First generation Readmi Note’s successor has arrived in India. Somewhere in November 2014, when Xiaomi first launched its 5.5-inch Redmi Note phablet, it was a game changer because it was costing just Rs 9,999. Almost After 16 months, Xiaomi seems to approach the same stretegy at the same price, of course, in a more competitive market now.

For now Redmi Note 3 will be offered in two options: 2GB RAM with 16GB ROM at the price of Rs 9,999 and 3GB RAM with 32GB ROM at the price of Rs 11,999.

New gadget market is going towards 5.5-inch smartphones, also Lenovo, Huawei, rivals LeEco had launched their smartphone in this price band much before Xiaomi. However, the Redmi Note 3 seems to have its niche carved out, given the response from the audience showcased at the launch event.

What do you think? Do you think Redmi Note 3 justifies the fanfare surrounding it? Lets see the review of the 3GB RAM plus 32GB ROM version of Redmi Note 3.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 review

 

Design and Display

Body: Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 smartphone has a metal body. The sandblasted metal texture gives a premium look and feel to the device. It is require to take a note that with compar to the earlier Redmi Note version, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is slimmer and lighter, despite packing in a massive 4,050mAh battery. It features a unibody design, hence the back cover cannot be removed.

The Redmi Note 3 comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD 1080p IPS 178-degrees wide angle display. The display quality is much better than other popular smartphones in this price range. You won’t find Corning Gorilla Glass or any other such protection on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. So, getting a screenguard is necessary.
The display is bright, crisp, however, the screen is quite reflective.

Color: It comes in Gold, Silver and Dark Grey colours.

                                                       

Sim & Storage support: The Redmi Note 3 comes with a hybrid SIM and microSD card slot. Users can insert a micro sim card and microSD card simultaneous or also can opt for a micro sim and nano sim card to two different numbers. The maximum capacity of the microSD card is 32GB.

Redmi Note 3 having power and volume rocker on it’s right side whereas audio jack as well as IR emitter are situated at top and USB charging port placed at bottom. Also it is equippedwith fingerprint sensor.

Performance and Camera

                                                

Redmi Note 3 comes with a 16MP PDAF f/2.0 5-element lens rear camera along with a dual tone LED Flash. You will find 5MP f/2.0 selfie camera on front. The fingerprint scanner can be used to click images on both the cameras. The selfie quality is quite good, too. For people who love to use software enhanced beautification features, the Redmi Note 3 will surely bring a smile to their faces, as Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is rich with these features.

The quality of the main camera is good under normal lighting conditions. The camera is fast and the results are pleasing. However, if there is no enough light, images may comes grainy and auto focus may takes more time.

Running with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 processor this device is the first smartphone in India. Adreno 510 GPU takes good care of graphics and the device is powered by LPDDR3 RAM like other smartphones in this range. While reviewing the 3GB RAM version, the maximum available RAM available was around 1.5GB in idle state. So, it is advisable to opt for the 3GB RAM model instead of the lesser version, for users who love to play a lot of games.

Overall, the device is smooth and there are no performance issues observed yet. It is a good device for multitasking and playing games as well. Although there are heating issues found, it does get warm, especially when gaming and browsing the net on WiFi. But this doesn’t affect performance.

When it comes to operating system, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is powered by Android 5.1.1-based MIUI 7. You must be knowing; One of the best features of MIUI 7 is the end user gets a complete software package out of the box. The newer version of MIUI is having few bugs.

Known Issues:

There are few users who has found ‘sim card not activated’ message which is the very first bug observed in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. After getting above message it simply puts the mobile on airplane mode without any notification. So, you might be carrying the smartphone in airplane mode unknowingly and then you will realize when you won’t receive any calls. This issue appears up almost every time the device is switched on, rebooted or when the user opts out of airplane mode.

Also, the UI takes a lot of time to first load. However, if we forget these issues, MIUI is one of the best user interface in terms of user experience. Multimedia experience on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is exceptional With a great screen users get a good audio experience, too.

It is powered by a 4,050mAh battery. If you are an average mobile users, the device may last for more than a day with 3G and WiFi turned on. This smartphone is also among the few devices which supports VoLTE. Device supports 3G connectivity on both SIM card slots.

Call quality is quite decent, but you will have to expect surprises. Sometimes the mic is cut off during an on-going call, especially if the caller is holding the phone close towards the neck. This doesn’t happen always, but it is something that is a bit annoying.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes with an IR blaster, which can be used to control home appliances such as the Television.

Overall Specifications

Display	5.5-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 403 ppi
Processor	2 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6795 Helio X10 PowerVR G6200 GPU
RAM	2/3 GB
Storage	16/32 GB, not expandable
Camera	13 MP rear camera with LED flash 5 MP front camera
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, FM Radio, IR Blaster
Battery	4,000 mAh
OS	MIUI OS 7 based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop
Colors	silver, gray, gold
Dimensions	150 x 76 x 8.7 mm 164 grams

Google's robot cars crash 'surprisingly often', because humans are idiots

crash 'surprisingly often', because humans are idiot

Google has revealed its self-driving cars crash "surprisingly often" -- but it's nearly always the human driving behind who is at fault.

Chris Urmson, who leads Google's automated cars program, wrote in a blog post that its "self-driving cars are being hit surprisingly often by other drivers who are distracted and not paying attention to the road".

As an example, Google published a video of one of its autonomous Lexus cars on the roads in Mountain View, California, when it was forced to brake on a green light at an intersection due to traffic. After it stopped, a car "slammed" into it at 17mph having not braked at all.

Google said the crash was an example of why it wants to develop self-driving cars in the first place; if cars were able to talk to each other, even if still nominally under the direction of a human driver, this and similar incidents would be avoided.

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"As you can see from the video above, our braking was normal and natural, and the vehicle behind us had plenty of stopping distance ," Urmson claimed. "But it never decelerated. This certainly seems like the driver was distracted and not watching the road ahead. Thankfully, everyone in both vehicles was okay, except for a bit of minor whiplash, and a few scrapes on our bumper. The other vehicle wasn’t so lucky; its entire front bumper fell off."

Google said the lesson was more than one of basic culpability, noting its stats essentially proved most accidents were not reported to the police, and current information about crashes-per-miles-driven was largely meaningless.

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"Other drivers have hit us 14 times since the start of our project in 2009 (including 11 rear-enders), and not once has the self-driving car been the cause of the collision," he explained. "Instead, the clear theme is human error and inattention. We'll take all this as a signal that we’re starting to compare favourably with human drivers."

Clearly Google wants to promote its cars as the safe alternative to human drivers -- the entire future of the market for autonomous vehicles depends on it. But its point is still well made: most traffic collisions are small, avoidable and the result of human error.

"The fight to end distracted driving starts with each of us  --  at least until that day when you can summon a self-driving car and just kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride," Urmson wrote.