Redmi Note 8 Pro Review: World’s First 64MP Phone

After the release of the popular Redmi Note 7, Redmi has unleashed another tough phone, well it’s not just a tough phone, but a beast! Toughness coupled with a 64 Megapixel camera plus a gaming SoC makes it a deadly beast. This is probably the next best budget phone after the release of the K20 Pro in China which is to replace to Pocophone F1.

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Overview

Redmi Note 8 Pro Specs Sheet

• 6.53-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display @ 2340 x 1080 pixels, 395ppi, 84.9% Screen to Body Ratio, 19.5:9 Ratio
• Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and Back
• Mediatek Helio G90T (12nm) Octa-core (2x Cortex-A76 & 6x Cortex-A55)
• Mali-G76MC4
• 6GB/8GB RAM LPDDR4x 2133MHz
• 64/128GB Internal storage UFS 2.1
• Expandable via microSD, up to 256GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
• 64MP Wide 0.8μm Rear Camera, f/1.8 Aperture, 1/1.7″, PDAF, face recognition, HDR, AI Portrait Mode, Night Scene, Samsung ISOCELL
• 8MP Ultrawide 13mm 1.12μm secondary lens, f/2.2 Aperture, 1/4″
• 2 MP, f/2.4, 1/5″, 1.75µm (dedicated macro camera)
• 2 MP, f/2.4, 1/5″, 1.75µm, depth sensor
• 20MP front-facing camera, 0.8μm, f/2.0 Aperture, AI Smart Beauty, 1080p, AI Portrait Mode
• Hybrid Dual-SIM (Nano + Nano/Micro SD)
• 4G LTE, 4G+, VoLTE, TDD-LTE Bands B34/B38/B39/B40/B41, FDD-LTE Bands: B1/B3/B5/B8
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Display
• Bluetooth 5.0
• GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Positioning
• Fingerprint scanner, Face Unlocking Feature
• USB-C Port
• 4500 mAh battery, 18W Support
• Android 9 on MIUI 10.4.4
• 161.3 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm (6.35 x 3.01 x 0.35 in)
• 199grams
• Available in Grey, White, and Green

Design

The Redmi Note 8 Pro had a total revamp in design, being a lot more different than the Redmi Note 7 which was truly a tough warrior that withstand many of my torture tests. The Note 8 Pro is equally tough and it had a total makeover, the camera placement is different, the back is curved, the screen is bigger and best of all the camera went up from 2 rear camera to 4 rear cameras. There is more wait! The camera sensor went up to a whopping 64 Megapixel!

Unboxing

• The Note 8 Pro sports a Red box, while the Note 8 will sport a blue one
• Redmi Note 8 Pro, Clear Case, Manuals, 18W Charger, and USB C Cable
• First Impression, it’s shiny and has a 3D effect at the back
• Loudspeaker, Mic-in, USB C Port, Audio Jack
• Volume Rocker and Power Button
• Infrared and Noise Cancellation Mic
• Sim Card Tray
• 64MP Quad Rear Cameras with Fingerprint sensor plus LED Flash
• Look at the Redmi Logo, same as the K20 Pro
• 20 MP Front Camera
• White Variant in the House!

While everyone is crazy about the green one, we took the opportunity to share the other 2 colors which we think is pretty decent as well, did you know that there is a color blue coming pretty soon? Stay tuned!

MediaTek G90T

The very first Redmi phone to take on the gaming SoC by MediaTek, well there were a lot of rumors around the cyberspace that the MediaTek will overheat beyond 50-degree Celsius while playing, and so on and so forth. Well, we did our homework and put the phone to a torture test while playing it for more than 3 Hours! It’s a nonstop playing of PUBG, NBA2k20, Asphalt 9 and Mobile Legends. All of them are graphic intense except ML. So, we check the temperature every 15 minutes, we are in a tropical country, room temp is 24 C, outside temp is 28 C, we didn’t use a case to play just to feel the nice grip on the phone. Guess what, we didn’t even exceed 40-degree C on this phone during the heat test and we used our industrial laser thermometer to take the temp for us. So, to debunk all your claims, relax, the MediaTek G90T is a performer for both games and of course multitasking I assure you. For 3 hours and 4 minutes of nonstop gaming under max volume and max brightness, the battery drained from 100 down to 22 percent on the process.

We were surprised with the score we got from AnTuTu, almost at par with Pocophone F1 which is around 290k for the Snapdragon 845.

Full Review

Connectivity

The Redmi Note 8 Pro supports 9 different LTE bands, it’s easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings and what’s good on this unit now is that you can also set 2nd Sim on LTE as well since it now deploys the Dual 4G technology (but 5G is still not available on this unit) on this unit but it should consume battery faster. We have experienced no problem surfing using LTE or 3G in our home country in the Philippines as well as dual standby mode is working seamlessly. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol as we were able to cast it to the Mi TV 4, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and GLONASS are all present and working pretty well. We had no problem with GPS on this unit unlike the initial release of the Redmi Note 7 which has issues with GPS connectivity.

Detailed Network Band Supported on Redmi Note 8 Pro:

• 4G：FDD-LTE：B1/B3/B5/B8
• TDD-LTE：B34/B38/B39/B40/B41
• 3G：WCDMA：B1/B5/B8
• TD-SCDMA：B34/B39
• CDMA EVDO：BC0
• 2G：GSM：B2/B3/B5/B8
• CDMA 1X：BC0

Audio and Video

MP4 | M4V | MKV | XVID | WAV | AAC | MP3 | AMR | FLAC | APE

Supports the new generation video codec technology HEVC, H.264, MPEG4, VC-1, VP8, VP9, and other video formats.

Camera

The moment we are waiting for, to test the camera equipped with 64MP. We did test the 64MP to check if the processing speed is faster or same as the Note 7 and to our surprise, the 64MP shot was captured in the snap of Thanos’ finger! The 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Sensor did live up to its hype and it really pulled off a stunner in the camera category.

The camera takes pretty good photos in daylight and in low light areas but we noticed that the photos have yet to improve in future updates, if compared to the Redmi K20 Pro, the photos still lack the sharpness that the Redmi K20 Pro provided us, and as I said, it’s not about the megapixel since you’re not planning to make a giant billboard are you?

I honestly like the addition of the Macro lens on this phone and it’s helping me a lot taking photos of small objects.

Sample Photos

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Battery Performance

We were able to achieve an average battery rating for the 4500mAh juice, MediaTek is not really known for its battery efficiency and it really shows. By far the Redmi Note 7 was able to achieve 13 hours and 40 minutes for its 4000mAh battery. The Redmi Note 8 Pro only achieved 11 hours 3 minutes SOT for its bigger battery at 4500mAh. Charging from 15% to 100% using the stock 18W charger took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to finish the task since this phone doesn’t support QC 3 (hey it’s not even a Qualcomm)

Verdict

After playing the phone for a while, I could say that there are some pros and cons on this phone. Indeed, it has inherited the strength of the Redmi Note 7, we will torture it pretty soon. Many of its attributes have also improved like the camera, the design, the screen size, but equipping it with MediaTek probably is the reason why people are quite hesitant to buy this phone. Now look, I have tested this phone for several days and I have yet to see it overheat. Now, we even made sure that the 50-degree Celsius rumor was a fluke and its nowhere near that mark after 3 hours of pure gaming. The SoC is one hell of a performer. The camera side has yet to improve after some software updates and it’s probably going to perform like a beast once it’s corrected. The only con I know is the protruded camera placement at the back, it kind of getting in the way when I play games, plus sometimes I mistakenly trying to scan my finger on the camera, not on the FP sensor which was placed together like it was a fifth camera lens. Overall the phone is good and it will be a good buy if you have realized how good the MediaTek G90T is capable of.