Redmi Note 2 Prime Reloaded

It has been a week, fiddling with my new Redmi Note 2 Prime with MIUI 66.77.33.00 (LHMCNCH) Stable ROM. Adding another sibling of Redmi Note 2 to my collection of Mi smartphone. I had gotten it from a third party online store, having said that, as usual it came pre-loaded with all the bloatware, adware and malware. This time round I had actually made a folder of the installers and latest ROM to flash it with. Installed V7.0.8.0.LHMCNCI (MIUI7) came out with an error signature failed, which was not fixed yet, hence had to flash V7.0.6.0.LHMCNCI then update to V7.0.8.0.LHMCNCI. Prior to this I had a lot of fun making my Redmi Note 2 as the guinea pig to try out and experiment, not to the extend of a bootloop or bricking the phone for the sack of getting a greater user experience out of it. Anyway, even at the critical state or stage of bricking your phone or simply a bootloop, it can be rectified, as long all the pre-emptive measures were taken in the initial stage before embarking into the fantasies of flashing and all sort.


Just to recap, Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Prime smartphone was launched in August 2015. The phone comes with a 5.50-inch touchsceen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. Redmi Note 2 Prime is powered by 2.2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 (MTK6795T) processor and it comes with 2GB of RAM. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Prime packs a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

THOUGHTS: 

Both the Redmi Note 2 and Prime are really good or as close a flagship smartphone in the market. Price wise between the two siblings is just a differences of USD16 and Prime sports a slightly higher-clocked Helio X10 SoC (2.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 + 2.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A53) and a storage of 32GB. As far as I concern, there not so much of a big different in term of speed, just that the Prime feels smoother without much lags undertaking any given task has ample space for the apps and media. Anyway, I still rely a lot on my iPhone 6s Plus 128GB for food porn and photo taking which I find more realistic in color, details and low-light picture. Shooter on both the Redmi Note 2 and Prime is great with enough lighting and camera software has more to be improved.

Shortfall of the camera, after having taken so many picture, it is very obvious that most of the shots wereover-exposed, eventhough adjustment were made to compensate the exposure. Andanother plaquing and mind-boggling experience was the red color distortion andglitch, which is very obvious in more of the shots.

Apps that came with it.

Antutu Benchmark

GeekBench 3 Benchmark

Basemark OS II Benchmark

BaseMark X Benchmark

GFX OpenGL Benchmark

Some of the shots

My accessories.

Let,s rock.

Some of the new shots. Pay attention to anything red in color.

USEFUL LINKS:
[Tools, Tips & Tutorials] Getting rid of Bloatware for Redmi Note 2/Prime for noobies
[Tools, Tips & Tutorials] Google Play Store for Redmi Note 2/Prime for noobies
[Tools, Tips & Tutorials] Google Play Store apps not downloading on data for noobies
[Tools, Tips & Tutorials] Installing APK file on your Redmi Note 2 for noobies

NOTE:
To write this review, I had to re-flash to MIUI 66.77.33.00 (LHMCNCH) Stable ROM from my backup and start anew and re-update to V7.0.6.0.LHMCNCI first, just because of the "Signature failed" bug. Finally, updating to latest ROM V7.0.8.0.LHMCNCI (MIUI7).

NOTE: Knowing your Rights as a Consumer in Malaysia & Singapore
http://en.miui.com/type-83-644.html

Mi4i - Luke-warm experience

Xiaomi Mi 4i is another addition to the Mi lineup, a mid-range edition of the company’s flagship Mi 4 target market for India being the affordable flagship to compete with other phone in the same price segment.

Design and display

The Mi 4i is lighter and thinner compared to its flagship Mi4 with a thickness of just 7.8 mm, and weighing 130 grams. The phone has a nice grip with the compact size giving it a comfortable handling experience, and convenient for one-hand operation.

The Xiaomi Mi 4i features a similar 5" Full HD IPS display to Mi 4. It has 441ppi for pleasantly sharp sunlight display.Unfortunately, the lack of Gorilla glass display protection is a big concern though Xiaomi promises some scratch resistance for its Corning OGS panels.

Hardware and Performance

It comes with a variant of 16GB and 32GB of storage on-board and lacking the microSD slot for expansion. Nonetheless, there are two micro SIM card slots and 4G connectivity.

The Xiaomi Mi 4i is powered by a second generation 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, clocked at 1.7 GHz, and graphically powered by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB of RAM.

Considering it is packed with a mid-range processor, performance is smooth and flawless. Gaming and multi-tasking experience is quite impressive without all the lags and glitches. Battery performance is still a mind boggling issue, depending on the version of MIUI software installed.

While, heating problem still plaque the 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, and since there wasn’t any ways around it to rectify it still. This is obviously evident, when performing processor intensive task, like gaming and even surfing the web and it is quite an uncomfortable experience.

Camera

Xiaomi Mi 4i comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with a dual LED flash, and 5MP selfie front camera, and the device takes some great photos and comparable with other using Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 and a 13MP shooter, eg. Sony Xperia Aqua M.

All images have not been edited or Photoshop and “as it is”.


Specifications

Display	5-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 441 ppi
Processor	1.7GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Adreno 405 GPU
RAM	2 GB
Storage	16GB, 32GB not expandable
Camera	13MP rear camera with dual LED flash  5 MP front camera
Connectivity	Cat.4 LTE (150/50Mbps), Wi-Fi802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct,  Bluetooth 4.1, FM Radio
Battery	3,120 mAh
OS	MIUI OS 6 based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
SIM	Dual SIM (Micro-SIM, dual stand-by)
Colors	White, yellow, pink, grey, blue
Dimensions	138.1x 69.6 x 7.8 mm
Weight	130 grams

Thoughts

Firstly, I do hope that a more refined MIUI ROM to address the really issue of heat plaquing the Snapdragon 615 and the battery performance. As you could see above the standby time is as good as 2 days plus, just because my Mi 4i is my secondary phone. The issue here is that, my phone is in deep sleep, meaning to say, when I get notifications from eg. Whatsapp, FB or Line,on my iPhone 6, while I realized that on my Mi 4i it is not getting the notifications, until I revive the phone.


Next, I would think the MIUI interface riding on the Lollipop 5.02 is using a space of at least more then 5GB, hence a variant of 16GB or 32GB will only be left with less than 11GB or 27GB respectively.

The 5-element lens, f/2.0 aperture with Two-tone flash,takes some great photos and comparable with other using Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 and a 13MP shooter, eg. Sony Xperia Aqua M which is a water and dust proof.

With the lack of Gorilla glass display protection is a big concern as the screen can easily get scratch even in the pocket, so a screen protector is eminent.

Last but not least, it is a good phone with an unbeatable price tag and features, but not quite the “affordable flagship” as the manufacturer claim which other Mi lineup eg. Redmi Note 2/Prime/3 can square with or even surpass.