In an ever-competitive smartphone market where a lot of manufacturers are continuously changing their tactics to capture the mid-range segment, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note series has been quite a force to reckon with in this space. The Redmi Note 8 series carries on this tradition. The Note 8 series exceeded 10 million sales globally, just three months after its release in late 2019.Here is an honest review of my three and half months use of the Redmi Note 8.
The phone sports a Snapdragon 665 processor built on an 11-nano-meter process which proved to be battery efficient in my usage. Moving from a dual-camera setup in the previous series the phone has quad cameras which includes a 48MP camera sensor, an 8MP ultrawide shooter, a 2MP macro snapper and lastly a 2MP depth sensor for portrait shots.Unlike the previous generation(Redmi Note 7)this model has 4K video recording abilities capped at 30fps. Note 8 maintains its battery capacity from its predecessor of 4000MaH. Out of the box, it boots MIUI 10 which is Xiaomi’s skin over Android, however, I got an early update to Miui 11. It comes in three different colours: Space Black, Neptune blue and moonlight white
Here is a summary of the specifications:
- Body: Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, plastic frame, splash-resistant nano-coating, 190g.
- Display: 6.3″ IPS LCD, 1080 x 2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 409ppi.
- Rear camera: Primary: 48MP, f/1.8 aperture, 1/2.25″ sensor size, 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF. Ultra wide: 8MP, f/2.2, 1/4″, 1.12µm pixels. Macro camera: 2MP, f/2.4, 1/5″, 1.75µm Depth sensor:2MP; 2160p@30fps, 1080p@120fps, 720p@960fps video recording.
- Front camera: 13MP, f/2.0 aperture, 1.12µm pixels. 1080p/30fps video recording.
- OS: Android 9 Pie; MIUI 10.
- Chipset: Snapdragon 665 (11nm): Octa-core (4×2.00 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver), Adreno 610 GPU.
- Memory: 3/4/6GB of RAM; 32/64/128GB storage; dedicated microSD slot.
- Battery: 4,000mAh; 18W fast charging.
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A, 4-Band carrier aggregation, LTE Cat-12/ Cat-13; USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 4.2; FM radio; NFC (8T model only);
- Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader; 3.5mm jack; single down-firing speaker.
UNBOXING THE REDMI NOTE 8
In the box, you are welcomed by a 10-watt USB type C charger and a transparent silicone case. Typical of Xiaomi there isn’t any bundled earpiece. It also came with a screen protector , mine came in the Neptune Blue Colour with 128gigs of storage and 6 gigs of ram.
DESIGN
Xiaomi’s mid-range segment has never been short of good and sturdy build, at a price point hovering around 200 -250 dollars (depending on the storage and ram) it scores highly even amongst the competition. Covered in industry-leading Corning Gorilla Glass five on both the front and back with a plastic frame, the design looks classy. It has a 6.3-inch IPS LCD panel,
The Quad-camera protrudes quite significantly however slapping a case on it makes it minimal.
a triple card slot on the right which makes space for a dedicated micro SD card and two sim cards.
The phone measures 158.3 x 75.3 x 8.4 mm and weighs 190g. The Screen size for me personally is in a sweet spot, quite narrow with a screen to body ratio of 81.7%.The 190-gram weight of the phone feels solid and the weight distribution is well-balanced but the heft can be quite irritating especially if you are coming from a lightweight phone.
DISPLAY
The Note 8 packs a 6.3″ IPS LCD panel of 1080p resoluion overlaid with Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. It has a pixel density of 409ppi. Xiaomi offers three different Contrast settings. Default, Saturated and Original Color. These colour schemes are used to calibrate the colour temperature of the screen to one’s taste. Texts look sharp and can get pretty bright but viewing in outdoor situations took quite a significant hit as it isn’t a bright panel.
The vibrancy of the colours produced cannot be compared to an amoled obviously,but the colour reproduction was satisfying and most average users will not find reasons to complain as it will serve them well. The full HD display is very good for consuming media, I had no complaints watching YouTube videos. It also has L1 certification, meaning, you can stream Netflix and Amazon Prime in HD. Paying very close attention to this panel one would notice some screen bleeding around the cut-out notch and edges.Black colours do not look truly black but with a tint of whiteness in the background, this is visible on black backgrounds but hey this is me analyzing the minute details of the panel most average users will not care or even notice.
BATTERY LIFE
Out of the box the phone booted MIUI 10 but almost immediately got an update to MIUI 11. I was experiencing abnormal battery drain after the update, performing a factory reset solved this and I was getting very good screen on time and even standby time. The battery could take me through a full day of use on a single charge. My usage pattern is mild to moderately heavy. I use mostly productivity and social media apps; I am not a gamer. For light users, this handset should last you a day and a half. I believe this is possible due to its energy-efficient manufacturing process and a big battery. It supports charging speeds up to 18watts but comes with a 10-watt charger. It takes about 1 hour 45 mins to get to a full battery from zero this is even faster when it is turned off. In this area, it is a plus for me.
SPEAKERS
The speaker can get significantly loud. At peak volumes you tend to lose some details but overall it does the job with no extra bells and whistles.
CAMERA
Default 12MP Camera. (True hardware size of the sensor,48MP is digitally achieved through software)The pictures came out well with a nice vibrancy in colours. Below are some sample shots.
The 48 MP photos are 12MP upscaled through pixel binning. It retains plenty of detail and due to this huge resolution, picture sizes tend to be bigger than the default 12MP Camera.
Wide Angle.
The wide angle performance was quite pleasing but a wider field of view would have been appreciated but over all it does the job.
The two-times zoom is digitally achieved without hardware.It comes out somewhat blurry
Portrait was a hit or miss, sometimes it had good subject and background separation,other times it did not.My results on this one was quite dissatisfactory.
Selfies with the front camera were ok but skin-tones did not look true to life.
Portrait Selfie was quite great with some sort of hit or miss with the background blur
The Macro lens could zoom into an object for minute details,I think I liked it.
The night mode did not cut it for me as I noticed a lot of noise. Sincerely I could not spot a significant difference between when the night mode was off and when it was kicked into action.
SOFTWARE
The phone out of the box boots Android 9 with MIUI 10 skin. This was quite disappointing as I was expecting at least Android 10. I later had an update MIUI 11. I was beside myself with joy thinking I might be receiving the update alongside Android 10 but hey it was another letdown. Xiaomi’s Skin on top of Android had been very easy navigating through and adjusting to.
The always-on fingerprint behind the back was also very snappy and there is an added option for face unlock, which I recommend with a pinch of salt since it isn’t secure.
There is no app drawer but this can be activated in the settings.
A theme store can be used to change the look and feel of the phone at all times.
Some users complained of Ads and some pre-installed apps but I had no ads displayed in my User Interface, there was also minimal bloatware on my phone, this was because my variant was the Indian ROM and not the Global version. I experienced some issues in my usage some few weeks into using the phone. I realized a significant frame drop in the overall animation of the phone, opening apps had become very sluggish, it was quite disturbing but after a factory reset, I never encountered that problem till date.
MY BIGGEST LET DOWN(GHOST TOUCH)
One major problem I had with my unit was Ghost touch issues. After some weeks of usage, I realized the phone sometimes opened apps without my intervention, this was quite alarming. I did a lot of reading and research to get to the bottom of this problem but all the solutions I applied did not yield the desired results. I made sure all apps and softwares were up to date. I even had to check if it was happening due to some apps that I had installed. After performing a factory reset,the situation died down for some time only for it to rear its head occasionally. From my research, some users were having similar problems with their unit. I interviewed some other users of the same phone and their response had been the very opposite of my experience. This meant that, this was an instant specific issue and not the general story for the entire line up but a random case. I am patiently waiting for the latest version of MIUI -MIUI 12 which may provide updates to fix this bug, granted it is a software problem but if it is on a hardware level then I might have to endure this. Security patches did not come in on time. (NB: I did not violently drop the phone or had it water-damaged I have taken very good care of it)
This segment has been quite stressful for me.
PERFORMANCE
Performance has been so fluid and responsive; I believe this is due to the phone’s capable chip-set and Xiaomi’s optimized software. Everything I threw at this device was efficiently handled. Xiaomi’s skin was not intrusive at all as I enjoyed some useful features Xiaomi had incorporated into their version of android-like the call record function , swipe with three fingers to screenshot , android 10 gestures even on android 9,second space just to mention a few.
There were occasional hiccups but 90 per cent of the time, I had absolutely no issue switching between apps, touch response times were accurate, apps opened very fast and loading times were very satisfactory. RAM management was quite ok but I think the optimization could have been done better as Xiaomi’s skin was quite aggressive. Some apps were cleared out of memory after leaving the phone for some time(normally it should restart not cleared out completely)There was also a noticeable lag scrolling through the recent apps menu when I hit the multitask button.I think the chip-set is quite a capable one and Xiaomi could have utilized its full potential by optimizing its software to be a bit lighter like that of the Oxygen OS.
I had no heating issues. On a day to day usage, the phone runs very cool hovering around 30-35 degrees and even drops slightly depending on the temperature of the surroundings. With the Adreno 610, GPU gaming was fine but don’t expect to play very intensive games on high graphics settings as you will notice some lag and frame drops.This is not a gamer’s phone but notwithstanding it isn’t terrible.
VIDEOGRAPHY
The phone can shoot 4K up to 30frames per second but without any form of stabilization.However lower resolutions had stabilization which was quite acceptable,colour reproduction was ok for the price I had say.’
NETWORKING AND CONNECTIVITY
Calls were crystal clear; network reception has been phenomenal,the only disadvantage was that, I could not get 4G connection on both Vodafone and MTN in Ghana (I reside in Greater Accra) this was due to the Indian ROM (originally not meant for my region Ghana). My research clearly showed the bands were supported, so this came as a shock. No need for worries just make sure you do not get one with an Indian ROM 4G connectivity should work fine as I have interviewed others who had absolutely no problem with 4G in my region.
Wi-Fi Connectivity was also good worked well.
Connectivity for me was great overall.The times I experienced bad network connectivity were instances where the problem was coming from the local networks and not the phone.
CONCLUSION
The Redmi Note 8 at this price point will surprisingly meet the demands of anyone who may be on a budget but wants value for money. I will gladly recommend this as I have enjoyed my time with it, except for some few drawbacks such as the ghost touch issue I had with this handset in specific and not the case in general but pockets of issues that plagued this line-up. Xiaomi has fixed bugs through software updates as well I look forward to receiving that. Apart from this, the phone is an absolute value for money. Good camera quality for this price segment, a decent processor that will munch through about any task I believe you can never go wrong choosing this phone. In comparison with the competition out there this phone has got something up its sleeves.