Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review: pros,cons, price and general information

Today technology world is moving fast. What you buy today becomes outdated tomorrow. Either you keep waiting for something new or grab the best of what is available and get going. In the past people hated Chinese brands, but today those same people are praising the good work done by this companies and they are the same people who end up purchasing Chinese smartphones.

   Here is the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Review also known as Xiaomi Redmi 4 Pro in some regions, which is one the latest budget mid-range smartphones from Xiaomi. It focus more on battery life and stability, all thanks to it efficient Snapdragon 625 processor, adreno 506 GPU and a large 4100mAh battery capacity which you can get for a price of only $160.

[Sales Page ##shopping-cart##]

Inside the box:

Anyway, inside the box you’ll find the phone itself, a microUSB cable and an AC adapter with a 5V/2A output rating. That’s it.

Specifications overview:

Display: 5.0 inch, FHD screen, 441PPI
CPU: Snapdragon 625 Octa Core Max 2.0GHz
System: MIUI 8
RAM + ROM: 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM
Camera: 13.0MP rear camera + 5.0MP front camera
Sensor: Gravity Sensor, Gyroscope, Infrared sensors
SIM Card: dual SIM dual standby, Nano SIM / Micro SIM / Micro SD card
Feature: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
Bluetooth: 4.2, Bluetooth HID
Network:
GSM B2/B3/B5/B8
WCDMA B1/B2/B5/B8
TD-SCDMA B34/B39
CDMA2000/1X BC0
FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7
TD-LTE B38/B39/B40/B41(2555-2655MHz)

The main difference between Redmi Note 4X and Redmi 4 Prime:

   The Redmi 4 Prime shares the same specifications as the Redmi note 4X. Apart from the screen size, everything other things about this two smartphones is the same.

   If you want a smartphone with a better battery life, easy to hold with one hand and fast charging capabilities then the Redmi 4 Prime is for you. Otherwise if you prefer a smartphone with a big 5.5 inch screen and better Camera then the Redmi Note 4X  is the best Device for you.

The audio quality, specifications, features and camera resolution of both device is the same.

Design:

   Since i received this phone from Gearbest and have been using it since 2 weeks now. The build quality and design are flawless. Premium feel from the first touch. I really like the metal uni-body design. However, it is quite slippery if you have dry hands or if you are wearing a glove be careful. Don’t take a gamble as there is no warranty with the phone (unless you want to take it back to china), but it totally worth it for it cheap price.

   On the front you have a 5MP of front camera, earpiece, sensor and a notification light with up to 7 different colors. The menu keys you see at the front aren’t backlite, it just like all the previous redmi budget line of smartphones from xiaomi.

   At the back you will see the main 13MP of camera, a dual tone flash and a fingerprint reader. The paddle at the top is made of plastic and the antenna band is at the bottom, this is unlike the Redmi Note 4.

At the right side we have the volume up/down rocker and the power button which is made out of metal.

On the left side we have only the sim try.

On the bottom we have the microphone, loudspeaker and the micro USB 2.0 Charging port.

On the top we have the Headphone jack, infrared transmitter and a microphone for noise cancellation and video recording.

I currently have a standard sized SIM, while this phone supports either a nano SIM (shared slot with a memory card) or a micro SIM.

   Looking at the screen you can’t but notice the big wide black bezels around the screen, which is a little bit disappointing if you are using the silver or Gold color. The bezels are abnormally large but still very much acceptable, you won’t even notice it, if you are using the black color of this device.

Camera and video :

   The camera and video quality of the Redmi 4 prime in my opinion depends on your standard and what you really want. If all you want right now is a Flagship class camera quality, then you will be disappointed because there is no Mid-range phone in the market right now that can fulfill your purpose. It is better for you to go for a high-end flagship smartphone.

   The 13MP camera at the back is really good and it takes decent pictures, the result is amazing. Front camera, on the outside is good for selfie but when you shoot inside room (low light conditions) is no good enough when compared to other devices in it class.

It’s powered by Snapdragon 625 processor but still doesn’t record 4K videos.This is a dirty trick played by Xiaomi, they have knowingly restricted the camera app to record videos at just 1080p. The chipset supports 4K video though. It can be made through ‘open camera’ app. And slow motion video can also be recorded through third party applications

How to force enable 4K video recording mode:

Hmm I think there may be a solution to this problem.
The app “Open Camera” has a “Forced 4K” mode which enables 4K recording on any device if your CPU and GPU support to do so. I think the “Open Camera” app can be used to enable 4K capability on Redmi 4 prime because the Snapdragon 625 with Adreno 506 are capable of encoding and decoding 4K media.
Download Open Camera for android
[Download ##download##]

Display:

The screen has a cured 2.5D glass

If you are not fond of bigger screen, then you should go for the Redmi 4 prime because of its 5 inches form factor. It is the first Xiaomi redmi series to have a 1080p display as against the previous redmi series with lower 720p resolutions.

Yes, it does support the double tap to wake – it is disabled by default and you can easily find and enable it in the display settings.

Screen spec:

• 5.0 1080 x 1920 display
• 441 Pixel Per Inch (PPI)
• Max brightness 448 Lux
• Dragontail Screen Glass Type

It has a very nice display colors, good brightness, good sharpness, it looks perfect and i promise you won’t have any complains about the screen.

Call sounds, Speakers and Recording:

   If you listen to the sounds coming out of the speakers, you will discover that left volume is much more lower than the right side. This is not a bug or problem, if you cover up the right speaker side with your thumb, you will hardly be able to hear any sounds. This is perfectly normal, the Redmi 4 prime has only one speaker and it is located only at the right side. The left side is for the Mic which is used to record sounds and calls.

   I am facing a problem with speaker, my sounds seems to be broken! when an alert comes from messages or notifications. I can hear some low cracking disturbing sounds i don’t know if this is normal or my speaker is faulty.

Audio quality and voice recording is very bad.  I don’t listen to music much but I use headphones, to make calls and I hear all kind of clicks that aren’t supposed to be there. Also the speaker is weak, for example you wont be able to use the speaker while driving.

There is a way to fix the Audio quality and the microphone performance when recording, but you will need to have root access on your phone which i don’t always recommend.

Redmi 4 microphone Fix:

   It’s caused by flawed background noise cancellation, you need to disable background noise cancellation. You can fix it but echo will be heard. I found a solution on reddit that worked for me. Just by searching for solution to Redmi 4 microphone fix on google. It’s explained how to fix it in few minutes, but it requires root access. Check the link out:
[Microphone Fix ##eye##]

How to fix and allow read/write permissions on micro sdcard:

Due to Android Privacy policy you can not access sd card through third party app.
But if you want it then you have to ROOT your phone. And after that you can able to Access, read and write on sd card using any application.
After rooting your phone go to Playstore and download SD CARD FIX ,open it and give root permission,and it will fix the problem.
SD CARD FIX.apk
[Download ##download##] 

 About Fast Charging and battery life:

What about the fast charging and also about the charger?
is it satisfying?

   The charger in the box is just a normal 5V~2A charger. This is the charger details:  Input: 100-240V 50/60Hz Max 0.35A 5V~2A
Output : 5V~2000mA the phone itself is fast charging enabled which means even on a normal 2amp charger it will charge faster than usual.
My charging times is about 3hours from 20-90% after that it slows down.

Note: Battery life is subject to individual use. If you are into heavy graphics application, no amount of battery capacity will be enough.

How fast does my battery drained?

   Mine works perfectly. I get 9 hours 57 minutes of on screen  time with heavy usage and i still have about 20% battery left, after 1 day and 14 hours of usage since last charge. On standby mode it last for almost 3 days(checked it out myself). If yours work around that, i think its just fine but if it way below that you should check your phone, if there are Apps draining up your battery.

   With the Redmi 4 prime i don’t have to worry about it running out of juice. Battery life is really great for me. Plus i never restrict any background activities and brightness is at half, Gmail sync every 15 mins.

What About the Fast Charging?

I don’t have a qualcomm 3.0 charger to test the fast charging feature, but I did test it using a qualcomm 2.0 charger instead and it charges faster than the original provided 5V/2A charger, the device gets very warm while being charged with my qualcomm 2.0 charger but after 90% it cools down this is perfectly normal, so nothing to worry about.

About the Miui software and phone performance:

The Miui:

 Xiaomi has its own UI based on android. The Miui UI can become laggy sometimes, most especially when your device comes pre-installed with a vendor Rom (more on this later). I will advice you to install the Global Rom if you want to fully enjoy all the Miui features without lags or bloatware.

Note: Reports has confirmed Android 7.0 NOUGAT update will be out for it. Most of devices are supported for updates for at least 2 years after launch.

 A lot of optimizations is still needed to take full advantage and power of the Snapdragon 625 chipset in this device, i hope xiaomi will be able to make our smartphone more stable with upcoming future updates. My review device is running on  Miui 8.1 Global stable Firmware based on android 6.0.1 marshmallow. It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory with about 26GB of memory free.

   With time you will get used to the Miui just like me. But one thing i noticed is that the UI takes alot of RAM which can always result in apps closing in the background. I always have only 1.3GB of free ram available after the first boot.

MiUi has some kind of features you don’t normally see on other cheap Chinese brands. Features like:

Second space:
The second space features allows you to run two different accounts on one device.

Dual apps mode:
It allows you to run two same applications at the same time. That means you can use two different whatsapp account on the same phone without any interference. You can create dual accounts for any app.

IR blaster:
“infrared or IR blaster” is a universal remote control.

You can also find a lot of useful  tweaks in the display settings, such as enable the double tap to wake feature and adjust the display calibration to suit your purpose.

With an Antutu benchmark score of about 62,000, a snapdragon 625 processor and an adreno 506 GPU, the redmi 4 prime might not be the best gaming smartphone for you. I get playable frame-rate on all the graphics intensive games i have tested on this device. Due to low optimizations i can sometimes see some lags, but this doesn’t in anyway affect the gaming experience, this is one of the best Mid-range smartphone in the market and it never get hot even while playing graphics intensive games.

   If you are using the Chinese ROM Version of MIUI It comes pre-installed with some default Chinese applications that can’t be translate to English, which is useless and you need to install Google installer to enable Google Play Services on the Chinese ROM otherwise Contacts etc don’t sync from Google. In other to avoid unnecessary stress and Chinese bloatware you should Flash the Global stable Rom on your device.

Distributor and unofficial ROM:

   In some countries, you can’t get the redmi 4 from xiaomi directly. You can only order the smartphone online or from a private distributor. If you are buying from a  distributor, chances are that your phone will comes installed with a vendor ROM. This is a non official modified version of MIUI, which is also great.

   If you are facing issues like: Youtube 360 Videos stuttering, Low camera quality, lags e.t.c. it’s most likely you got vendor ROM that might have spyware, not upgradeable and is reason for these issues.

   If you are having some issues or lags, you can go to xiaomi website and download the official International Global Stable ROM for Redmi 4 prime Here:
Global ROM
[Download ##download##]

By replacing vendor ROM with Xiaomi international Firmware or official China version it should fix all that.

Price and availability:

Xiaomi Redmi 4 is already available for worldwide use with the released of the global international version by xiaomi

Xiaomi phones are unbeatable in their price class. Hardware and software wise. Availability is their only turn-down, but you can easily order this smartphone from Gearbest today at a price of only $160. They are one of the best trusted online resellers, they’re 100% legits and has lots of good reviews.
[Sales Page ##shopping-cart##]

The only downside is that, i can’t find screen protector and casing for this phone yet. This is a really great smartphone.

Pros and Cons Of the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime

• [tab]

•  Pros

• What i really like about this smartwatch:
  • Fantastic battery life (3days on light usage and 24 hours for continuous heavy usage)
  • Very good Screen clarity and viewing angles
  • Finger print sensor (super fast)
  • Awesome Design ( Metal unibody with chamfered edges )
  • Affordable price Tag
  • Very good processor (You have to note, this is the same processor that most pricier mid-range phones companies used in their devices)
  • Active ROM community
  •  Memory is 25gb free (enough for a decent usage)
  •  Good for gaming
  • Multitasking is great
  • Full HD display
  • Gyroscope sensor for VR headset
  • IR blaster
  • OTG support

•  Cons

• What i dislike about this watch:
  • You might not like MIUI. (personally i like it because of the useful features stock android doesn’t have.)
  • Average camera performance
  • Glass/Screen is not scratch proof
  • No illumination light on touch keys
  • Sounds not good enough and Loud speaker is only on one side (sometimes being blocked when playing games)
  • Slippery
  • Hybrid sim slot
  • Poor RAM management 
  • Some 4g LTE band are missing
  • Customer service support is very limited for international users
  • Heavy in weight (158 g )

• Important Links 

• The is Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime is  available on gearbest.com at a
  retail flash price of only $160. Check out the official sales page.
  [Sales Page ##shopping-cart##]  
•  Global ROM for Redmi 4 Prime
  [Download ##download##]  
• SD CARD FIX.apk [Download ##download##] 
• Redmi 4 Prime Microphone and sound fix [Microphone Fix ##eye##]

Conclusion:

  For those who want a long battery life and a decent phone at an affordable price tag, this is the phone for you!

    If you ask me why you should buy this phone, my answer is the almighty 4100mah battery combine with Snapdragon 625, and then the 5’display with more than 400ppi and last but not least is the one handed oriented. Its very great device for gaming, social media update and daily activities which require your phone to stay in your hand almost all day long.