Redmi Note series is Xiaomi’s most selling and most loved series of all. Every year, they launch these smartphones with a purpose of redefining what we already know about a great smartphone for a particular price segment and Redmi Note 10 Pro is no exception. It’s already been 6 months since the launch of this phone and it’s still the best one you can get under Rs. 35,000 in Nepal. But every phone comes with its own set of pros and cons. We have used the phone for a long time now and decided to give our verdict so that you know everything about the phone before making a buying decision.
Redmi Note 10 Pro: After 6 Months
Design: Redmi Note 10 Pro
Let’s start with design first. The back of the phone looks beautiful and has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Specially, the particular Gray color variant we have adds elegancy to the phone. The side frame is made of plastic, which should not be a problem whatsoever.
Moving on, hands on experience of the device is pretty impressive too. Immediately after holding the phone, you will feel how light the phone is . Though the phone weighs around 192 grams, you will not feel the weight. The device has rounded corners along with curved edges around the back that ensures comfortable hold.
The top has 3.5mm headphone jack, second speaker grill, a secondary microphone for noise cancellation and an IR blaster. On the left, there is cutout for sim tray. On the bottom, you can find the primary microphone, usb type-C charging port and the speaker grill. To the right, we have fingerprint scanner embedded in power button and the volume button. I found the fingerprint scanner a bit wobbly and not so sturdy while using. Also, the sensor is not the fastest I have tried. But it gets the job done and it is perfectly fine considering the price of the phone.
The black color variant we have is a fingerprint magnet and I suggest you to use the default case provided in the box itself. In my extensive usage without any protection on, I didn’t find any major scratches despite my rough handling. So, you should be good to go with a screen protector and the case.
No other phone on this price range provides build quality this good. It just has no competition right now in terms of build quality and premiumness.
Design wise, I will give the phone 9 out of 10.
Display
Talking about the display, it has best-in-class display with 6.67” FHD AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate. The bezels are very minimum and near-even with slightly larger chin which you won’t even notice that much. There is a hole punch cutout for selfie camera as well. The notch is very minimal and doesn’t distract the content at all. Colors are very punchy while watching videos. In addition, you can enjoy HDR contents too, which increases real state.
If we talk about the refresh rate, I have a mixed feeling. On paper, it may seem this is a flagship-grade display but it is not the case. I did find stutters while using the phone and it is not as smooth as advertised at times. And sometimes, while accessing notification center, I found its refresh rate decreases significantly. It may be because of poor optimizations of MIUI or the mid-range chipset used in the phone.
But don’t get me wrong here, you still cannot get any better display in this price segment than this one. It has 1200 nits peak brightness which is crazy for a phone this affordable. Even in direct sunlight, I had no problem reading the contents of display.
So, for display, it is 9.5 out of 10 for sure.
Performance
Speaking of performance, Redmi Note 10 Pro has mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G, which is the same processor used in Poco X3. It is an octa-core processor based on 8nm process and can handle most games at medium settings. However, it is not as powerful as Snapdragon 860 on Poco X3 Pro. If we talk about the benchmark score, it got around 302K Antutu Score, which is not that bad, but also, not the best. As you can see, pubg mobile runs on 40 frames per second, and not 60 fps. Since, other phones like Poco X3 Pro, or even Redmi Note 10s can run the game on 60fps, Redmi Note 10 Pro falls behind on this department for sure. Another thing I noticed while playing the game is that 240Hz touch sampling rate doesn’t live up to it’s name on this device. I have used phones with 240Hz touch sampling rate in the past and this feels less responsive while playing Pubg mobile. Call of Duty runs on highest settings and is very smooth and responsive. I did not notice any major frame drops in both the games. With extensive gaming, the phone did heat up slightly around the camera section. While it has significantly lesser heating when compared to Poco X3 Pro, it is worth mentioning that the phone tends to get heat up when gaming for longer period of time.
The phone comes with 6GB/8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB/128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. You can always expand the storage via micro-SD card if you ever feel the storage space is not enough for you. About UFS 2.1, it is by no means the fastest storage in the market, which is a little disappointing from the company considering the competition right now. Also, the RAM management on the phone is on the hit and miss side. MIUI is always known for it’s poor RAM management and it is the same case here.
If you are looking for a pure gaming phone for around 30k in Nepal, then you should definitely go for Poco X3 Pro instead of Redmi Note 10 Pro.
So, I will give the phone 7/10 for the performance.
Camera
Talking about camera, it has quad camera setup on the back with 108MP primary lens, 8MP ultra-wide sensor, 5MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor. Here are some camera samples from Redmi Note 10 Pro. Shots from primary lens have very punchy colors. [photo 1 primary lens] As you can see here, the sky looks impressive and the details on the subject’s face is preserved very well. There was direct sunlight on the face but it did very well not to overexpose the image. [photo 2 with direct sunlight] It does struggle a little bit with direct sunlight behind the subject. The photo comes grainy as you can see here. However, if you turn on HDR, it significantly reduces that noise and overall photo becomes usable. Using ultra-wide lens lets you capture wider field of view but with the hit in quality. The colors seem washed out and detail is not preserved well. It also comes with 2X digital zoom option, which can be useful at times and does a decent job in clarity department as well. Having a larger sensor helps a lot in maintaining detail. Portrait mode on the phone is good too. The background blur is realistic. You can always adjust the background blur after taking the shots. It produces very impressive portraits which looks pleasing to eyes. But in complex situation like this, sometimes it misses hair and blends it with background.
The 5MP macro lens does a good job in taking close up shots. It is definitely way better than most 2MP sensors out there.
Taking pictures in low light situations like here, exposes the lack of wide aperture in the main sensor. Image comes out bright with good exposure but lacks details. The camera automatically detects night time and increases the shutter speed by itself according to situation.
Talking about selfie, it features 16 MP front facing camera with f/2.45 aperture. Selfie comes out vibrant and looks natural at the same time. I like how it maintains good details on the face. But sometimes, it tends to overexpose images at times as you can see here. [selfie with portrait] If you ever get into such condition, you can just turn on portrait mode on selfie to solve this issue by a fair margin.
If we talk about videos, it can record 4k at 30 fps. It has good dynamic range overall. I definitely liked its contrast and vibrant colors, but it all comes down to personal preference. In terms of stabilization, 4K videos doesn’t have any sort of stabilization and it is comes shaky as you can see in the sample.
Turning on super steady mode reduces the video resolution to 1080p 30fps but greatly improves stabilization.
Also Read: Redmi Note 10 Pro Launched in Nepal: The Best Display and Camera Phone Under 35K
All in all, the phone clicks good picture in day time with enough lighting. But I just doubt that it is a true 108MP camera when I see the night time shots. It could always be fixed with software updates but it’s been long and Xiaomi hasn’t fixed it.
To counter some of the flaws, you can always use the pro mode and tweak the settings to get best out of the phone as it has capable hardware.
Despite having some issues, I can safely say this is the best camera experience you can get for the price. There is no competition right now for the phone in camera department.
Hence, 9/10 score for cameras.
Battery
Let’s talk about the battery. The phone has a large 5020mAh battery with included 33W fast charging support. For me, it lasted around 1 to 1 and half days on medium usage like watching videos and moderate gaming. If you are not a heavy user, then this phone can last around 2 days without having to plug it in, thanks to its AMOLED display and mid-range chipset. Charging from 0 to 100% took me around an hour, which is just fine considering a larger battery.
For battery, it is solid 10/10 from me.
Software
In terms of software, my unit runs on MIUI Global version 12.5.6 after update and with android 11 underneath. MIUI comes with its own sets of perks and customizations like you can choose thousands of themes from its themes store.
There are bloatwares preinstalled but they can be easily removed by yourself.
At the end, a software skin is one’s own preference. Some may like it and some may not.
For me personally, the ads in this phone’s system apps like file manager and installation security check screen is annoying. I turned the ads personalization off and it was much better experience for me. You can just go to settings and turn off the ads if you want and I am sure that you would love to do it.
Redmi Note 10 Pro: Specifications
| Dimensions & Weight | 164 x 76.5 x 8.1 mm 193g |
| Display | 6.67″ FHD+ AMOLED 2400 x 1080 pixels 700 nits (typical) 1100 nits (peak brightness) 395 PPI Density Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G |
| Chipset | Octa-core (2×2.3 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver) 8nm Adreno 618 |
| RAM | 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 64/128GB UFS2.2 |
| Battery & Charging | 5020mAH 33W USB Type-C Reverse charging |
| Rear Camera | Quad Camera 108MP, 0.7μm, f/1.9 8MP, Ultra-wide, FOV 118° 5MP Tele-macro 2MP Depth 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 720p up to 960fps |
| Front Camera | 16MP, f/2.45 |
| Operating System | MIUI 12 based on Android 11 |
| Sensors | 360̊ Ambient Light Sensor Proximity Sensor E-Compass Accelerometer Gyroscope Side-mounted Fingerprint Scanner Infrared |
| Other Features | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5.1 3.5mm headphone jack IP53 Water/Dust resistance |
Subtle things
- Case provided in the box is nice and soft to touch that has translucent glass effect to it.
- When scrolling, if you reach the top or bottom, there is subtle vibration which gives nice touch to the phone.
- Pulling down to refresh in task manager reduces the refresh rate to what seemed to be 60Hz.
