Xiaomi is known for its affordable smartphones that deliver excellent performance and features in a modern bezel-less form-factor. The company had recently announced the Redmi Note 8 series of smartphones so let’s take a look at what the base model offers.
Design
It’s no surprise that most of the newly released smartphones come with a bezel-less design and the Redmi Note 8 is no exception. The display is a 6.3-inch IPS screen with an aspect ratio of 19:5:9. The screen resolution given here is 1080 x 2340. The display of the smartphone is protected with Gorilla Glass 5. The Redmi Note 8 is 8.4mm thick and weighs about 190g which is a little heavy for its size. The camera located on the front side consists of a 13MP image sensor with an aperture of F2.0.
The rear camera module holds four camera sensors and because of this, the camera module protrudes a lot. It means that the smartphone will be slanting a bit when kept on a flat surface. The camera consists of a 48MP shooter with F1.8 aperture, a 2MP snapper with F2.4 for macro shots, another 2MP with F2.4 as a depth sensor and an 8MP with F2.2 aperture for ultrawide shots.
The volume rockers and the power button are placed on the right side of the device and the USB Type-C port on the bottom. While most smartphones released today doesn’t come with an audio jack, its good to see that Xiaomi is still keeping the 3.5mm jack. The fingerprint sensor is placed on the rear side. We got the Neptune Blue color version of the model for review.
Specifications, Performance and Battery
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 features the Snapdragon 665 processor which is known to offer good performance at increased efficiency, thereby increasing the battery life of the device. The processor packs an octa-core configuration with four cores running at 2 GHz and the other four cores at 1.8GHz. The review unit that we got came with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The configuration is capable of handing multitasking at ease for most uses. With our Antutu test, we got a score of 169702 points. Performance is snappy most of the time and the device runs on Android 9.0 OS atop the MIUI 10 user interface. You can also increase the internal storage using a MicroSD card.
The camera quality is also fairly decent with multiple focal lengths to choose. You can record videos up to 4K videos at 30fps. You get to use the portrait mode, macro mode, the night mode, panorama mode, photo mode, and the 48MP camera mode. Among the four shooters, the 48MP sensor is the star of the show in which there aren’t a lot of smartphones out there with camera of that caliber. These modes come to use when users want different focal lengths for different occasions. The battery of the Redmi Note 8 holds a capacity of 4000 mAh and the smartphone was able to last long over a day with my time of use. But it does reduce a bit when you use 3G/4G many times throughout the day. Regardless, the smartphone also has support for 18W fast charge.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a smartphone with a quad-camera that can almost shoot all the focal lengths one needs at an affordable price, then the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 is a good choice. The power-efficient Snapdragon 665 processor delivers great performance with increased battery life and the battery capacity is enough to run longer throughout the day. The large 6.3-inch IPS bezel-less displays deliver stunning colors and viewing angles and the device has a 3.5mm audio jack. The smartphone also has all the modern aesthetics that gives the feel of a premium smartphone.
