the start, the 4,100mAh battery is the real show-stopper here. At 8.5mm thick, it’s a pretty slim device weighing 144g (a tad thicker and heavier than the comparatively-sized LG Nexus 5X at 7.9mm and 136g).
The main camera is a 13MP with an f/2.0 aperture, while the front-facing is 5MP with f/2.2 aperture. A dual-SIM allows one slot to double as a microSD, and it all runs on MIUI 7, Xiaomi’s latest custom version of Android (though whether it’s based on 6.0 Marshmallow or an earlier version is not clear). On the whole, I don’t mind MIUI — I prefer it to Huawei’s EMUI. However, skins in general are never my cup of tea over vanilla Android as Google intended it.
Looking at the back of the phone, the speaker grill, Mi logo, and diamond pattern are the only things keeping it from easily being mistaken for the back of an iPhone 6 by the unassuming eye. It’s really quite blatant — and yes, Chinese consumers will very likely love that. Xiaomi wasn’t exactly original in its Mi Pad 2 design, either, which really quite resembles an iPad Mini.
So what’s next for Xiaomi? Well, its much-delayed flagship smartphone of 2015/16, the Mi 5, is due to launch next month after the Chinese New Year, according to cofounder Liwan Jiang. While the Redmi 3 could very likely do strong sales with those on a budget, the Mi 5 is the one everyone’s been waiting for. Let’s see if the iPhone comparisons continue or stop there.
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