Redmi Note 4 - Is the Snapdragon 625 Chipset Really That Powerful?

The Star Online in an article titled 'Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 pre-orders start March 10' (link) stated that "While the China variant features a Mediatek Helio X20 processor, Malaysian users will be getting the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core 2.0GHz processor instead." which begs the question is that really the truth or just a marketing gimmick? Let's find out then.

Benchmark scores are sourced from GSMArena & Primate Labs (*)

As can be seen in the table above, the Redmi Note 4 (SD625) scores are inferior to Redmi Note 3 (SD650) and Redmi Note 4 (X20) scores among popular benchmarks. The only exception comes from the Geekbench 4 (multi-core) score for the Redmi Note 3 as it only have 6 cores; "hexa", versus Redmi Note 4 (SD625) 8 cores; "octa", and Redmi Note 4 (X20) 10 cores; "deca".

While I acknowledged that higher synthetic benchmark scores doesn't translate to superior real-world usage, the fact that a major publication goes on to claim and lead the public into thinking that the phone is indeed more powerful than previous iterations is uncalled for. The reality that Xiaomi themselves talked more on the SD625's power-efficiency is already a big hint to all.

Left 4A Dead - Is Mi Malaysia's Redmi 4A Worth Getting at RM449?

Update 1: Mi Malaysia recently raised the price of the Redmi 4A by RM10 to arrive at the new RRP of RM459.

With Mi India gearing for the launch of the Redmi Note 4 in the next few days, Malaysians have to contend with the imminent launch of the Redmi 4A (yes, not the superior Redmi 4 Prime, not even the regular Redmi 4 but the entry-level Redmi 4A instead). LYN revealed that the 4A will be priced at RM449 with Lazada to confirm it on 17th Jan. So is it worth it? Let us check it out below then.

AnTuTu 6 scores for all Redmi 4 devices are sourced from Kimovil...

We will start by listing how much does the Redmi 4 entire series retails for on Mi China against what we are paying here; where you can get the Redmi 4A at 499 CNY (RM325), the standard Redmi 4 at 699 CNY (RM450) and the Redmi 4 Prime at 899 CNY (RM580). As you guessed it, we are paying the price of a standard Redmi 4 but is essentially getting a Redmi 4A here instead.

While Redmi 3S & Redmi Note 3 scores are sourced from GSMArena

Some might argue that RM449 is still cheap but it is actually not when you compare it against Mi Malaysia's last sale on Lazada where just by spending an extra RM50 to arrive at RM499 grabs you a way superior phone like the 2GB RAM + 16GB Internal Storage variants of the Redmi 3S or Redmi Note 3, with the latter highly recommended due its excellent benchmark performance.

Nevertheless, if you really need to grab a Redmi 4A urgently, then I would suggest buying it on online shopping portals with the application of voucher codes, which should easily save around 10% of the RRP. Better yet, simply wait until Mi Malaysia decides to do a clearance sales and you can easily get one on the cheap. Previous promotion proves that it is not an impossibility.