Monday 20 March 2017

XiaomI Redmi 4 Standard (Prada)

This is one of the big reviews I decided to go for, Another phone, since the Ulefone Paris is having a fair whack of problems from poor battery life to low loght in photos even with the flash on unless the exposure is sorted which is a big of a major dam nightmare. Also the Vidonn X6 has broken (actually the 4th one which is still lasting on the strap which is due to the staples and tape i've placed there. Now this video is delayed sadly due to setting it up was more painful (i'll explain later) but this phone has alot of Potential from the small parts i've explored on it.

With the £115.07 to Pay for the phone from Banggood and it took 9 days to arrive with NO CUSTOMS, i think it was a good deal once I had it the way I wanted it to be. The video is below:



 The Packaging. 

This has a Apple feel to them, even though Xiaomi are nicknamed the Apple of Chinese Tech so this doesn't surprise me with their package design , the minimalist white just suits itself as proper classy and that sophistication other big brands are now starting to follow suit. The labelling is in Chinese but this phone doesn't have a global edition yet. The imei and S/N are looked at in the back small print which makes it easier if you need to report the phone lost if you do keep boxes at home. The engraving of the Mi and the 4 is a nice touch too. 

The front of the box

both sides of the box feature this (Redmi 4)

The famous Mi logo

The back of the box with the details 


Then we come to the inside, With a lovely layout that really shows off how they can neatly package what you need in the box and make it so you can put it back yourself as well. The phone is the first thing you see and the tab underneath is actually the manual and the Sim pull is, which is well, simple. The manuals only a double sided card as well as a service noticed and warranty card. Which underneath that is the place the the Micro USB Cable and charger.

The phone and the tab outside of the 

The warranty card

The sim Pin and the Manual 

A look at the service card

Another shot of the inside of the box. 

The Setting up.

Well fitting the simcard in, thats not too bad, the pin helps push the tray out but that last little bit of getting it out, well the pin can help but I actually bit my teeth onto it and it works, making sure its in there, luckily you can fit them with the sim's chip facing the same as the rear camera.

Fitting the Sim in


Then the MIUI 8 welcome screen is lovely and there is an English option which is nice. Now in the video I found out there was NO UK or US LOCALE which actually made me realise that this was actually a VENDOR ROM which banggood flashed before sending which is a bit of a knock down for the more advanced person, aka this means no actual updates to the phone should work. But then it was setup and I was ready to explore the MIUI world. With the iphone-eqsue icons, the Cloud hinting, the lovely sharp fonts, contrasting colours and even more, I got to know the menus in a small way, it will take time like anything if I can then get it going.

The Main home screen

This is the VoIP system Xiaomi have implemented

The weather is accurate

Mi Cloud, who loves it apparently many do

The themes Xiaomi provide with MIUI.


The settings is pretty clear yet very complex, There is a search box which makes it handy to find what you want if you need too, the contrast of colour is very iOS like too but then again this is the APPLE of CHINA this company is Nicknamed.  

The top of the settings menu

This phone has dual band wifi

More items

The sound menu

The access to the Account settings

Can't beat a mi account



This screen to tell if you have legit or fake in the ROM, well thats what about me's are useful for. 

The Rooting, 


Eventually, I had permission to get it unlocked in the bootloader.. Which when i was playing KH HD DDD and grinding Sora's level, It then got me the chance to unlock the bootloader and get TWRP on there, the Fastboot has a russian soviet feel to it but it then the maybe dark twist we don't know about the staff at Xiaomi or its just cute nothingness. But then it was done and I could now Root it and maybe Xpose it for useful apps. Remember ALL THREE BUTTONS MUST BE HELD IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE QUALCOMM COMX port show up in MiFlash, this was slightly mentioned on the MIUI forum. 

The cutest soviet bunny i've ever seen

TWRP is on there

Getting SuperSU installed, 

The loading after the zips.

The Testing.

Now the phone setup and eventually everything I wanted to on it, I got to work with the tests. We test the following.

  • Network - 4G/3G and Wifi
  • Camera
  • General use
  • Speakers

The Cameras:

Now this was interesting since I was worried it would be the same quality as the Paris, I was wrong in respects The POV of the cameras looked very uncrystal clear but when the photo was taken, it was nice and sharp. The Paris did have a good camera before ulefone messed the updates up and made the exposure dire in the Marshmallow update. But light like the sun and lights can make it really yellowy in the picture, maybe its just me. 

How it looks indoors with light, like look at his nightmare sleeping


how it looks when dogwalking. 


A ham wagonwheel sandwich to be shown in the dark room to show off how the light can definately show the yellow in the picture. 

Now the front camera, thats where the best part of this phone (in my opinion) comes in, with the clear picture and also the 1080p resolution which thats rare, even with me thinking that 720p was going to happen, and it ACTUALLY RECORDS in 1080p 30fps. Now 60fps does not work even when selected so don't be fooled by opencamera. 


The options for video on the front camera

The outdoor selfie when #dogwalkingwithomracer

The indoor selfie


Installing Apps:

This was just like any other way of installing apps, except the problem of storage, yes storage, which installing snapchat didn't work even after doing different cleanup methods, one of them which eventually worked was reflashing (some Chinese members call it brushing) of the ROM and installing snapchat first, which worked. But it got the phone being really smooth, greenify was up and running and it was not that laggy after it turns on (reboot or Power on etc). Play store did have some lag issues with not downloading apps but a force close fixed that. But the Storage is the man issue if you DON'T use a SD card, i think its secretly partitioned but not told about that much. 

The storage issue 

The Network Tests: 


Bascially due to Tavi using VoLTE which FreedomPop struggles with, it means 4G doesn't work unless your on three (no MVNO), which mean that i think the test you see is actually a 3G test. But actually this is still a common test to see if the phone can handle it. The video contains this test. 

The wifi one however is a difference, in the video the test is weaker but in another test, it was actually much faster but that was with a wall between the phone and Router. 

The speedtest for wifi

Speakers. 

Now then, you've seen the sounds these things do so i'm definitely not going to miss a phone call from that, not too tinny either. Theres loads of options for earphones as well which is a nice handy feature. 


The nice selection of ringtones available to you and add your music with the Plus

Dogwalking and the GPS. 

This was ideal, accurate, fast and with the Mi Fit app, working nicely together to see how i feel when doing somthing simple like walking the dog. Which that had little battery drain as well. Like 10% in a hour after walking Rosie. Better battery stats is useful really. But the MIUI has a nice power checker as well with a deal from Cheetah Monkey. (CM cloud owners).



Conclusion. 

The Phone is pretty good, the suprises are nice with the fingerprint and the MIUI acting nicely with many features you want in a phone, the system looks different and the phone design matches them, the battery is amazing and even as i type, no battery life is being used at all. The camera isn't perfect but this isn't a massive cost phone. With all this in mind

omracer's Rating: 8/10

The Good Points: 

  • A huge battery
  • Metallic,
  • Simple to run
  • Fluent and fast
  • Amazing front camera
  • MIUI is lovely to look at

The Bad Points:

  • Google Play in't installed at default if you buy a legit original Redmi 4
  • The storage for apps can be better
  • The rear camera has a bit too yellow tint to it
  • Locked Bootloader
  • The choice between 2 numbers or extra storage

Well now the main equipment for my half marathon is set and more reviews coming soon. 

omracer