Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro review – A Game Changer for the Budget Realm

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro brings the Chinese phone brands budget line up and adds some flagship-level features all for sub €300. For that price, you get a 120Hz AMOLED screen, a 108MP rear camera, and a good mid-range chipset. The Introduction of the Redmi Note 10 Pro has forever altered what we should expect from budget phones. 

Screen

Xiaomi’s Redmi line of devices is renowned for giving great bang for your buck but this time they’ve put it up to other manufacturers like Samsung. 

The first thing you notice is that beautiful AMOLED screen on the Redmi Note 10 Pro. With a FullHD+ resolution, text appears nice and sharp while blacks are very deep, and bright colours pop thanks to the 6.67-inch AMOLED panel. Viewing angles are also great as well as having the option to up the saturation if the colours are too flat for your liking.

Redmi Note 10 Pro

But it’s the refresh rate on this sub €300 device that’s a game-changer (sorry). Everything is so smooth when using the high refresh rate and images just appear a lot more detailed than the standard 60Hz. I’m usually more than content with 60Hz but having used the 120 Hz option for the last week or so, it’s hard to go back. Just keep in mind that the high refresh rate does drain the battery faster.

There are slight bezels around the side and the top of the screen as well as a slight chin on the bottom. But nothing that affects your enjoyment of the device. 

Build Quality

Xiaomi hasn’t skimped out on the build quality weather as Redmi Note 10 Pro is very comfortable in hand. Corning Gorilla Glass 5 covers the front of the device and there’s also glass on the back, but it’s not Gorilla Glass. A screen protector comes pre-installed on the device. A nice touch. 

Even though it’s an AMOLED panel, Xiaomi decided to put a side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the Redmi Note 10 Pro. I’ve found it faster and more accurate than the on-screen scanner on my Poco F2 Pro

The chassis of the phone is plastic which helps with reception when receiving calls and the like. There are good dual speakers on top and bottom along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB C port for charging. 

It’s a solid weight as well. It’s not a hefty phone by any stretch but it’s not so light that you worry that it might break or bend in your pocket. If you’re struggling to comfortably use the phone with one hand you’ll be happy to know that one-handed mode is available on the Redmi Note 10 Pro. 

Specs

For a phone that costs around €300, you won’t be disappointed with the performance. Inside you have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G which gives around a 15% performance boost over its predecessor, the 720. I rarely suffered any stuttering performance with opening Netflix the only app that suffered a couple of seconds delay in loading the main menu. 

The battery is an absolute champion for heavy phone users like yours truly. It’s a hefty 5020 mAh cell that will comfortably get you through the day. There is a caveat. If you decide to use the 120Hz mode then that drastically affects battery life and you’ll struggle to have more than 20% at night. It’s worth it though for that butter-smooth experience.

The unit I was sent was the 6GB 128GB model. In recent times 6GB of Ram has become the baseline for any decent phone and to this day is enough to provide a high level of performance. For gaming in CoD Mobile and the like, you will get a good experience but you’ll have to turn down the settings to get stable performance.

Expandable storage is always a plus so Redmi Note 10 Pro has you covered with an SD card slot along with two sim card slots. 128GB is more than enough for me and you get a little over 110GB of usable storage out of the box. 

Camera

When you look at the marketing of the Redmi Note 10 Pro, it’s hardly a surprise to see a 108MP camera front and centre. It’s the star of the show on the rear of the phone a forms part of the quad-camera setup. Thankfully Xiaomi has ditched the ugly camera setup that we’ve seen on the likes of the X3 and instead has gone for a similar look to their flagship, Mi11.

The main 108MP camera has a lovely silver boundary that makes it pop. There is pixel binning which results in 12MP shots if you’re using auto mode. So you’ll have to go into setting to select the high-res option. Thankfully the menu layout in the camera is a breeze to use. 

There’s a bunch of customisation options and effects in the camera app that keeps you entertained for hours. On the front, there’s a small enough selfie camera that has a 16MP lens and can shoot video in either 1080p/30fps or 720p/120fps. While it’s good to have a mode with a high frame rate, I would’ve preferred a 1080p/60fps instead of a 720p option.

Final Thoughts

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 should be a watershed moment for budget devices. With a 108MP camera, 120Hz AMOLED panel all for under €300, you won’t get a better device for anywhere close to that price. Perhaps a slightly better processor like the SnapDragon 750 would have been the better choice. MIUI is also getting better with every update and major personalisation options are coming to the OS very soon.

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