Earlier this week, we wrote a guide on how to unlock the bootloader on the Redmi Note 3 unofficially, without waiting for Xiaomi to approve your application.

We unlocked the device about a week ago, and have been using the recently released official Cyanogenmod 13 ROM on the Redmi Note 3 ever since. And the ROM is very very stable.

So, want to get the best ROM for the Redmi Note 3? It’s quite easy, if you follow our steps.

How to flash Official Cyanogenmod 13 on the Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon

1. First, unlock the Redmi Note 3 bootloader by following our guide. Unlocking the bootloader erases all data on the phone’s internal storage, so make sure you backup your data before doing that.

2. Now, you need to flash a custom recovery on the device. For this, we recommend the official TWRP recovery for Kenzo (Redmi Note 3 Snapdragon). We already have a guide for flashing TWRP on any phone. The steps are the same for the Redmi Note 3.

3. Next, head to the Getcm website, to download the official Cyanogenmod 13 for the Redmi Note 3 Kenzo.

4. Download the GAPPs (Google Apps Package) from Open GAPPs. We recommend the minimalistic version, the ARM 64 Pico. As always please verify the MD5 checksum values of the downloaded files. You can find them on the download pages.

5. Once you have flashed TWRP on the Note 3, copy the Cyanogenmod 13 zip and the Gapps zip to your phone. It can be placed on the Internal Storage or the SD Card (if you are using one).

6. Reboot to TWRP recovery. To do so, connect the phone to the PC, open a command prompt and type the following command.

adb reboot recovery

7. Now in TWRP main screen, select Wipe and swipe across the Factory Reset bar. We also recommend wiping the System partition from the Wipe > Advanced menu. Do NOT wipe the internal storage or Micro SD.

8. Tap the back button and get to the TWRP main menu. Select Install and choose the Cyanogenmod zip, and swipe across the bar on the bottom to flash the zip.

9. Wait for the “installation successful” message. Do NOT reboot the device. Hit the back button, select Install and choose the GAPPs file and flash it. This is done to avoid bootloops.

10. Once the installation has been completed successfully, reboot the device.

Congratulations, you have installed Cynaogenmod 13 on your Redmi Note 3. To get OTA updates for the ROM, we recommend installing CyanDelta Updater app from the Google Play Store, and update to the latest ROM at least once a week.

[appbox googleplay com.cyandelta]

How to root the Redmi Note 3 on Cyanogenmod 13:

1. Navigate to Settings > About Phone and tap on the build number 7 times to unlock the developer options.

2. Go back, select Developer Options, and scroll down the list to enable Root.

3. Optionally, you can also enable USB Debugging if you want to use Titanium Backup. Don’t forget to allow installation of apps from unknown sources from Settings > Security, if you wish to restore apps and data from older Titanium back up files.

Oh and here is a screenshot of Cyanogenmod 13 on the Redmi Note 3.

The Note 3 clocked a decent 74000 points n AnTuTu Benchmark. The phone’s performance is definitely more fluid on Cyanogenmod, than it was on MIUI.

The battery life is amazing too, and we managed to get a screen on time of 8 hours (SoT). A huge advantage in having a Marshmallow RO is that it supports Nexus Imprint APPI, which means you can use the fingerprint scanner for authentication on the Google Play Store and also for third party apps like LastPass, or my personal choice Keepass2Android.