Monsters from Asia: the $150 Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is an incredible deal
Design-wise, the Note 3 also doesn't disappoint, with metal adorning the exterior, and a fingerprint scanner occupying the rear. The 5.5-incher comes with a resolution of 1080 x 1920, or a pixel density of 401, so you can rest assured that detail is plentiful. The panel offers a few other extras too, such as smart contrast (dynamically tweaks image depending on surrounding light), low minimum brightness for easy nighttime reading, and even the now trendy, sleep-friendly blue light kill switch.
The Snapdragon version of the phablet also impresses on the camera front, with an upgraded, 16-megapixel main snapper with wide, f2.0 lens, extremely quick phase-detection auto focus (0.1s focusing time advertised), and a dual-tone LED flash for more natural nighttime snaps. Despite having the hardware to power 4K video recording, the Note 3 is unfortunately limited to just 1080p video, but it does offer slow-motion capture at 120 frames per second. Finally—and you'll love the sound of this one—Xiaomi has packed a pretty massive, 4,050mAh cell with the Redmi Note 3, which powers the phone in concert with Android 5.1 Lollipop (with the highly-customizable MIUI 7 skin on top). An update to Marshmallow is planned.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is still in its early roll-out phase, meaning Xiaomi is only selling a given number of devices on a pre-determined date (usually a few times a week). For the time being, this will cause a surge in re-seller pricing, with $220 being the only one we've found so far (pre-order only). If you dig the Note 3, keep in mind that the LTE bands supported by the phone (1800/2100/2700) are unsuitable for use in the US, but will work for most Europeans.
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