Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime

Dimensions: 139.3 x 69.6 x 8.5 mmWeight: 144 gramsThat just about sums it up as far as the design of the Redmi 3S duo is concerned. If you’ve seen a Redmi Note 3, the new 3S pair is nearly the same in terms of looks, only smaller. The same metal body, the same curvy edges and rounded corners, the same solid build – the same design philosophy in essence. The capacitive navigation keys on the 3S’ fascia aren’t backlit, and a tiny notification LED is present below the home button. The placement of the primary camera and flash is also a little different – top left on the rear of the 3S vs in the centre as in the case of the Redmi Note 3.Just like its sibling though, the Redmi 3S is also a hybrid dual-SIM phone – so you get an ejectable tray on the left that gobbles up a micro-SIM and a nano-SIM, but you’ll need to forget the latter if you want to insert a microSD card. Thanks to its 5-inch display and slim bezels, the Redmi 3S is quite compact, and a cinch to use with a single hand. The curvy metal body can get slightly slippery though.  Metal-bodied smartphones available at budget price points are sill rare, so we think the Redmi 3S does stand out in this respect. That said, the design is not particularly exciting. If you ask us though, the key highlight of the Redmi 3S’ design isn’t something that’s visible right away. We’re referring to the 4,100mAh battery, which is actually a shade more powerful than the Redmi Note 3’s 4,050mAh pack. What’s surprising is the way Xiaomi has been able to pack in such a powerful battery in a phone of this size, and the product designers definitely deserve credit for this feat.

Size: 5.0 InchResolution: HD (720 x 1280 pixels)Display Type: IPS LCDPixel Density: 294 ppiWhile we’d always prefer full HD resolution in our quest for value for money, we can’t really complain about the 720p display the Redmi 3S offers. It’s plenty sharp and serves up crisp visuals. And as usual, you get settings to tweak the display output, including a customisable reading mode, customisable colour temperature and choice of contrast levels.

Operating System: AndroidOS Version: 6.0, Marshmallow  We’ve covered Xiaomi’s MIUI platform extensively in the past, and would just be repeating ourselves if highlight all the features again. Suffice for you to know that the Redmi 3S runs MIUI 7, with the underlying platform being Android Marshmallow. The by-now familiar UI offers its usual signature features like theme support, a customisable notification panel with separate screens for alerts and quick settings, and a Security suite that integrates a cleaner, data monitor, blocker, battery manager, virus scanner and a permissions manager. The set of preloaded apps is also as expected, and includes Mi Remote that works in conjunction with the infrared blaster on top to convert the phone into a universal remote, and Mi Store, plus third-party apps like SwiftKey Keyboard, WPS Office, Facebook, Flipkart, Kindle and Amazon Shopping.  Other features like a Lite mode, Child mode, DND, settings to control the notification light and button behaviour, control app notifications etc can be found in device settings. While it’s hardly needed for a phone of this size, a one-handed mode is present as a standard MIUI feature, and you also get a Shortcut menu that appears as a floating ball atop the display. Mi Cloud lets you sync contacts, SMSes, photos and videos, call history, notes, Wi-Fi settings, calendar, voice/call recordings and browser bookmarks with your Mi account, apart from enabling a ‘Find my phone’ feature. Now we did say we won’t go into details and we’ve already mentioned quite a few. You should know however, that MIUI is one of our favourite Android-based ROMs and apart from the key ones we listed above, packs in quite a few other small yet useful features. The platform is now transitioning to version 8 (check out our MIUI 8 beta overview), which would bring even more to the table, and hopefully, the Redmi 3S will also get the same update in the near future.

Primary camera: 13 MPFlash: LED FlashSecondary camera: 5 MPThe Redmi 3S’ camera app presents the same options and shooting modes as we’ve seen before, with the latter covering manual, beautify, handheld twilight and a bunch of scene presets. HDR and a range of colour filters are offered too. Video recording is limited to 1080p, which is acceptable at this price point.  For details on image quality, do head over to the extensive camera review, but in short, the Redmi 3S’ primary 13MP shooter captures good images, especially in daylight. The auto mode sometimes blows out the brighter areas, but the HDR mode works wonders in those cases. Do note that there’s no Auto HDR though. The close ups are nice too, but low light shots can be a little soft and noisy. The 5-meg sensor at front does a fair job, but again, selfies captured in low light could leave a little something to be desired. Considering its budget positioning, we think the Redmi 3S’ shooters are reasonably capable, and most casual users shouldn’t have reason to complain. Here are a few image samples…  

CPU:  Quad core, 1.4 GHz + Quad cor...GPU: Adreno 505RAM: 3 GBMemory: 32 GB + Up to 128 GBSIM Slots: Dual SIM , GSM+GSMBattery: 4100 mAHThe new Redmi 3S models come powered by the new Snapdragon 430 SoC, and are the first smartphones in India to boast this chipset. The octa-core processor utilises four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz and another four clocked at 1.1GHz. Since we’re reviewing the Redmi 3S Prime model here, that chipset is joined in by 3 gigs of RAM and 32GB storage. Just to highlight the differences, the regular Redmi 3S model comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, and can’t boast of a fingerprint scanner unlike its Prime cousin. The Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime turns in very smooth performance, and everything from regular productivity / social apps to intensive games work well. We played Asphalt 8 extensively on it, and the gameplay was smooth on default graphics settings. A few hiccups are noticeable when graphics settings for the game are bumped up to high, but we’ll not hold that against this device. Heat dissipation is handled pretty well too, and the phone barely got warm when stressed. Connectivity-wise, you get 4G with VoLTE, an IR blaster, plus the usual options. Our 32GB Prime model gave us about 24.5GB to use on first boot, and you can use the hybrid SIM slot to add more storage or make use of the USB OTG feature if you wish. The fingerprint scanner (only on the 3S Prime) works pretty well too, and is quite fast and accurate. Apart from unlocking the phone, you can use it to lock individual apps, gain access to the private area and exit Child mode.The 4,100mAh battery is really one of the strongest pillars the Redmi 3S duo stands on. That 5-inch 720p display obviously doesn’t draw as much power as a full HD screen would, and combined with the other hardware and software optimisations, the combination offers stellar battery life. We were able to eke out almost two days on a single charge with regular usage, so you can rest assured that even if your usage is heavy, you should still be able to see a full day through. In our standard drain test, which involves playing an HD video on loop till the battery dies, the Redmi 3S Prime lasted almost 14 hours... showing just how good that battery is. On the flip side, juicing up takes a long time.