Looking back: The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 - a cheap phone into a global best-seller

With a slender aluminum case and a price of 150 USD - less than half of the Mi Note (launched in 2015), the impressive configuration of the Redmi Note 3 is the highlight that makes it a hit for consumers. use.

In fact, this phone is so popular that in September 2017, it became one of the top 10 most popular smartphones globally, according to Insight Portal - can be proud to compare with iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.

The original Redmi Note 3 uses a MediaTek Helio X10 chipset (codenamed "Hennessy"). A few months later, Xiaomi introduced a new Redmi Note 3 model with the full name is Redmi Note 3 Pro (codenamed "Kenzo"), using the Snapdragon 650 chipset, and the new model became surprisingly popular. .

After launching in India in March 2016 for $ 150, the Redmi Note 3 quickly became the best-seller phone on online stores, with a total of 2.3 million units sold up to date. September of that year - every 7 seconds a Redmi Note 3 was sold. Equally impressive, one statistic shows that 1 in 9 phones sold online in India is the Redmi Note 3.

Why is the Redmi Note 3 model using a Snapdragon chip more popular? One reason is that Xiaomi has increased the resolution of the rear camera from 13MP to 16MP. The difference of 3MP is not much, but the new camera sensor has helped push the image quality from the "average" to "quite good". Unfortunately, the quality of 1080p / 30fps videos is not improved.

But that is not the most important thing. The S650 chip of Redmi Note 3 Pro has 2 powerful Cortex-A72 cores, along with 4 smaller A53 cores (compared to the 8 A53 cores on Helio X10).

This is a fairly common layout for mid-range chips, and we still see this layout to this day because of its efficiency. When evaluated, the Snapdragon version has a double core performance and has an outstanding advantage in terms of 3D rendering capabilities. And yet, despite having the same battery (4,050mAh), the Redmi Note 3 Pro has an operating time of up to 93 hours, higher than the 72 hours of the Helio Redmi Note 3 version.

The MediaTek version also doesn't have a microSD card slot, while the Snapdragon version does - and that's an important addition, given that the device only has two internal memory options, 16GB and 32GB.

Both versions use 5.5-inch IPS screens with 1080p resolution - quite small for a machine called "Note", but still quite sharp. We never know what kind of protective layer on this LCD screen, but that certainly does not affect the popularity of the machine.

Finally, the Snapdragon version is sold globally, while the MediaTek version is only sold in a certain region.

Both devices received surprisingly good software support from Xiaomi, updated to MIUI 9. The Snapdragon version even made it to MIUI 10 before Xiaomi stopped supporting it in early 2019 (i.e., three years later. meeting day).

Of course, the MIUI version is not related to the Android version. It starts with MIUI 7 (Android 5.1) and ends with MIUI 10 (Android 6.0). Although the system core is old, the new updates still offer a lot of cool features - not bad for a great performance phone at a low price.

Xiaomi also launched a third version, codenamed "Kate", although sometimes it is called "Special Edition". The "special" part here is a modem with more LTE bands, making it possible for phones to be sold in new markets.

We don't mention the Redmi Note 2, but it has a definite role in this story - the Redmi Note 2 was announced just 3 months before the Note 3. It also uses Helio X10, but the chassis is made of plastic and The battery is smaller, which means it's not quite an attractive phone. The third generation also has a fingerprint sensor on the back, and the Note 2 simply doesn't have a chance because it doesn't have a fingerprint sensor and a microSD card slot.

Why did Xiaomi let the Note 2 launch and soon introduce a better new model? No one knows, and nobody even remembers, the previous phone, when the Redmi Note 3 completely overshadowed it and proved that the Redmi Note series is a force not to be underestimated.

Reference: GSMArena