Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 review: A hidden gem

Gallery

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes with a custom Gallery app that defaults to showing the camera row, but the second tab shows all images and videos on the phone. You can set up a photo backup to your Mi Cloud account.

The Gallery app remains unchanged

The integrated editor offers various effects, filters and enhancements plus fun stuff like stickers and doodling.

Editing an image

Music player

The music player is like a MIUI version of Google Play Music. It can stream music online with added features like music videos and radio stations. It can also recognize songs thanks to ACRCloud.

Naturally, it plays offline music just fine too, but the player doesn't miss the opportunity to advertise things you may like. Before you decide to switch to a different player, you should know this one is fairly capable.

The music player cares about streaming as much as your offline library

It supports DLNA, can show lyrics and search for similar songs. The player lacks an equalizer but comes with presets for multiple headsets - from general in-ear plugs to specific Xiaomi-made models.

FM radio

The FM radio requires a headset to be connected and can play sound either through it or through the loudspeaker. The app can record audio and there's a sleep timer.

FM Radio: No RDS • Options • Sleep timer

Video player

You launch videos from the gallery. There's no subtitle support here, but DLNA is on board.

The simple video player: Simple UI • DLNA support • Playing a video

A surprisingly powerful video editor hides here - it can trim videos, add filters, text labels and even a soundtrack (from a predefined library of tracks or your music library).

The advanced video editor

Mediocre audio quality

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 started off decently in our audio quality test. When connected to an active external amplifier, the smartphone had perfectly clean output with no weak points to it. The volume was only average though, so not really impressive achievement.

When we plugged in a pair of headphones the stereo crosstalk rose considerably and intermodulation distortion crept in. Frequency response also got a little shaky, while volume levels dropped lower. Not the audiophile’s dream this one, but it can do the job if you don’t have high requirements.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4	+0.02, -0.10	-94.5	90.9	0.0019	0.0086	-94.9
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (headphones attached)	+0.37, -0.25	-92.2	89.6	0.0087	0.274	-53.6
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3	+0.04, -0.08	-96.0	92.3	0.0015	0.0076	-95.6
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (headphones attached)	+0.48, -0.09	-95.3	92.1	0.011	0.327	-70.2
Meizu m2 note	+0.08, -0.05	-93.1	92.7	0.0079	0.013	-92.4
Meizu m2 note (headphones attached)	+0.40, -0.62	-86.9	88.0	0.145	0.529	-50.8
Motorola Moto E (2015)	+0.02 -0.06	-90.8	91.1	0.0026	0.097	-90.9
Motorola Moto E (2015) (headphones attached)	+0.05, -0.06	-90.2	90.7	0.0029	0.063	-51.4

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.