[Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Questions & Answers] gsmyth:
Well I spent a few hours setting the phone up last night. I went ahead and unlocked the bootloader as I figured once it's done I can forget about it. Overall first impression was wow,this feels like a device that's at least twice as expensive than it actually is, I went for the black 64gb/3gb model. Finally, lots of internal storage AND the option for an SD card.

The box the phone was in didn't have the cellophane wrapper on it,so right away I guessed it would have a vendor rom installed which it did. It was showing in settings as being the latest global stable but the characters in the rom version number identified it as a China rom which had obviously just been modded to look like a global rom. No problem, tried copying a couple of official rom zips to the phone and updating using the updater app on the phone, but it wasn't detecting an update, I also couldnt boot to recovery (just gave me a screen with an image of the phone phone and a cable, quite a common issue apparently). So used the SP flash tools program to flash a China dev rom, as this is what you need installed to be able to unlock the bootloader. All went well and got unlocked, I was in two minds whether I wanted to flash twrp and be rooted or not,but just left it for now and flashed the global stable rom.

Haven't had a proper full charge cycle yet but seems decent so far. There is a bit of battery drain due to the network settings which there is a fix for. Otherwise call quality and mobile/WiFi signal seems fine,no problems. I came from a galaxy S7 which sets the bar very high in a number of areas, but there's quite a few where I prefer what the note 4 has to offer. For example, I was glad to have the slightly larger 5.5" screen,yes the S7 edge has a big screen but I was never sold on the whole edge thing. Anyway I feel a 5.5" 1080p display is pretty much perfection for me. I've left the factory screen protector on for the moment until a case and glass screen protector arrive but it still has a great responsiveness to the touch.

The build quality is fantastic and as much as the S7 has a premium build, I prefer the all metal back on the Note 4, it feels really slim, which is strange as ive seen a few reviewers mention it wasnt the thinnest device but honestly it feels amazing. Overall it reminds me of a bit of a cross between an htc,the oneplus 3 and maybe the Nexus 6p and also a bit of my Oneplus one just for similar specs and powerhouse feel.

I like the speaker placement on the bottom as well as I find it's easier to hear when it goes off in your pocket and even when sitting on a flat surface. I tested the audio jack with a pair of sennheiser headphones (not super expensive or top end) and thought the audio quality was superb. It's definitely better than the S7 as that was one area where I felt quite let down. Even with using Samsung's customised adapt sound settings, it still left me dissapointed, that much that I preferred my Nexus 7 for listening to music. But the Note 4 has a really full bassy sound, I'm not saying it's up there with HTCs but it's definitely great quality. I tested with a few mp3s and Spotify and the fm radio worked fine also.

I haven't got much of a look at the camera so far but took a quick look and it seems really quick to focus and snap shots. Again it's just not going to compare to the s7 but there aren't many phones that do, but as long it can take quick shots in decent lighting ill be happy.

I really like the fingerprint scanner,which I think is a lot better than the S7s,as it's just in a better physical position for a start and it works really well. It doesn't have to be pushed like a button and it's really fast and accurate, whereas I found the S7 to play up after a while and failed to recognise quite a bit which was frustrating when after 5 times it asked you to wait 30 seconds before trying again.*

I'm also enjoying MIUI, I've experienced most flavours of android at one stage or another, eg touchwiz,htc sense, stock/nexus/aosp/cyanogen etc and I'm actually enjoying xiaomi's OS. It does remind me of touchwiz and obviously there are similarities with iOS but I've found it very fluid and responsive and pretty enjoyable to use.

So...I'll call it a day as this is probably far too long for anyone to be bothered to read, but overall I'm very happy!