Introduction
Cheap doesn’t always mean a compromise or something bad, which Xiaomi proves with their budget smartphone options. One of the representatives is the Redmi 4A which we have today for the review. If you browse web-shops a bit, you can find 16GB Redmi 4A for as little as $100. It is a low cost device with a Qualcomm chipset, decent build quality and with a DualSim tray. There are 2 versions on the market: 16GB and 32GB. It emerged on the market towards the end of 2016. In the box, there is a Xiaomi charger (US version), a microUSB cable, a warranty card and a sim tray tool. This device comes in several color options: Gold, Rose Gold and Dark Grey. Let’s now see what we get from the Redmi 4A for only 100 dollars.
Unboxing
Display
This device has a 5” IPS display. It is an HD panel that can show up to 16 million colors. The sharpness of the screen is decent, and the number of PPI is 296. Color representation is good, but compared to some AMOLED displays, colors can seem a little washed up. Visibility on the sunlight is good, but blacks could be a little better represented. A disadvantage is definitely the lack of protection over the screen, meaning that there’s no Corning Gorilla Glass, which could result in scratches very soon. While in stand-by, you can unlock the phone by double tapping on the screen. Also there’s the Reading Mode which modifies the colors in order to put less pressure on the eyes during use, and manual contrast and colors settings.
Hardware and OS
As we have previously said, the Redmi 4A is equipped with a Qualcomm chipset and with either 16 or 32GB of storage. We have a 32GB version which is more than enough for an average user, and the storage is expandable via a microSD card up to 256 GB, which is great! Speaking of the CPU, there is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset, which is a quad core CPU with 4 Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz, which provide fluent operational work. The device is also equipped with 2GB of DDR3 RAM which has become standard for lower class. The general impression of this device is that it deals easily with all usual tasks. Mid-range games work very nicely, but more demanding games definitely remind you why the price of this phone is so low. AnTuTu benchmark showed a score of 36.329. It runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with an MIUI 8.5 user interface. The official upgrade to Android v7.0 Nougat has not yet been announced, but if you like tweaking your device, you can already have Android Nougat on your Redmi 4A.
Camera
Two things we really liked taking into account the price of the Redmi 4A are its cameras. We have a 13MP camera on the rear and a 5MP camera on the front. The rear facing camera is supported with an LED flash for low light shooting. The quality of the camera is more than just good. There are plenty of details with well saturated colors and low levels of noise. An improvement would definitely be Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) system, which would result in faster focusing, but it’s obviously reserved for more expensive phones in the lineup. Alongside the classic auto photo mode, there are also: Beautify, Panorama, Manual, Straighten, Scene and HHT (for low light conditions). HDR is present, and it provides nice enhancements. The video is captured in FullHD at 30fps, and has decent quality. Continuous auto-focus while recording videos does a good job. The front facing camera has a 5MP resolution, and provides not that great results, but if we remember that this is a $100 device, we cannot ask for too much. The front facing camera record HD videos at 30fps. Alongside the typical camera settings there are some other neat options like age and gender recognition.
Connectivity
The Redmi 4A supports 2G, 3G and 4G networks, and it is available only as a DualSIM device. The tray supports a microSIM and a nanoSIM card, but if you want to use a microSD card, you’ll have to use the nanoSIM card. The charging port is microUSB 2.0.
When it comes to wireless connections, there are:
- WiFi 802.11
- Bluetooth v4.1
- FM radio
- A-GPS
Battery
One full charge can bring around:
- talk-time: around 25 hours
- stand-by: around 792 hours
Final words
Without a slightest bit of exaggeration – the Redmi 4A is definitely one of the best choices in terms of budget class devices. Decent cameras and a clean software make for a great phone. It is a well-rounded, compact device with a few disadvantages made up for with the price, but a deal breaker could definitely be another Xiaomi device, the standard Redmi 4, which will bring you a more powerful chipset, quick charging and a fingerprint scanner for only $20 more, but if you can live without these advantages of the Redmi 4 – the Redmi 4A is a great choice for you.
Do you like the Xiaomi Redmi 4A? We’d like to see your opinion in the comment section below. If you have any ideas or you would like to see a specific device being reviewed soon, feel free to let us know here or on our Facebook page. If you liked this review, subscribe to our Youtube channel, like us on Facebook, and sit back and relax while we make more of the same for you.
Xiaomi Redmi 4A Full Specifications
