Yesterday (March 9), Xiaomi held the first ever flash sale of Redmi Note 3 in India and expectedly both its 2 GB and 3GB versions went out of stock in few seconds. Clearly, there is a good demand for the phone. But it isn’t the only phone to offer good specs at such low price.
Here we have compared the 2 GB version of Redmi Note 3, which costs Rs 9,999, with the Xolo Black which too is available these days for the same price. So let’s check out which of these phones is a better bargain at the stated price tag.
Design and Display
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a metal unibody while the Xolo Black comes with a glass back panel and metal side panels.
The Xolo Black, with Corning glass protection for both its front and back panels, looks stunning. To prevent smudges, the back panel of Xolo Black has got Olephobic coating as well. As is the USP of the Xolo Black series, this phone comes in black colour; even its side panels are in black colour. It has narrow bezels on the front, and rear is dominated by the twin camera set up. It is 155.5 mm tall, 76.6 mm wide and 7.3 mm thick.
The Redmi Note 3 also looks quite good with its full metal body and definitely is a bit sturdier than the Xolo Black.
Both have 5.5 inch display, but the Xolo Black is smaller and thinner with dimension of 76.6×155.5×7.3 mm while Redmi Note 3 measures 150 x 76 x 8.65 mm. Also both the phones offer full HD resolution.
Camera
Redmi Note 3 has a 16 Megapixel rear camera which has phase detection auto focus feature which, as per Xiaomi, allows the camera to capture images in just 0.1 second. This 16 MP camera has 5-element lens, f/2.0 Aperture and 78 degree wide angle lens. It has various filters, HDR mode, full HD video recording ability, slow motion video recording feature and time lapse mode. For selfies, the Redmi Note 3 has a 5 megapixel front camera that has f/2.0 aperture. The front camera has face recognition and 36 smart beauty profiles.
On the other hand, the Xolo Black has two rear cameras – one is of 13 megapixel Resolution while the other one is a 2 megapixel unit. The 13 megapixel camera is for regular image-capturing while the 2 MP unit is for depth perception. The depth information let the device know what objects are near and far, allowing users to play with the focus after the shoot.The 13 MP camera of Black also has 5-element lens, BSI sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 81 degree wide angle lens. It also has HDR, Panorama, image stabilisation and face recognition features.
The Xolo Black also has a 5 megapixel front camera.
Memory
The Xolo Black has 3 GB RAM, 16 GB Internal Memory and a 32 GB micro SD card slot.
On the other hand, the Redmi Note 3 model that costs Rs 9,999 offers 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal memory and a 128 GB micro SD card slot.
Note that neither Xolo Black nor Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has dedicated micro SD card slot, instead their SIM2 slot doubles up as the expandable storage slot.
Here while Xolo Black gets credit for higher RAM, the Redmi Note 3 has more storage facility.
Chipset and OS
The Xolo Black has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Chipset which has a 64 bit octa core processor with 1.5 GHz maximum clock speed. Besides, it has the Adreno 405 graphics processor and Android Lollipop operating system.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is armed with a much better processor and GPU – 1.8 GHz Snapdragon 650 hexacore processor (64 bit) and Adreno 510 GPU respectively. However, both it too has the older Android Lollipop operating system.
Battery and Connectivity
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 dual SIM with 4G connectivity, Bluetooth 4.1, dual Band WiFi, WiFi Direct, and GPS with AGPS, GLONASS and Beidou. The Note 3 has IR blaster which will allow it to be used as a remote controller. Besides it has an electronic compass, gyroscope, gravity sensor, proximity, hall, and light sensors. It has a 4000 mAh battery.
The Xolo Black has a 3200 mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 1.0 technology. It too has two SIM card slots, 4G, GPS (A-GPS), Bluetooth, and WiFi.
Wrapping up
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a better processor, bigger camera, and even a higher resolution based rear camera. In connectivity department also with better WiFi and Bluetooth versions, it looks a bit better than Xolo Black. It has additional fingerprint sensor as well. So in our view, Redmi Note 3 is a better bargain for Rs 9,999. However, Xolo Black has three things in its favour – an attractive glass body, dual rear camera set up and higher RAM.