Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7 Pro was a hit in the Indian market as it offered some impressive specs at an amazing price. The company has now launched its successor and a lot of things are changed in the newer upgrade. The Redmi Note 8 Pro brings in the new quad-camera camera setup, a new processor and a completely new design. Is the smartphone worth buying? Read our review to find out.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro Specifications
- CPU: 2.0 GHz MediaTek Helio G90T
- RAM: 6/8 GB
- Operating System: Android 9 Pie with MIUI 10
- Display: 6.53-inch Full HD+ dot notch display with 2340 × 1080 pixels screen resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and 91.4% screen to body ratio
- Rear Camera: 64-megapixel sensor + 8-megapixel 120-degree ultra-wide lens + 2-megapixel macro lens + 2-megapixel depth sensor
- Front Camera: 20-megapixel with AI Beautify features
- Internal Storage: 64/128 GB; dedicated microSD card slot in India
- Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, and USB Type-C port
- Other: Fingerprint sensor, IP52 rating, P2i nano-coating
- Colors: Halo White, Shadow Black, and Gamma Green
- Battery: 4500 mAh with 18W fast charging
Design, Display, & Ergonomics
The Redmi Note 8 Pro comes with an amazing glass back which makes the device look premium. The smartphone is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both front and back and hence you don’t have to worry if it accidentally falls out from your hand. The back doesn’t attract fingerprints and the Aura Design on the Redmi Note 8 Pro looks beautiful. It comes in three new colors and we got the Gamma Green variant to play around with. The device is Splash Proof and comes with P2I nano-coating which protects it from everyday splashes and spills.
The smartphone weighs 200g and if you are planning to switch from a Redmi Note 7 Pro it will take you some time to get used to it as it feels a little heavy. The sides of the device come in a metallic finish and you still get a headphone jack on the bottom. The camera setup is placed in the middle of the device and the 2 MP Macro lens is placed separately next to it. The camera setup bulges out which makes the phone wobble when it is lying on a flat surface. The physical fingerprint scanner works perfectly and unlocks your device within a second.
The Indian variant of the Redmi Note 8 Pro comes with a 2+1 SIM card slot which means that you can finally expand your storage using a MicroSD card and use dual SIM Cards along with it. It’s great to see that Xiaomi actually listened to what its customers were demanding and finally ditched the Hybrid slot with the Redmi Note 8 Pro.
Moving on to the display, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro flaunts a 6.53-inch Full HD+ dot notch display with a resolution of 2340 × 1080 pixels. It’s an HDR Enabled 500-nit display but still, it’s not an AMOLED panel. The device comes with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and offers a 91.4% screen to body ratio which is impressive. The notch on the front houses a 20 MP camera for your selfies.
The display is great for media streaming as it produces punchy and vivid colors which make the viewing experience good. Using it outdoors won’t be an issue thanks to the brightness levels it offers. Overall when it comes to the design and display the smartphone doesn’t disappoint.
User Interface and Software
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro runs on Android 9 Pie based on the MIUI 10.4.2 and does this operating system still need an Introduction? Well yes because the MIUI 10.4.2 is different from the other MIUI 10 builds we’ve seen on Xiaomi devices and hence you’ll have to know what’s new. The MIUI 10 brings in Digital Wellbeing and along with that two special features are also added. The two new features that you get with the MIUI 10.4.2 are Game Turbo and Quick Replies.
Game Turbo helps you to boost your game speeds and along with that it also offers few customization options whereas the new Quick Replies feature allows you to quickly reply from your notifications. Everything else is still the same and you get all the additional features that come with MIUI. You still get the Ads on MIUI but you can disable them manually. The device comes with Minimal Bloatware and mostly all the pre-installed apps can be uninstalled except the apps from Xiaomi and Google.
Features such as Screen Recorder, App Lock, FM Radio and Themes are present on the device. In addition to that, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro comes with Alexa Built-in and we had a fun time playing around with her. It works well and you can use her to get your tasks done. Ask her to play some music, ask her to tell you some news or some jokes and it’ll be there on your screen.
Hardware Performance, Benchmarks, and Gaming
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is powered by a MediaTek Helio G90T octa-core chipset. It is further coupled with 6/8 GB of RAM and 64/128 GB of Storage. This is a new gaming-focused chipset from MediaTek that comes with two high power ARM Cortex-A76 cores clocked up to 2.05GHz each and six efficiency Cortex-A55 cores clocked up to 2.0GHz. It’s a 12nm Octa-core chipset which is coupled with the ARM Mali-G76 MC4 integrated GPU clocked up to 800MHz.
The device handles day to day tasks easily and multitasking won’t be an issue on this one. When it comes to Gaming, we tried playing PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty, Mario Kart and few other games on this device and the Gaming experience was amazing. The maximum supported settings for PUBG Mobile on the Redmi Note 8 Pro are HDR Graphics with Ultra Frame Rate. You can set the Frame rate to Extreme if you switch your graphics to smooth. On the other hand, Call of Duty runs on Very High graphics with the frame rate set to “Very High”.
The gameplay experience was smooth in mostly all the games we played and we didn’t face any shutters or frame drops. The Game Turbo on the device works well and it shows you the CPU Usage and FPS you get in your games. However, we noticed temperatures up to 45 degrees while playing games for a long time and the device started heating. Xiaomi uses liquid cooling to tackle this but it still fails as the device temperature keeps going up. We’ve seen heating issues with Mediatek processors in the past and this one comes with it too. The chipset also drains more battery than usual.
Moving on to the Benchmark score, the Redmi Note 8 Pro gets a score of 281613 on the new AnTuTu V8. As new tests are added to AnTuTu V8 the performance ranking list will be out in a month hence comparing this device with others wasn’t possible on AnTuTu. On Geekbench 5 the device manages to get a single-core score of 352 whereas the multi-core score was 1471. With this score on Geekbench 5, the G90T beats most of the smartphones that come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor as it gets a higher score. Have a look at the Benchmark results below.
When it comes to Battery life, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro packs a 4500mAh battery which comes with support for 18W fast charging. The battery easily lasts up to a day with regular usage and it approximately takes an hour to charge up to 50%. Xiaomi has given the 18W charger inside the box this time which means that you won’t have to get a new charger separately.
On the connectivity part, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro supports Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5, and GPS/GLONASS/Beidou.
Camera
Redmi Note 8 Pro comes with a quad-camera setup at the back. The camera setup at the back features a 64-megapixel sensor with an f/1.79 aperture + 8-megapixel 120-degree ultra-wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture + 2-megapixel macro lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The 64 MP sensor is the Samsung GW1 sensor which takes 16 MP shots in default mode. On the front, you get a 20 MP Selfie Shooter with an f/2.0 aperture.
The rear camera comes with modes like AI Portrait mode, Night mode, Burst mode, Pro mode, and Panorama mode. The AI Scene detection on the device works well and the camera automatically optimizes its settings according to the conditions in which you are shooting. The Primary sensor does its job well and the images you get have a high amount of details. The colors are produced well and you get amazing bright images in your final output. The ultra-wide lens isn’t that great but for the price, it comes at it does the job right.
When it comes to the selfies, the 20 MP snapper on the Redmi Note 8 Pro is amazing. You get crisp selfies and the edge detection in portrait mode is on point. The front camera comes with features like Panorama selfie, Palm Shutter, Selfie timer, AI Portrait mode and more. We took some shots with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and you can have a look at the images below.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is the best smartphone that you can get under Rs.15,000 right now. It comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both front and back and the built quality is amazing. The cameras do their job well and if you are okay with the heating issues the processor is good too. All the heavy games work easily on the device and you can multitask with ease. This time the pricing is actually honest as the base variant with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage starts at Rs.14,999 and you can get the 128 GB Storage variant for Rs.15,999. Overall the Redmi Note 8 Pro gets a thumbs up from us!
Pros
- Beautiful Aura Design
- Corning Gorilla Glass Protection on Both Sides
- 64 MP Camera is impressive
- Handles heavy games easily without any frame drops
Cons
- No AMOLED Display
- Heating Issues while Gaming
