Xiaomi's best budget offering under the 10k mark.
Redmi Note series from Xiaomi has been receiving a huge success in the market. It offers very good specifications at a valuable price. Earlier the Redmi Note 7 and the Note 7S were very good smartphones under Rs.10,000.
This time it is no different as Xiaomi has come with the Redmi Note 8 with some serious offering with the upgraded cameras, faster chipset, and also a fast charger included inside the box and that too priced similar to its predecessor, the Redmi Note 7.
Realme launched the Realme 5s recently and Vivo has launched the Vivo U20 with a Snapdragon 675 chipset and with a good design. The Redmi Note 8 has a lot to offer and we will see how is this latest Note and what does it bring to the table?
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Design:
The Redmi Note 8 continues with the same glass design which was seen on its predecessor, the Redmi Note 7. Similarly, the Redmi Note 8 gets Corning Gorilla Glass 5 both on the front as well as back which makes it look premium.
On the front, there is a 6.3 inches screen with a droplet-shaped notch. On top of the notch there is an earpiece grill and to the side of it lies a small notification LED light that is white in color and lights up when you receive any notification.
The bezels on the sides of the smartphone are minimum except for the bottom which looks more like the Redmi 8 or the Redmi 8A. At the bottom of the bezel, the Redmi name is present, and coming to the sides there are volume rockers with the power button.
On top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with an IR blaster to control televisions and other devices.
On the front, there is a 6.3 inches screen with a droplet-shaped notch. On top of the notch there is an earpiece grill and to the side of it lies a small notification LED light that is white in color and lights up when you receive any notification.
The bezels on the sides of the smartphone are minimum except for the bottom which looks more like the Redmi 8 or the Redmi 8A. At the bottom of the bezel, the Redmi name is present, and coming to the sides there are volume rockers with the power button.
On top, there is a secondary noise-canceling microphone with an IR blaster to control televisions and other devices.
On the back, you get a gradient pattern with S-shape which shines when tilting the smartphone from different angles. This time the Redmi Note 8 comes with a quad-camera setup which lies to the left and in the middle lies the fingerprint scanner which is fast and accurate. The camera bump is slightly felt and should be carefully kept to prevent it to wobble.
At the bottom, there is the loudspeaker vent with a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It comes with a triple card slot that houses a dual SIM card slot with a dedicated microSD card slot. The smartphone comes in four colors - Neptune Blue, Moonlight White, Space Black, and Nebula Purple.
The Neptune Blue and Purple look really good as color is a personal preference. The Redmi Note 8 comes with P2i coating at the back so it is splash resistant.
At 190gms it is slightly heavier but 10gms lighter than the Redmi Note 8 Pro. Xiaomi provides a case inside the box to protect the back of the smartphone. Overall it is built well and feels solid in the hands.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Display:
The Redmi Note 8 sports a 6.3 inches Full HD+ LCD display (1080 x 2340 pixels) with a screen to body ratio of 19.5:9. The screen is bright with good color production and the viewing good angles. However, the screen isn't as good as an AMOLED but still, under 10k, the Redmi Note 8 has one of the best screens and compared to the Realme 5s which comes with a 720p panel.
The Redmi Note 8 supports HDR content on the screen which is rarely seen on a smartphone at this range. The viewing angles of the screen are also very good. The screen supports Widevine L1 which provides the ease of streaming HD content on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hotstar, etc.
The Redmi Note 8 supports HDR content on the screen which is rarely seen on a smartphone at this range. The viewing angles of the screen are also very good. The screen supports Widevine L1 which provides the ease of streaming HD content on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hotstar, etc.
Under direct sunlight, the screen on the Redmi Note 8 provides good visibility but the auto-brightness sensor flickers a bit. During the night, the screen can go very dim ensuring good readability and ensures by not putting a strain on the eyes.
The display on the Redmi Note 8 is better than the similarly priced Realme 5s, so watching videos or playing games on the Redmi Note 8 display is a treat.
The display on the Redmi Note 8 is better than the similarly priced Realme 5s, so watching videos or playing games on the Redmi Note 8 display is a treat.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Performance:
The Redmi Note 8 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 which is an octa-core chipset: 4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold cores for performance and 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver cores for power efficiency coupled with an Adreno 610 GPU built on 11nm process.
This chipset does the duties on the Realme 5s and Xiaomi Mi A3. Compared to last year's Snapdragon 660 which came with an Adreno 512 GPU and was built on the 14nm process, Snapdragon 665 is a much more efficient chipset as it is built on an 11nm process. Plus the GPU is also a huge upgrade Adreno 512 to Adreno 610 thus improving overall performance and gaming capabilities.
The smartphone breezes through all the applications smoothly. There isn't any stutter but the similarly priced Vivo U20 provides a Snapdragon 675 which is powerful than the Snapdragon 665. Coming to benchmarks, the Redmi Note 8 scored 170973 on Antutu, and on Geekbench, it scored 1488 and 5394 for single and multi-cores which is slightly better than the Snapdragon 660.
This chipset does the duties on the Realme 5s and Xiaomi Mi A3. Compared to last year's Snapdragon 660 which came with an Adreno 512 GPU and was built on the 14nm process, Snapdragon 665 is a much more efficient chipset as it is built on an 11nm process. Plus the GPU is also a huge upgrade Adreno 512 to Adreno 610 thus improving overall performance and gaming capabilities.
The smartphone breezes through all the applications smoothly. There isn't any stutter but the similarly priced Vivo U20 provides a Snapdragon 675 which is powerful than the Snapdragon 665. Coming to benchmarks, the Redmi Note 8 scored 170973 on Antutu, and on Geekbench, it scored 1488 and 5394 for single and multi-cores which is slightly better than the Snapdragon 660.
In terms of gaming, the Redmi Note 8 handled all the games smoothly but in some heavy intensive games like PUBG, the smartphone started to show frame drops and the back of the smartphone felt a bit warm. Asphalt 9 and Mobile Legends played fine but when playing both these games at the highest graphics settings, it lagged and frame drops were noticed.
For heavy intensive games, the Redmi Note 8 is not the smartphone for you as the Vivo U20 with the Snapdragon 675 is the better option when it comes to gaming. Overall compared to the Redmi Note 7, the performance is better.
For heavy intensive games, the Redmi Note 8 is not the smartphone for you as the Vivo U20 with the Snapdragon 675 is the better option when it comes to gaming. Overall compared to the Redmi Note 7, the performance is better.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Software:
The Redmi Note 8 runs MIUI 10 out of the box built on top of Android 9 Pie. MIUI has been improving with each update over the years and years. And this time it is no different from the Redmi Note 8. MIUI does bring ad issues but the way it is optimized it provides good battery life and also various customizations to the users.
The Redmi Note 8 gets system-wide dark mode, Quick Card Pane where you can view all relevant information regarding recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar, weather, etc. MIUI 11 is around the corners for the Redmi Note 8 as it brings many more improvements compared to MIUI 10. It does come with a lot of applications pre-installed but they can be uninstalled easily.
Like the elder Redmi Note 8 Pro, the face unlock is very fast and accurate and there is also a Game Turbo feature to enable good gaming. The smartphone will get the Android 10 update soon.
Compared to the ColorOS and FuntouchOS, MIUI is far better optimized and well rounded as it gets faster updates. The Redmi Note 8 continues to impress in the software department.
The Redmi Note 8 gets system-wide dark mode, Quick Card Pane where you can view all relevant information regarding recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar, weather, etc. MIUI 11 is around the corners for the Redmi Note 8 as it brings many more improvements compared to MIUI 10. It does come with a lot of applications pre-installed but they can be uninstalled easily.
Like the elder Redmi Note 8 Pro, the face unlock is very fast and accurate and there is also a Game Turbo feature to enable good gaming. The smartphone will get the Android 10 update soon.
Compared to the ColorOS and FuntouchOS, MIUI is far better optimized and well rounded as it gets faster updates. The Redmi Note 8 continues to impress in the software department.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Camera:
In this department, the Redmi Note 8 is a big upgrade over the Redmi Note 7 and 7S. The Redmi Note 8 gets four cameras to the rear, the primary being the 48MP sensor. The Redmi Note 7S had really good cameras and the Redmi Note 8 further improves over it as it gets an ultrawide camera and a macro lens for close up shots.
The cameras consist of a 48MP ISOCELL GM2 sensor by Samsung with f/1.8 aperture, 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens for wider shots, 2MP f/2.4 macro lens, and 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor.
The cameras consist of a 48MP ISOCELL GM2 sensor by Samsung with f/1.8 aperture, 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens for wider shots, 2MP f/2.4 macro lens, and 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor.
You can easily switch between camera toggles and there is a dedicated 48MP mode that shoots the photos and processes it to 12MP by default using pixel binning. Now talking about the image quality from the main camera, the photos came out to be crisp and clear with less noise in the background.
The saturation of the colors worked really well and there wasn't any oversharpening noticed. The dynamic range was wide enough but with HDR on, the photos overexposed and the photos didn't look natural.
Coming to the 48MP mode, the photos taken from it came out to be well detailed and the dynamic range also worked well. In low light situations, the Redmi Note 8 can shoot some really good photos thanks to the dedicated Night Mode which works really well reducing the noise in the background.
The ultrawide camera is an 8MP shooter that captures good photos with a good level of detail. The dynamic range is good but when you zoom into the photos, there is certainly some loss of detail. The photos aren't bad but the contrast sometimes does take a hit.
Coming to the night, the photos came out to be good, not great. The noise was there in the picture but the dynamic range was wide enough and worked really well. The ultrawide camera misses out on the Night Mode which is a bit disappointing.
The Redmi Note 8 lacks a telephoto camera but still, you have the ability to shoot 2x zoom photos which came out to be good.
The 2MP macro camera worked well on the smartphone as it captured good photos but in some places soft corners and over sharpness in the photos were observed. The edge detection needs an improvement that Xiaomi will fix in a future software update.
Coming to portraits, the photos taken from the rear camera were good with good background blur and proper edge detection. However, when zoomed into the photos, we noticed that there was some loss in detail but not an issue. At night, there was some noise in the picture as the photos came out to be average.
The Redmi Note 8 has a 13MP f/2.0 front camera which takes some really good photos. On the software side, you have skin smoothening, face smiling and the skin tone change is also noticed.
The saturation of the colors worked really well and there wasn't any oversharpening noticed. The dynamic range was wide enough but with HDR on, the photos overexposed and the photos didn't look natural.
Coming to the 48MP mode, the photos taken from it came out to be well detailed and the dynamic range also worked well. In low light situations, the Redmi Note 8 can shoot some really good photos thanks to the dedicated Night Mode which works really well reducing the noise in the background.
The ultrawide camera is an 8MP shooter that captures good photos with a good level of detail. The dynamic range is good but when you zoom into the photos, there is certainly some loss of detail. The photos aren't bad but the contrast sometimes does take a hit.
Coming to the night, the photos came out to be good, not great. The noise was there in the picture but the dynamic range was wide enough and worked really well. The ultrawide camera misses out on the Night Mode which is a bit disappointing.
The Redmi Note 8 lacks a telephoto camera but still, you have the ability to shoot 2x zoom photos which came out to be good.
The 2MP macro camera worked well on the smartphone as it captured good photos but in some places soft corners and over sharpness in the photos were observed. The edge detection needs an improvement that Xiaomi will fix in a future software update.
Coming to portraits, the photos taken from the rear camera were good with good background blur and proper edge detection. However, when zoomed into the photos, we noticed that there was some loss in detail but not an issue. At night, there was some noise in the picture as the photos came out to be average.
The Redmi Note 8 has a 13MP f/2.0 front camera which takes some really good photos. On the software side, you have skin smoothening, face smiling and the skin tone change is also noticed.
The photos taken from the front camera came out to be really good as there was dynamic range and with the HDR, the Redmi Note 8 shinned even better. The color and contrast were excellent when shooting portraits. So the front camera holds a big plus point for the Redmi Note 8.
The Redmi Note 8 captures videos up to 4k @ 30fps and also supports 1080p @ 60fps. The 4k video taken from the main camera isn't so good as there is continuous shaking while taking videos and the loss in detail is significantly noticed.
The dynamic range isn't good but when switching to 1080p @ 30fps or 60fps the video comes out to be well stabilized with good dynamic range and less of noise in the background. The videos taken from the ultrawide camera is fine as it needs more improvement.
The Redmi Note 8 also supports Slow-Mo videos at 1080p @ 120fps which is a very good feature considering its price.
The front camera also takes good videos with good color contrast and with HDR the videos came out to be even better.
The Redmi Note 8 captures videos up to 4k @ 30fps and also supports 1080p @ 60fps. The 4k video taken from the main camera isn't so good as there is continuous shaking while taking videos and the loss in detail is significantly noticed.
The dynamic range isn't good but when switching to 1080p @ 30fps or 60fps the video comes out to be well stabilized with good dynamic range and less of noise in the background. The videos taken from the ultrawide camera is fine as it needs more improvement.
The Redmi Note 8 also supports Slow-Mo videos at 1080p @ 120fps which is a very good feature considering its price.
The front camera also takes good videos with good color contrast and with HDR the videos came out to be even better.
Overall the camera on the Redmi Note 8 is a good improvement over the Redmi Note 7 and 7S. Under Rs.10,000, the Redmi Note 8 cameras are one of the best.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Battery Life:
The battery life on the Redmi Note 8 is very good considering it has a 4000mAh battery which supports fast charging as well. The smartphone went easily through a day with normal to heavy usage which consists of web browsing, 1-2 hours heavy gaming, and continuous 3 hours of video playback.
At the end of the day, you get around 20-30 percent juice left which is good as the Snapdragon 665 is built on the 11nm process. The standard screen on time for the Redmi Note 8 was around 5-6 hours.
At the end of the day, you get around 20-30 percent juice left which is good as the Snapdragon 665 is built on the 11nm process. The standard screen on time for the Redmi Note 8 was around 5-6 hours.
The Redmi Note 8 packs an 18W fast charger in the box which charges the smartphone completely within 2 hours.
This is one big upgrade over the Redmi Note 7 and 7S which came with a 10W charger. The battery life is a good step up from the Redmi Note 7 and 7S.
This is one big upgrade over the Redmi Note 7 and 7S which came with a 10W charger. The battery life is a good step up from the Redmi Note 7 and 7S.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Sound Quality:
The Redmi Note 8 only comes with a single downwards firing speaker which is adequately loud. When watching Youtube or any videos, the sound output is good but when played in the highest loudness settings the sound gets muffled.
The audio through the 3.5mm headphone jack is also very good. It does miss out on Dolby Atmos which is present on the Redmi Note 8 Pro, but the sound works well.
The audio through the 3.5mm headphone jack is also very good. It does miss out on Dolby Atmos which is present on the Redmi Note 8 Pro, but the sound works well.
Verdict:
The Redmi Note 8 is a very good smartphone with all the good features and the software it provides. Compared to the earlier Redmi Note 7, it gets a huge upgrade in the camera department as the quad cameras take really good photos considering the price of the smartphone. Then the Snapdragon 665 which is powerful enough and efficient.
It will handle most of the tasks when thrown at it. The Galaxy M30 comes with an AMOLED screen at this price point, but nonetheless, the screen on the Redmi Note 8 is good. The Redmi Note 8 also comes with a fast charger which charges the smartphone fast.
With a starting price of Rs.9999, the phone comes in three variants: 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, 6GB RAM and 64GB storage and 6GB RAM and 128GB storage priced at Rs.12,999 make it an all-rounder budget smartphone from Xiaomi. Xiaomi has certainly a winner in their hands as it has filled the gap where its predecessor, the Redmi Note 7 left.
It will handle most of the tasks when thrown at it. The Galaxy M30 comes with an AMOLED screen at this price point, but nonetheless, the screen on the Redmi Note 8 is good. The Redmi Note 8 also comes with a fast charger which charges the smartphone fast.
With a starting price of Rs.9999, the phone comes in three variants: 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, 6GB RAM and 64GB storage and 6GB RAM and 128GB storage priced at Rs.12,999 make it an all-rounder budget smartphone from Xiaomi. Xiaomi has certainly a winner in their hands as it has filled the gap where its predecessor, the Redmi Note 7 left.
3 Comments
Xiaomi has done a great job with the Redmi Note 8 and with a glass build and great cameras, the phone is the best buy and can take on many rivals.
ReplyDeleteIt has an amazing camera but the main camera is a 48MP one.
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