The Redmi Note 7 Pro was a fantastic mid-range gadget, and Xiaomi has just released the Redmi Note 8 Pro, its much-anticipated successor, in Nepal. The Note 8 Pro has a more modern appearance, a more powerful CPU, and a 64-megapixel quad-camera array on the back.
SPECIFICATIONS
| Display | 6.53-inch IPS LCD screen, Full HD+ (2340×1080 pixels), 19.5:9 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection |
| Rear Camera | Quad camera – (64 MP, f/1.8, Dual Pixel PDAF) + (8 MP, f/2.2 (wide-angle) + (2 MP, f/2.4, macro lens) + (2MP, f/2.4, portrait lens) |
| Front Camera | 20 MP, f/2.2 |
| CPU | Helio G90T (2 x 2.27GHz Cortex A76 + 6 x 1.7GHz Cortex A55) |
| GPU | Mali G76 |
| RAM | 6GB, 8 GB |
| Storage | 64 GB, 128GB; Expandable |
| OS & UI | Android 9.0 (Pie) with MIUI 10 on top |
| Sensors | Fingerprint, Gyro, accelerometer, proximity, compass |
| Battery | 4500 mAh; USB Type-C port |
| Price | Rs. 26,999 (6/64GB) | Rs. 29,999 (6/128GB) | Rs. 32,999 (8/128GB) |
Design and display
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro resembles the Realme X2 Pro in appearance, so if you’ve seen that phone, you’ve seen this one. It’s a large, weighty phone that’s also somewhat thick.
In the upper center of the rear, there’s a vertical camera hump that also houses a fingerprint sensor (which looks like one of the lenses at first glance).
Redmi Note 8 Pro phone’s back is made of glass, which is unusual at this price point because most phones have plastic backs. The 6.53-inch screen, which is split up by a teardrop notch at the top, contributes to the Redmi Note 8 Pro’s bulk.
Redmi Note 8 Pro has a 1080 x 2340 LCD display, which is the display technology we’d expect in a phone this inexpensive, and while the colors aren’t great, the high resolution helps to compensate.
While a huge display is useful for watching material, social networking, and other things, the phone is potentially too large — we had difficulty reaching the fingerprint scanner at times, and other users may find it too enormous.
Camera and battery life
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro boasts a 64-megapixel main camera, which is one of its main selling points, but it also has an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, a 2-megapixel macro, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
When used in a well-lit area, the 64MP camera produces decent-looking photos, so if you enjoy photographing natural scenes or being outside in any form, this could be a great tool for you.
As the name implies, the ultra-wide snapper captures images that are… well, quite wide. Pictures appear to be reasonable, however there appears to be some distortion at the borders of images, perhaps more so than on comparable handsets with distortion-cancelling software.
The closeup and depth-sensing cameras of Redmi Note 8 Pro aren’t particularly useful, as you’d expect from 2MP sensors. Macro photos are low-res yet bright, and we didn’t observe a difference in picture quality when we shot with or without the depth sensor (the latter of which was achieved by putting a finger in the way).
Features
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro comes preloaded with Android 9 Pie, but it can be upgraded to Android 10 with Xiaomi’s MIUI 11 on top. This is primarily a cosmetic change, although the phone does come with a number of bloatware apps that you may find yourself uninstalling right away, such as Opera, a web browser app that is redundant when you have Chrome, Mi Community, and Mi Store.
The chipset in question is a MediaTek Helio G90T, which isn’t exactly top-of-the-line (MediaTek is known for making mid-range and budget phone internals), but you could do a lot worse for the money, especially considering it’s one of the company’s better chipsets.
Given the cheap price point, the fact that there is 6GB of RAM here is remarkable, since many other phones at this price point would only have 4GB.
The phone did not feel sluggish or slow when sliding between home screens and menus, which is a significant departure over the Redmi Note 8T.
Performance
The MediaTek Helio G90T chipset is used in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro. It’s a gaming-focused midtier processor that’s a significant increase over the Note 7 Pro’s Snapdragon 675. I’ve been playing difficult games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnight, and Asphalt. All of these games work without lags or stutters at their maximum settings.
Software
Redmi Note 8 Pro is presently operating on MIUI 10 for the software experience (in the unit we have). Xiaomi, on the other hand, is expected to release MIUI 11 before the end of the year. Everything is smooth and speedy, from transitions to app launching. Because of the 6GB RAM and Helio G90T CPU, you won’t feel slow when moving around MIUI, even though it is repetitively loaded compared to others.
We haven’t experienced any issues with advertisements running across various portions of the UI, so Xiaomi appears to have taken care of it.
To summarize, the Redmi Note 8 Pro is a well-balanced midrange phone with fantastic performance, design, and cameras. It lacks an AMOLED display and an in-display fingerprint sensor, both of which are standard in phones in this price range from VIVO and Samsung. However, I do not believe they are required, as the IPS panel and rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor are sufficient.
In many aspects, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro could be one of the greatest phones at its price, as it could easily pass for a mid-ranger. Indeed, as we mentioned previously in this review, it shares a lot of similarities with the Realme X2 Pro, which costs a lot more.
Sure, the Redmi Note 8 Pro is a little bigger than we’d like, which may turn some people off.The screen quality, main camera specs, and battery life are all impressive for the price, so we expect this to rank pretty high in our ranking of the best inexpensive phones, as well as the best Xiaomi phones, once we’ve completed our comprehensive review.
