Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi Note 8 Pro smartphone in the Indian market. The phone was the first in the world to have a 64 MP quad-camera setup when it was announced in China. However, it missed on that benchmark in India as Realme was the first company to launch a 64 MP quad-camera phone in India in the form of Realme XT.
Design
Both the smartphones come with a glass sandwich design but the Redmi Note 8 Pro is a bit bigger. The devices come with a waterdrop notch display for the front-facing camera. On the back side, while the quad-camera setup is placed in the top-left corner on Realme XT, the same is in the top-center position on the Redmi Note 8 Pro.
However, the Realme XT comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor while the Redmi Note 8 Pro has a physical fingerprint sensor placed on the back panel along with the camera module. While the traditional scanner should be faster than the in-display sensor, the later is a newer technology. Also, the sensor on the Redmi device is tiny, making it hard for the users to use.
Display
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro features a 6.53-inch display while the Realme XT comes with a 6.4-inch display. While the Xiaomi device has an IPS LCD screen, Realme is offering a Super AMOLED panel which is better than the LCD to look at.
Both the devices offer Full HD+ screen resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and have same aspect ratio –19.5:9. While the Redmi phone has 395PPI pixel density, Realme device offers 403PPI pixel density. Display on both the phones are protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
Camera
This department is the highlight on both the devices. The smartphones come with a quad-camera setup and both of them have identical setup. There’s a 64 MP Samsung GW1 primary sensor, along with an 8 MP ultra-wide sensor, a 2 MP macro sensor, and a 2 MP depth sensor.
The difference comes in when the switch to the front side. The Redmi Note 8 Pro features a 20 MP snapper up front while the Realme XT has a 16 MP snapper for taking selfies and video calling.
While the performance is the somewhat similar on both the phones with the rear-camera setup, the Redmi Note 8 Pro seems to have an edge in this department. However, for the front-facing camera, the Realme XT seems to be a clear winner. You can check out about the camera in details in our review of the Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme XT.
Performance and Software
The smartphones’ major difference comes in the form of software — the Redmi Note 8 Pro runs MIUI 10 based on Android 9 Pie while the Realme XT is running Android Pie-based ColorOS 6.0. While the MIUI seems to be a bit better compared to ColorOS, there’s an issue of the advertisements on Xiaomi’s custom user interface.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is powered by MediaTek’s new Helio G90T chispet with Mali-G76 MC4 GPU, aimed at budget gaming devices while the Realme XT is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 712 processor which is coupled with Adreno 616 GPU. Both of them come with up to 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage.
In this department, the Redmi Note 8 Pro seems to be a clear winner as the Helio G90T is better than the SD712 SoC. You can even play PUBG Mobile on Redmi Note 8 Pro at HDR settings which is not possible on the Realme XT. We’ve written in details about the phone’s performance in the review.
Battery and Others
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro comes with a 4500 mAh battery while the Realme XT packs 4000 mAh battery. While the Xiaomi smartphone seems to has bigger capacity battery, it doesn’t last as long as the Realme phone, which could be because of the optimization related to the MediaTek chipset.
Also, the Realme XT supports VOOC 3.0 flash charge technology offering 20W fast charging while the Redmi Note 8 Pro offers 18W fast charging. The battery life of the both the phones should be almost same and could last over a day on moderate usage.
Conclusion
While both the phones are almost similar to each other, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro seems to be a better choice when it comes to value-for-money compared to the Realme XT.
However, if you want a smartphone with better display and good battery life, you should go for the Realme XT. The Redmi Note 8 Pro is a good choice if you are looking for a device with better performance.
