Flagship Killer Smartphone??? - Redmi Note 10 Pro
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Disclaimer: This post is completely 100% my opinion and Xiaomi didn't sponsor me to write the content I produce below. (but Xiaomi rep, feel free to contact me after reading this, we can do something in the future 😉).
My first blog post, like finally. Initially, I'm planning to write things about Apple, the ecosystem, and the accessories around it, as I use their products a lot and you can check it out on my instagram. But who knows today I'm about to review and giving you my first impression of my recently bought Redmi device? So, grab your coffee and stay with me here for some minutes (or don't, click here).
BACKGROUND
So, it starts when I decided to separate my work stuff with my personal stuff. I'm using iPhone's Focus mode. But after a while, the feature can't cut it as I found it not really useful for me to separate my work and personal stuff (they're just hiding pages and notifications).
Then it occurs to me to look at another phone to be used as my work device. At first, I was thinking about getting a Samsung Z Flip 3 as it looks really cool and compact. But the pricetag didn't make it up to me. It's like paying triple for a product where two of third of the price goes to it's design. So, I start my research to find something worth it as what I really need is: great battery life and decent performance. Skip to the result, I found this Redmi Note 10 Pro caught my attention.
DESIGN & BUILD
Redmi Note 10 Pro comes with 3 colors, grey, blueish-white, and bronze. I decided to pick the neutral color, so grey it is. The back side is made of glass (some said it is Gorilla Glass but I can't find the official statement about it), with plastic on the frame. I can safely say the glass back looks quite amazing and didn't feel cheap, at all.
The volume up, volume down and power button queueing on the right side of the device, with fingerprint sensor implanted into the power button. It comes with speaker holes on top and bottom of the device to give surround feel for the audio, and it comes with a IR blaster and more importantly, headphone jack! (It kinda surprised me as an Apple user I'm sorry 😂).
It comes with a beautiful camera array, two-level protruding with 4 lenses on top and flash on the lower level. It's so accomplish that it initially made me thinking if the phone is actually a budget device instead of a $800 flagship device.
DISPLAY
Let's talk about how they fit AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10 and Gorilla Glass. It's really blows my mind! The brightness outdoor works decent as well. It also comes with wide color gamut and I can change the color profile as I like. It also has the Always On Display. Enough said about display, it's just crazy for me, considering the pricetag.
SPECIFICATIONS
I can't talk much about the processing power as I didn't really following the updates of processors in the market right now. It comes with Snapdragon 732G and from what I read it's a quite decent processor. I bought the middle option with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, as they also offers a lower 64GB storage and the higher one comes with 8GB RAM.
To test the performance, I've tried several games, like Mobile Legends, COD: Mobile, and Asphalt. The performance is decent, if not great. I can tell you, mobile gamers who are looking for budget phone for gaming, this could be a solid choice. The only downside is I find the device heat up quite fast.
The phone has a 5020mAh battery, and it amaze me to know how they can put such battery capacity in this slim phone. I test for light to moderate use (browser, youtube, spotify, texting and stuff), and I still managed to retain 30-40% at midnight, with 120Hz refresh rate turned on. For charging, it comes with 33W brick and they claimed to charge up to 59% in 30 minutes. I proved it and managed to get 53% in 30 minutes sharp, with me using it lightly to reply messages and stuff, so I think they lived up to their promise.
CAMERA
The phone has 4 lenses, with the main lens comes with 108MP. The big one below is an 8MP ultra-wide lens and the smaller ones are macro lens and depth sensor lens respectively. I know this is one of the part everyone is expecting when buying a phone, but sadly I didn't do any advanced test for this as it's just my phone for working. I managed to capture document and cloud, and the result is passable. The details are still there when zooming, and it's quite safe to say it's OK for casual photography. Should I do an in-depth review for this? Let me know below.
DOWNSIDES
Now, as I’ve discussed about the pros of this device, let’s drill down the cons.
Design wise, as I said, the phone looks beautiful, and I won’t deny it after a couple of paragraph. It’s just the protruding camera is not for everyone. If you lay it down face up, the uneven surface might be annoying for certain users. Another problem comes if you put the phone face down. The slightly curved back makes the device hard to be grabbed and picked up at once. It’s minor for sure, but I guess I’ll mention it anyway. The glossy back glass is also fingerprint magnet.
Performance wise, I feel like the phone getting hot quickly. But take it as a grain of salt because it’s been a week since I started to use this device, the result might be different after prolonged use. Another thing worth mentioning regarding the performance is the OS. And surely I need a whole paragraph to explain why.
The phone is running on MIUI OS. Despite having decent chipset and memory, the OS dragged down the performance with a lot of bloatware, unwanted notification and ads. I get it, they managed to strip down the price, part of them maybe because they sells the ad spot for app developers to push their products to us, and I can't blame them entirely. This is the biggest difference (and downside) coming from an iPhone user.
CONCLUSION
Despite some downsides as I mentioned earlier, the Redmi Note 10 Pro is excellent value for money, giving you almost all of the features you could need in a relatively powerful device that won't cost you much at all, and here's what it offers:
Big battery with fast charge
120Hz AMOLED screen
Stereo speakers
NFC
Fingerprint and Face ID
Next, I'm gonna figure out what to do with the device, inside and outside. I was thinking about getting a case or maybe a skin for the phone, and on top of my mind, exacoat might offer me good protection for the device. Also, I want to get rid of the OS and installing custom ROM to improve the performance, but let's see later 😉.