Xiaomi Redmi 3 review: Precious little one

Telephony

The dialer and the phonebook share a single app although there are two shortcuts, bringing you straight to the tab you need. The app has pleasant flat looks, and it's about the same as we remember it. It uses a tabbed interface - recent with dialer on the first and the contact list on the second.

The Phonebook

Xiaomi Redmi 3 supports voice call recording, and it can do it automatically on each call if you like. You can also assign an answer gesture, pre-define quick responses upon reject, there is even support for internet calling.

The Dialer

There are even more call settings if you dig deeper into the menu - flip to mute the ringer, turn on/off the proximity sensor, lock automatically once slipped in a pocket, it can even mute calls from unknown numbers.

MIUI 7 also introduces Showtime Caller ID - it's a cloud service for Xiaomi owners, and you can assign a short video recording to serve as your Caller ID when you are calling other Xiaomi owners.

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 speaker scored an Average mark on our loudness test, but its sound quality was excellent with deep and crisp sound, so despite the uninspiring mark we think missed calls are unlikely in most environments.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
ZTE Nubia Z9 mini	66.7	65.8	66.9	Below Average
Xiaomi Redmi 3	66.1	65.5	70.6	Average
OnePlus X	65.9	66.3	70.7	Average
Xiaomi Redmi 1S	66.9	65.9	71.7	Average
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3	66.5	66.6	75.8	Good
Xiaomi Redmi 2	70.8	70.9	77.4	Very Good
Motorola Moto E	75.9	71.5	81.6	Excellent

Other apps

The Xiaomi Redmi 3 offers an excellent file managing app called Explorer, which lets you browse the files in its internal storage and groups them by type.

Explorer

The MIUI v7 also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, clean some RAM; it can also manage the permissions of your installed apps.

Security app

The custom and now flat Calendar looks good, syncs with your accounts including Google, and offers Day and Month views.

Calendar

There is also the standard sound recorder, notes, flashlight, calculator, clock, and weather apps, among others, that are a given in any self-respecting Android package nowadays.

Voice recorder • Notes • Calculator • Weather

We liked the Compass app. It has very nice and clean interface, shows the magnetic directions and doubles as a level meter. If you lift the phone up, then you'll get a nice augmented reality view with real-time East/West/North/South overlay.

Compass app - compass, level, VR directions

Once again, if Google Maps, Drive, or any other Google-related app isn't installed on your unit, you can get it for free from the Play Store.