Xiaomi’s Redmi line of mid-range smartphones has been known for premium design and fairly recent software driven by seriously good hardware for the money, and the two variants of the Redmi 4 that just became official in India are no exception. Niether, of course, is the lower-end Redmi 4A, which brings the price down by knocking off a few features while keeping the essential experience mostly the same. For the Redmi 4, Redmi 4 Prime, and Redmi 4A, Xiaomi has changed things up design-wise, taking a cue here and there from the likes of the Google Pixel, the Apple iPhone 7, and their own revolutionary Mi Mix. The design is common among all three phones, as is MIUI 8 running on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow).
The base Redmi 4 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 alongside 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. A 4,100mAH battery keeps the party going on the 5-inch screen, which sports a resolution of 1280 x 720. A MicroSD slot and back-mounted fingerprint scanner are on board, the back camera is a 13-megapixel affair, and selfies are taken care of by a 5-megapixel sensor. The phone will be released on November 7 with a price tag roughly equivalent to $104. Color options are dark gray, silver, and gold.
The Redmi 4A dips into the dirt cheap territory at about $74, while keeping mostly the same build and software as the Redmi 4. Spec-wise, the 4A springs for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor and 2GB of RAM, along with 16GB of internal storage. The fingerprint sensor is lost in translation, but the build and feature set is otherwise the same as the base model, which is quite impressive, considering a 13-megapixel camera and 4,100mAH battery are in the mix for under $100, sitting under a unibody metal shell. This variant will be available on November 11.
Last but certainly not least, the Prime variant keeps the same design and most of the features of the base Redmi 4, but doubles the internal storage, adds a gigabyte of RAM, notches the screen resolution up to a VR-friendly 1920 x 1080, and runs everything with a much more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, all for about $133. While the Snapdragon 625 may not be the most powerful processor on the block, it will make mincemeat out of most daily tasks, while offering more than passable performance in more intensive operations like 3D gaming. This one comes in the same color range as the base model, and will be available on the same day.
