Xiaomi recently unveiled the Redmi A3, a budget phone featuring some impressive features for just Ksh. 11,600. At the launch, Xiaomi described the Redmi A3 as the best phone you you can gift someone during this April holiday season and yes, we agree.
The Redmi A3 is a good-looking device and Xiaomi has given it a pretty good price without compromising on essential features positioning it as the best budget phone in the market right now.
Its strongest points are the impressive bold design, Gorilla Glass 3 protection and out-of-the-box Android 14 experience.
The design is sleek and modern combining glass, plastic and metal with a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button on the right side. The phone is also very light weighing just 199 grams and 8. For the screen, Xiaomi has given us a 6.71-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720 × 1650 pixels. The screen covers 82.9% of the front face of the phone and provides very vivid colours and wide viewing angles. The screen as we mentioned earlier is also protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and supports a refresh rate of 90 Hz, for a smoother and more responsive. The display has a waterdrop-style notch.
Powering the Redmi A3 is the MediaTek Helio G36, which is an octa-core processor, made with 12-nanometer technology. The processor consists of four cores with a speed of 2.2 GHz, and four cores with a speed of 1.8 GHz. Performance is very decent, especially for the usual daily tasks like phone calls, browsing and some bit of social media. This is a budget phone so don’t give it heavy tasks such as gaming.
The phone is available in 3GB+64GB, and 4GB+128GB configurations. Our review unit is the 3GB+64GB variant which is still okay. With the virtual RAM functionality, the available memory can be expanded up to 8GB for slick app loading and switching. Additional data storage is available via a microSD slot, which supports microSD cards of up to 1TB
For graphics, Xiaomi has given us the IMG PowerVR GE8320, with a frequency of 680 MHz which allows running games with medium quality. Important to note that this graphics processing unit does not support very heavy games with high quality or high settings.
MIUI on the Redmi A3 also provides a smooth and flexible user experience, with a range of features and customizations.
For the cameras, Redmi A3 packs an AI-backed dual rear camera unit, comprising an 8-megapixel primary sensor and a secondary camera. For selfies and video chats, there is a 5-megapixel camera sensor at the front. With some good lighting, the camera excels well, producing sharp images with ample dynamic range. You can also play around with the AI enhancements and portrait mode to add a creative flair to your photography skills, allowing you to experiment with various effects and styles.
Xiaomi has also added a large 5000mAh battery with support for USB Type-C 10W fast charging to the phone.
Overall, Xiaomi has delivered a decent player in the budget segment with the Redmi A3. At that price, the phone ticks almost all the boxes for a budget phone, and the performance is acceptable. For first-time smartphone users, the Helio G36’s performance should be adequate.
In Kenya, you can buy the Redmi A3 in two distinct colour options – Midnight Black and Star Blue1, in 3GB+64GB, and 4GB+128GB memory and storage configurations.
We have a comprehensive review coming up in a few weeks.
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