At an event in Delhi, India today, Xiaomi launched its much anticipated budget handset: the Redmi Note 3. Taking on the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note and the Honor 5X, Xiaomi has priced the Redmi Note 4 at an extremely attractive price point. 

The handset comes with a full metal body, a fingerprint scanner at its rear, and a 5.5-inch Full HD display that comes with Sunlight Display technology.

The Indian version of the handset is powered by a Snapdragon 650 processor, which is an hexa-core CPU that comprises of two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores. The integrated X8 LTE modem on the chipset supports download speeds of up to 300Mbps and VoLTE. Xiaomi says that the Redmi Note 3 is actually the first handset in the world to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 processor and the first phone with this processor to launch in India.

Other specs of the handset includes 2/3GB RAM, 16/32GB of internal memory, and a hybrid SIM card slot, which can either take in a microSD card and a nanoSIM or one nanoSIM and one microSIM. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS. There is a 16MP shooter at the rear with PDAF (phase detection auto focus) and an f/2.0 aperture, while the front houses a 5MP selfie camera. All this is powered by a beefy 4050mAh, despite which the handset is only 8.7mm thick and 167g heavy. 

Coming to the software, the Redmi Note 3 runs on MIUI 7.1 out of the box that is based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

The specs of the Redmi Note 3 already make it a better handset than its chief competitors: the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note and the Honor 5X. What makes it even better, is its pricing which starts from Rs. 9,999 for the 2GB/16GB variant. The 32GB/3GB RAM variant has been priced at Rs. 11,999. Xiaomi will be selling the Redmi Note 3 through Amazon India and Mi.com from March 9 via a flash sale.