Redmi 4A review: Xiaomi’s powerful budget offering

Xiaomi expanded its Redmi smartphone portfolio with its Redmi 4A, targeting basic buyers. Priced at Rs 5,999, the Redmi 4A offers a blend of stylish design and decent features. The highlight of the device is its 4G LTE connectivity, a 13MP rear camera, a sleek design, larger battery and a very low price tag.

The device is a completely ‘Made in India’ product and the company claims that 90 per cent of its smartphones selling in India are now manufactured within the country.

The Redmi 4A sports a 5inch HD display with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution panel having a pixel density of 226ppi. The screen produces vivid colours and the sunlight legibility is pretty impressive too. Overall the display qualifies as a decent one, and the touch sensitivity is pretty satisfactory with no lag or latency noticed. The 4A is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor featuring four ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz and paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. We didn’t notice any lag while we used the smartphone. Though device can handle a few high-end games such as Asphalt 8, Nova 3 and Mordern Combat 5, we would not recommend this handset for gaming as the Redmi 4A is aimed for those who need a basic smartphone for everyday use.

The Redmi 4A comes equipped with a 13MP rear camera along with a single LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera upfront. The rear camera is good enough for casual daylight shots, and the HDR mode is pretty impressive too. Macro shots are surprisingly good; however, lowlight imaging isn’t up to the mark.

The smartphone is fuelled by a 3120mAh battery that delivers enough power for a whole day. The review device lasted us a complete productive day, even after using it for casual gaming, music streaming and other dayto-day activities such as emails, browsing, messaging and alike. The 4A also offers a battery saver mode that shuts down power hungry apps running in the background to give you a longer run.

The Xiaomi Redmi 4A is definitely one of the best entry-level smartphones out there. Priced below Rs 6k, the device is a good bargain as it offers a decent camera, good battery life, 4G VoLTE connectivity and a great design. The 4A is a good choice for those who need to switch from feature phones to smartphones in order to avail digital payments and alike. The device is also recommended for first time mobile phone buyers. However if you shell out extra thousand bucks, you can own a more feature packed Xiaomi Redmi 3S.