Xiaomi - Mi Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime: Quick First Impressions in details

Xaomi’s Indian launches are accompanied with a lot of fanfare: there’s big venues, a lot of Mi fans are invited, The phone actually went on its first sale before a media or a public event was held, on the 9th of August, but that does not mean the phone is any less. For starters, the design of the phones give you no clues on its pricing. It’s got the same metallic build from the Redmi Note 3 with similarly-colored plastic caps on the top and bottom (that means it is not a metallic uni-body, as other blogs often quote these devices as being). There’s a very impressive and sturdy feel in the hand. Since both the devices bear a 5″ screen, their overall dimensions are also smaller and are on par with other 5″ phones And  the thickness of the device is actually impressive considering how much battery capacity it packs in the body. During the event, Xiaomi India’s Product Lead, Jai Mani mentioned how a very large chunk of the Redmi 3S and 3S Prime interior is basically occupied by the battery, and this decision was taken instead of making the phone thinner by trimming it by wild margins.

                                          Redmi 3S Prime (Silver, 32 GB) 

                                         Redmi 3S Prime (Gold, 32 GB)

The insides of the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and 3S Prime is something Xiaomi is rather proud of. If you look at pure specs and numbers, the devices start with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC, which packs a dual-cluster, octa-core configuration of Cortex-A53’s clocked at 4x @1.4GHz and 4x @1.2GHz, built on a 28nm fabrication process. The Adreno 505 accompanies it on the GPU end. In comparison, the closest competitor to the SD-430 is the SD-616, which beats it in the peak clock speed (4x @1.7GHz) of the performance cluster, but seeing that both clusters are still based on the power-efficiency-based Cortex-A53, the difference is not too large.

                                      Redmi 3S Prime (Dark Grey, 32 GB)

The camera setup on the Redmi 3S and the Redmi 3S Prime follows a 13MP rear shooter with a f/2.0 aperture and PDAF. There’s LED flash as well, along with the capability to record 1080p videos at 30fps (which again, is nice enough for this price range). The front is a 5MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and again, 1080p video recording. Budget devices are not known for their camera prowess, and this will be no exception to the lot. 

And the last list of is value of the phone ,so The Redmi 3S will cost you just ₹6,999 ($105) while the Redmi 3S Prime will cost you ₹8,999 ($135).

Redmi 3S Prime (Gold, 32 GB)                         Redmi 3S Prime (Silver, 32 GB)                          Redmi 3S Prime (Dark Grey, 32 GB)