Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G review: Good budget phone for multi-media consumption

The Redmi A4 5G is is best suited for senior citizens, who mostly use social media platforms and OTT apps.

Xiaomi earlier this month launched the budget 5G phone Redmi A4 series in India. It is the first mobile to come with Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, Qualcomm's custom-built chipset for the Indian market.

I used the device for a week and here are my thoughts on Xiaomi's latest budget phone.

Build quality, design and display

The new Redmi A4 5G is a big phone. It has flat railings on the sides and curved corners offering a good grip for the fingers to hold onto the device.

On the back, it has a glossy cover, which Xiaomi calls 'Halo Glass'. It is made of polycarbonate materials with a glass-like looks.

Our review unit is starry black. It looks great in the sunlight. The smooth rear case though looks good, it fails to repel sweaty fingerprint smudges. Even the circular camera module, which protrudes a bit offers space for dust to settle. The user has to clean the device quite often to make it appear neat.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G.

However, the Redmi A4 5G is a sturdy phone and can survive daily wear and tear. Also, it comes with an IP52 rating, meaning it can survive accidental water splashes.

It sports a 6.88-inch HD+(1600 x 720p) display with a 20:9 aspect ratio display, 120Hz refresh rate and supports up to 600 nits of peak brightness.

The large screen is tailor-made for multimedia consumption. Even when browsing the web, the screen is very responsive to touch inputs and works buttery smooth.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G.

It also features a 3.5mm audio jack, triple slots (two for nano SIMs and a microSD card), an FM radio, a Type-C port and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. The latter works amazingly well with a low false rejection rate.

Performance

The new Redmi A4 comes with a 64-bit architecture-based Snapdragon 4s Gen 2. It has eight CPU cores- two performance cores with up to 2.0 GHz max CPU speed and six efficiency cores with up to 1.8GHz CPU speed.

The device comes with an Adreno 611 GPU, 4GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 64GB/128GB UFS2.2 internal storage (expandable up to 1TB).

The device is more than capable of running multiple apps in the background and also supports several popular games. But, it is not built for extreme gaming.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's CPU and GPU performance score on Geekbench 6.0.

The Redmi A4 runs a familiar Android 14-based Xiaomi HyperOS. It is very smooth to navigate through the phone's settings but comes with a lot of pre-loaded apps.

The device will soon get Android 15-based HyperOS 2. It will bring more refreshing visual changes to the user interface with lively animations and more.

In total, the Xiaomi phone is guaranteed to get two major OS updates (up to 2026) and an additional two years of security software support (up to 2028).

The new Snapdragon 4s Gen comes integrated with dual-frequency NavIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) chipset. It offers a positioning accuracy of three metres, depending on the signal strength and availability of satellites. GPS on the current crop of phones offer a positioning accuracy of five metres.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G.

With a new 5G modem, the budget phone support high-speed internet data up to 1Gbps.

But, conditions apply!

The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2-powered Redmi A4 only supports a standalone(SA) 5G network.

Currently, only Reliance Jio offers the SA 5G network. Airtel is still using its old 4G infrastructure to offer 5G network. It uses 4G LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) technology to achieve a 5G cellular network for phones.

Airtel is expected to take three to four years to migrate to the Standalone (SA) system in India.

Until then, Redmi A4 customers with Airtel SIM and Vodafone will be able to 4G-LTE cellular support for calls and internet.

Battery life

The Redmi A4 comes with a massive 5,160mAh battery. During the review period, the device managed to deliver close to one and a half days of battery life under normal usage. Even with extreme usage terms of watching multimedia content for long hours, it can still last a whole day.

The company is offering a 33W charger free with the retail package. But, the device supports a maximum 18W charging speed. It takes close to two hours to fully charge from zero to 100 per cent mark.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

Photography

The Xiaomi phone also features a dual-camera module with a 50MP (f/1.8) sensor with an auxiliary lens and an LED flash on the back.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

For its price, the Redmi A4 5G takes brilliant photos in the natural sunlight.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

The phone's native camera app bumps up the colours of the subject to appear more vibrant than what they really look to our eyes. I won't complain, as the resulting photos are really pretty.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

At night, the photos are decent at best.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

With close up shots, the Redmi A4 performs good. It manages to get minutes details at close range.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

On the front, it houses a 5MP (f/2.2) camera. It takes decent selfies in good light conditions.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

And, it offers several filters and tools to enhance the beauty of the face, which comes in handy for photos to be uploaded as Display Picture for social media platforms.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

Both the front and the back cameras support full HD 1080p video recording. The video quality is decent and better than most of the phones in the budget segment.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G's camera sample.

Final thoughts

The big 6.88-inch display is great for watching movies and TV series on OTT apps. The build quality is top-class. The camera hardware is decent enough get good photos in the sunlight. And, the battery is optmised to deliver long battery life.

The only qualm is the 5G connectivity is not supported on Airtel's Non-StandAlone 5G network.

Xiaomi Redmi A4 5G.

Considering the overall aspects, the Redmi A4 5G is my number one pick in the budget phone segment under Rs 10,000.

It is best suited for senior citizens, who mostly use social media platforms and OTT apps. It also good option for college students who are tight budget.

The Redmi A4 5G is available in two colour options—Starry Black and Sparkle Purple. It comes in two storages—64GB and 128GB—for Rs 8,499 and Rs 9,499.

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