Redmi Note 8 4 128gb Review
Let’s start with the overall dimensions. Compared to its predecessors, there are no radical changes. The Redmi Note 8 weighs almost 190 grams. Its height is 158.3 mm versus 159.21 mm, which we know from the Note 7. The width and thickness have remained practically identical.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 video review in Russian. Click to view
Display
The display of Redmi Note 8 is covered with protective Corning Gorilla Glass, which smoothly reaches the plastic frame. Case thickness 8.3 mm. The bezels around the display are quite thin.
The latter occupies 82% of the front panel area.
The quality of workmanship is well. There is no moisture protection, so it is recommended to keep this smartphone away from water. Physical buds sit tightly in place.
Redmi Note 8 is pleasantly thin. Looks a bit big for which the glass back plays a role. The color gradient is a beautiful solution. This Xiaomi model is offered on the market in several colors: Moonlight White, Space Black and Neptune Blue.
Performance
Unlike Redmi Note 7, in Redmi Note 8 we see Snapdragon 665. These are 8 cores with a maximum clock frequency of 2.0 GHz. The processor is made according to the 11nm process technology. Graphics core Adreno 610. For this level of smartphones, performance is good.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Review
Redmi Note 8 is another Xiaomi entry-level smartphone. It is characterized by an important feature. The model changes the idea of what the display of a smartphone from this price range should be. Redmi Note 8 boasts a more than bright and contrasty display. What else suggests read in the following lines.
Autonomous work
Redmi Note 8 has a 4000mAh battery. A full charge takes 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Cameras
In the Redmi Note 8, the company relies on a main quad-camera module as well as a front-facing camera. The main photo sensor in the rear module is Samsung GM1. It has 48MP resolution, f / 1.75 aperture and 0.8μm pixel size. There is also a 2MP depth sensor, a macro lens and an 8MP f / 2.2 wide-angle sensor with 180 degrees of field of view.
Samsung GM1 uses a technique to combine four closely spaced pixels into one. As a result, light sensitivity and image detail are improved. The resolution is reduced to 12 MP. This technology works great and produces exciting footage. In low light conditions in the environment, GM1 does not work perfectly.
The front camera of the Redmi Note 8 is 13 megapixel. She makes great images during the day. Its level of detail and sharpness is not as good as that of the main camera.
Image quality is satisfying. You can post your selfie to social media immediately.
Impression
For the money, Redmi Note 7 turned out to be excellent. We worked on the appearance, added an interesting solution in the camera, did not raise the price (remember, Redmi Note 5 cost 18 thousand rubles at the start of sales), retained a good display and a capacious battery. Unless NFC was never added.
Battery
| Characteristics | Value |
| Battery capacity | 4000 mAh |
| Battery type | Fixed, Li-Ion |
| Operating time in HD video viewing mode at maximum brightness (airplane mode enabled) | 17 hours |
| Discharging in sleep mode (12 hours, display off, Wi-Fi on) | 2% |
I really love the Redmi Note line for a long time. The Note 7 in everyday use easily gives you 5 hours of display on. This includes mail, social networks, instant messengers, mobile Internet, and enabled sync. I have about 2.5 hours of screen on a day, so in my mode the Note 7 needs to be charged every two days. By the way, the smartphone supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0, you get 60% in the first half an hour of charge and a full charge in about an hour and a half.
I will also remind you that MIUI has a huge number of power saving settings, you can adjust activity and individual permissions for specific applications, which will save a few extra percent of the battery.
Screen
| Characteristics | Value |
| Screen diagonal | 6.3 inch |
| Display resolution | 2340 x 1080 dots |
| PPI value | 409 |
| Matrix type | IPS |
| Protective covering | Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Oleophobic coating | there is |
| Automatic brightness control | there is |
| Multi-touch support | Present, up to ten SIMultaneous touches |
From the differences between the display and the previous generation, the transition to a drop-shaped notch immediately catches the eye, as a result, the total screen area has grown slightly. However, the screen itself has also become better: they raised the maximum brightness, viewing angles, and improved color rendering. In general, the impressions of the display are only positive.
In bright sunlight, the image fades, but at night it is quite comfortable to use the minimum brightness. In the settings, you can enable a separate reading mode and adjust the screen color. Both modes have very fine detailed settings with an adjustment slider, so those who like to customize the display will be happy.
Communication capabilities
| Interfaces | Availability |
| Wi-Fi | Yes, b / g / n / ac, dual band |
| Bluetooth | Yes, 5.0, A2DP |
| GPS | Cold start takes about 3 seconds |
| Mobile data | 2G: 850/900/1800/1900 3G: 850/900/1700/1900/2100 4G: b3 / b7 / b20 / b38 Dual SIM, one radio |
| USB On-The-Go | there is |
| NFC | No |
| Infrared port | there is |
| FM radio | Yes, only works with headphones |
Let’s start with the good news: the smartphone supports dual-band Wi-Fi and the.Ac standard, retained IrDA support, and an application for emulating remotes is already preinstalled. GPS is also fast and the Bluetooth version is 5.0. But this model does not have NFC, although some competitors have it for the same price.
Positioning
The motto of the Redmi line (and now a separate brand) is SIMple. High technology should be accessible. Redmi smartphones, as a rule, cost up to 20 thousand rubles and have the characteristics of devices for a higher price. Redmi focuses on an advanced audience who knows how to compare different models and then, after a long search, choose the best.
If we talk about Redmi Note, then these devices have always had three important qualities for which buyers loved them: a capacious battery, a good screen and an affordable price. These advantages are also true for the Note 7, Xiaomi also tried to add a good camera and interesting design to them.
Design, dimensions, controls
Usually, there is not much to say about the design of Redmi Note, smartphones of this line used to look like most other faceless devices. Redmi Note 7 tried to work on the design to make the device look more interesting: for example, the back cover was made of glass, added a beautiful gradient, finally got rid of the terrible vertical camera styled for iPhones, and, in general, they did well. Yes, you won’t surprise anyone with a glass case, but at least it looks more original than another plastic back cover.
In addition, in addition to the boring black, there will be blue and red versions on sale. The latter looks amazing at all, at the presentation we separately noticed that this is just a bright case, and not a color focused on girls.
On the right side there is a power button and a volume rocker, on the left there is a tray for two nanoSIM cards and a memory card.
Below you can see the Type-C port, a conversational microphone and an external speaker, on top. A mini-jack for headphones and an infrared port.
Pay attention to how neatly the earpiece was positioned; it looks like a thin, barely noticeable slot and takes up almost no space on the case. The front camera is inscribed in the display, as Xiaomi noted at the presentation, the bang season is over.
The dimensions of the smartphone are 160 x 76 x 8.1 mm, weight is 186 grams. I was pleasantly surprised by how the device lies in my hand, after all, you expect more thickness and heaviness from a smartphone with a 4000 mAh battery. There are no complaints about the assembly, there are no creaks, gaps and backlash.
Camera
| Characteristics | Value |
| Main camera | 48 5 megapixels, f / 1.8, 1.6 μm, electronic stabilization |
| Front-camera | 13 megapixels, background blur |
Before describing the capabilities of the camera, let me quote a piece from the article from the presentation of Redmi Note 7:
In fact, we have two modes in which we need to shoot with Redmi Note 7. In one we shoot in low light to get a brighter picture at 12 megapixels. The second one is used for clear images with high detail in a resolution of 48 megapixels.
In practice, night and evening shots using AI seemed to me to be very overexposed. However, you can evaluate them yourself.
But in low light, the device coped well.
At the presentation, there was a lot of talk about good detail with high resolution, but finding the camera’s shooting mode in 48-megapixel mode was not so easy. It was hidden in the Pro mode settings. In general, during the day, the footage is really good.
Here are three examples of AI-enabled daytime photography.
And an example of a selfie on the front camera.
I was surprised to see that the camera writes video only in FHD, but from 60 fps. Overall, the picture is not bad considering the price of the smartphone. Below are two examples of videos, in the afternoon and in the evening.
The camera interface is standard, familiar to MIUI. Switching between modes is done using horizontal gestures, the settings call is in the upper right corner.
Software features
The smartphone runs on Android 9.0 and MIUI 10.2. We talked about MIUI 10 in a separate article, if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend using the link below.
In general, I like MIUI, it’s a sophisticated and functional shell. However, certain settings are required before using it. For example, pop-up and lock screen notifications are disabled by default for instant messengers. Therefore, after installing the same Telegram, do not forget to enable them in the application settings. MIUI 10 also checks each application after installation with its own antivirus and shows an additional notification. This is also disabled in the settings.
