Xiaomi Redmi 3S Review

Name: Xiaomi Redmi 3S Review
Item: Xiaomi Redmi 3S
Rating: 6.5
Author: Luis D.

Posted: 11 Aug 2016, 09:38 , posted by Luis D.

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Tags: Android -Android + Xiaomi -Xiaomi +

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Introduction

Low-cost Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi is at it again, presenting the latest addition to its Redmi line-up of affordable devices, the Redmi 3S. Priced somewhere between $100 – $160 in China (the price ending up a bit higher for global consumers), the handset aims to up people's expectations for affordable phones with a quality build, adequate performance with up-to-date hardware, a decent camera, and a long-lasting battery. Let's put the new pretender through its paces and see how attractive of a proposition it ultimately is!

In the box:

Xiaomi Redmi 3S
Data and charging cable
Charger
SIM ejector tool
Informational pamphlet

Design

The metal and plastic build is unquestionably generic, but pleasant nonetheless.

The Xiaomi Redmi 3S is among the best-looking devices in its price category. While the design is objectively generic, this is still an elegant phone made of metal, with plastic substituting the aluminum for the top and bottom parts to aid signal reception. At 8.5mm thickness and 144 grams, the phone feels light, but sturdy. It has capacitive touch keys below the screen, a standard microUSB port, and the fingerprint sensor is placed on the back. Sold in Silver, Gray, and Gold, the phone leaves no complaints in the design department.

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+ 10 images

Front view | Side view

5.48 x 2.74 x 0.33 inches
139.3 x 69.6 x 8.5 mm
5.08 oz (144 g)

Xiaomi Redmi 3S

5.74 x 2.85 x 0.32 inches
145.8 x 72.3 x 8.1 mm
5.57 oz (158 g)

Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)

6.02 x 3.02 x 0.39 inches
153 x 76.6 x 9.8 mm
5.47 oz (155 g)

Motorola Moto G4

5.96 x 3 x 0.32 inches
151.3 x 76.3 x 8.15 mm
5.57 oz (158 g)

Honor 5X

To see the phones in real size or compare them with other models, visit our Visual Phone Size Comparison page.

Display

An okay display whose resolution could have been higher and color temperature warmer.

Outfitted with a 5-inch, 720p resolution IPS panel, the Redmi 3S display is certainly nice, but it also shows the corners cut by Xiaomi. A 1080 x 1920 px resolution would have fared better for a screen this size, improving its sharpness. Still, the presence of a night reading mode and a color temperature adjustment slider is quite welcome. While colors appear quite cold by default (at 7942 Kelvin), the screen boasts nice brightness properties and a fairly good contrast ratio. It may be an average panel, but it does the job well enough and it doesn't strain the eyes with odd imperfections and major unpleasantness.

Display measurements and quality

	Maximum brightness (nits)Higher is better	Minimum brightness (nits)Lower is better	Contrast Higher is better	Color temperature (Kelvins)	Gamma	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
Xiaomi Redmi 3S	459 (Good)	1 (Excellent)	1:1503 (Excellent)	7942 (Average)	2.54	4.38 (Average)	6.26 (Average)
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)	300 (Average)	3 (Excellent)	unmeasurable (Excellent)	6746 (Excellent)	1.98	3.35 (Good)	6.41 (Average)
Motorola Moto G4	650 (Excellent)	5 (Excellent)	1:1334 (Excellent)	6915 (Excellent)	2.38	5.38 (Average)	3.42 (Good)
Honor 5X	585 (Excellent)	7 (Good)	1:1251 (Excellent)	8021 (Poor)	2.19	2.9 (Good)	6.77 (Average)

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The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

These measurements are made using SpectraCal's CalMAN calibration software.

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Interface and Functionality

Related phones

PhoneArena rating:

6.5 Good

User rating:

8.5 Very good

Xiaomi Redmi 3S Compare

Specifications News^[1]

Rivals Photos

Size it Videos

35 Comments

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posted on 11 Aug 2016, 09:44 11

1. Barney_stinson (banned) (Posts: 672; Member since: 30 May 2016)

really??? its best bang for buck

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 12:15 2

15. neela_akaash (Posts: 1239; Member since: 05 Aug 2014)

One question:- which is the best phone in $150 price group?

Why they even try to review any non-american phones??

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 23:32 2

23. ibend (Posts: 6747; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

yeah right.. they can't just give it 6.5 score without mentioning any better phone for that price.. (its base price is 140 EUR here, and won't reach $200 even with shipping fee and tax)
and its have great battery life (last more than 50% longer than competitors)

at least other site is still fair enough, lol
pcadvisor.co.uk - 4/5 "The best £120 you'll spend today"
BGR.in - 4.5/5

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 12:26 17

16. NonFanBoy (Posts: 180; Member since: 28 May 2015)

Don't pay attention to their reviews. It never makes sense.

Display : "An okay display whose resolution could have been higher" and here we have a 720p display on a 700$ phone which goes by the name of iPhone 6s.
"And colour temperature warmer" while they mention in the very next para that there is a slider to adjust that.

Didn't read any further.

posted on 12 Aug 2016, 12:11 1

29. megaSUNNY (Posts: 88; Member since: 26 Jun 2012)

Really dude, just shocked. I had a hands on with that mobile in India here. Excellent bang for buck. Don't know what they were expecting with such a low cost mobile despite having useful specs(battery especially). Really a pathetic review.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:07 13

2. Kumar123 (unregistered)

It's really sad how poor score Xiaomi's phone get here despite being their phone having the best bang for the buck ratio.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:23 14

3. mike777 (Posts: 8; Member since: 11 Aug 2016)

Its a disgrace how biased the reviews on PA are. A 6.5??? Really??? 8 hours of SOT on your beloved Iphone is excellent, so what is 13 hours then? Also excellent? Wow. This is the king of budget phones for a 100 bucks. How come Samsung can make a "budget phone" for the same amount of money and the screen sucks, the performance sucks and battery sucks. You guys should really reinvent your scoring, because this makes no sense. And also it would not be a bad idea if you rename yourself to applefanarena. Then it would make more sense.
If you're making reviews and you've already decided that it will suck cause it's not Apple or Samsung, why are you making it at all. Ridiculous
It will be a feast to read your review of the upcoming Redmi 4, if you should dare to make one.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:35 6

4. may_czos (Posts: 943; Member since: 22 Nov 2014)

1. HD resolution for $120 is perfectly adequate.
2. Snapdragon 430 doesn't suppoert DDR4 RAM.
3. GPU performance is surprisingly decent, it's much better for games than Moto G4.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 23:38 1

26. ibend (Posts: 6747; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

and it doesnt overheat like SD617 inside motoG4 :P

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:38 3

5. LetsBeHonest (Posts: 1548; Member since: 04 Jun 2013)

The review is not really fair at all.
The device is truly a bang for buck no doubt about that.
Even cons are not justifying the given score.
They always point out non availability of device and take 2 points immediately. Of course it is a con but to really know the value of this device you have to buy it from where it is officially available. Otherwise it's like measuring the value of oxygen on a planet where people breathe nitrogen.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:45 11

6. UglyFrank (Posts: 2179; Member since: 23 Jan 2014)

5inch 720p on a super budget device is bad but 4.7in 750p on a high end device is fine?

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:54 13

9. mahima (Posts: 652; Member since: 20 Nov 2014)

exactly, 16gb memory with expandable memory is a con? iphone 16gb with 5x the price will still score 9.5.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 12:02 1

14. Nathan_ingx (Posts: 4764; Member since: 07 Mar 2012)

True! Why are they complaining about the resolution?
Let's look back on a flagship of yesteryear, the note II. Granted it's old but it had an HD arrangement on a screen that spread out 5.5 inch. And it was perfectly fine...these guys are shooting too much.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:49 9

7. UglyFrank (Posts: 2179; Member since: 23 Jan 2014)

How can no world-wide network support be a con for a budget device aimed at one market?

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:57 1

11. mahima (Posts: 652; Member since: 20 Nov 2014)

two markets, China and India, and it support all 4g network in this two countries. Every xiaomi phone review got this con... typical pa

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 16:15

17. hemedans (Posts: 732; Member since: 01 Jun 2013)

even Africa xiaomi is present in countries like Nigeria and Kenya

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 23:34

24. ibend (Posts: 6747; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

its on some parts EU as well, and somewhere around southeast asia

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:53 4

8. mahima (Posts: 652; Member since: 20 Nov 2014)

little storage space in base model? iphone 16gb with 5x cost is good? phone-bias-arena, at least redmi 3s still have micro sd slot. The review system is just stupid.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 10:56 5

10. mahima (Posts: 652; Member since: 20 Nov 2014)

who is this louis D? worst phone review I've read in a while

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 17:52 1

18. PHYCLOPSH (Posts: 599; Member since: 28 Jun 2014)

Wow, I think this phone should've gotten at least 7.5 for the battery alone.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 18:55

19. ech2wo (Posts: 7; Member since: 07 Jul 2016)

I'll give a 9

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 23:35 2

25. ibend (Posts: 6747; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

no worries, this phone is getting great score on other site, lol
pcadvisor.co.uk - 4/5
BGR.in - 4.5/5
and more to come

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 19:33

20. Arthurhkt (Posts: 697; Member since: 19 Apr 2012)

Wow wow wow, chill guys, I think PA did give it a decent score ya know? I mean for a phone which is not belongs to Samsung or Apple, 6.5 would be the 8.5 of Samsung or Apple. We really should accept that the scoring scheme for PA is quite messy, I should give Redmi 3S a score of 5/7.

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 21:52

21. joey_sfb (Posts: 6794; Member since: 29 Mar 2012)

It's a decent phone for those that only want to spend $100 >

posted on 11 Aug 2016, 22:21 1

22. Arthurhkt (Posts: 697; Member since: 19 Apr 2012)

It is a decent phone, I am using it, but too bad it is not Samsung or Apple, so the scoring system for PA for any non Samsung/Apple phone will be different.

posted on 15 Aug 2016, 04:57

30. EcoCare (Posts: 444; Member since: 30 Jul 2014)

Shows how inconsistent PA rating system is. They want to review non-American phones, yet they have to lower the score simply because it doesn't support proper cellular bands for the US itself! How silly is that?

posted on 15 Aug 2016, 09:20

31. amash1o1 (Posts: 3; Member since: 28 Jul 2016)

This phone is best in budget catogery ,and even having features which no smartphone have in this catogery you are giving just 6.5. maybe they are jelous that redmi 3s is perform better than their iphone in some department.

posted on 16 Nov 2016, 06:35

32. tkstevefox86 (Posts: 1; Member since: 16 Nov 2016)

My review of the Xiami Redmi 3S - THE COMPACT KILLER!
youtube.com/watch?v=FbIK9jbaMUQ

posted on 09 Jan 2017, 07:50

33. Francescolg (Posts: 2; Member since: 09 Jan 2017)

Worst review about the Redmi 3s that I've read so far. It contains false information and a wrong estimated price. The phone, actually, starts at 110 bucks (when in very special offer) up to 150 bucks (~normal price).
The camera has autofocus (!) and it's pretty fast and da_n good for that price range! (100-150bucks) Additionaly, it has also hdr-sth.. (when there are light and dark zones on a picture.
The hardware is better than a simple moto-g4!! Don't believe their stats, 430 sd processor and adreno 5 FTW!
And here you get a very good (!) fingerprint-scanner and an ir-sensor (universal remote control).
Also the screen is very nice and readable in sun light conditions!!

Please, absolutely (!), check other reviews before making a decision, like gsm arena and watch videos on youtube! This phone is best bang for the buck!

If very good camera pictures are REALLY important for you, than go for a) Moto g4 plus or b) LeEco LeMax2 (price range 150-250)!

posted on 09 Jan 2017, 08:08

34. Francescolg (Posts: 2; Member since: 09 Jan 2017)

I forgot, there is also the international version (with MiUi 8.x Global Stable) which supports LTE band 20!! (if you're from GER or from the UK, buy this one!)

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Xiaomi Redmi 3S

view full specs

PhoneArena rating:

6.5Good

Display	5.0 inches, 720 x 1280 pixels (294 ppi) IPS LCD
Camera	13 megapixels
Hardware	Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, Octa-core, 1400 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53 processor 3 GB
Size	5.48 x 2.74 x 0.33 inches (139.3 x 69.6 x 8.5 mm) 5.08 oz (144 g)