Lots of cameras, dirty fast processor, all in a Xiaomi phone for barely 60 forints.

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Introduction

Fortunately, Xiaomi broke with his bad habit of hiding the Pro suffix versions of the Note series, as he did with the Note 7 Pro, from us. The predecessor was only available in the Far East and India, nor was it made into a Global version, unlike the victim of our present test, Redmi Note 8 Pro. Of course, we were happy about that, because we were able to get acquainted with the manufacturer's first phone, which uses 48 megapixels instead of the usual 64 megapixels.

If the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 didn’t arrive at the end of last year, the crown would clearly have gone to me with the Redmi Note 8 Pro. The phone, which I mistaken in advance, is better than I expected on all fronts, and I can even say that it came as a big surprise in terms of both cameras, speed and display.

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Packaging and outer

The box doesn’t hide much surprises right now, plus it’s just like packing the rest of the Redmi family outside. Simple white cardboard with a picture of the phone on the cover. The sticker shows the type, RAM-ROM configuration and color, no more is needed.

In addition to the phone, the box contains only the standard silicone back cover. This is only interesting in that the Redmi phones have a fold-out cap on the USB Type-C connector, so if you don’t connect the cable to the phone, it will protect you from dust and, of course, water. The phone doesn't have any IP rating anyway, so a protective cap here, a protective cap there, with water just be careful!

The phone is so Xiaomis from the outside. That is, it can be said to be flawless. The huge 6,53-inch FHD + IPS display, more precisely the glass that covers it, is surrounded by an almost zero-thickness frame in which only the tiny, drop-shaped island of the self-contained camera protrudes.

The back cover is not the usual one, at least in that the camera island is not located on the left but in the middle. The 64-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel wide-angle camera, and 2-megabyte depth sensor have been lifted out of the back almost disturbingly, but this is only a problem until the clear silicone back cover snaps into place, when it is in place, the protrusion almost completely disappears. . On the back we find the fingerprint sensor, the LED flash and, as a bonus, the 2 megapixel macro camera.

At the bottom, next to the Type-C connector, there was a speaker grille, a microphone, and a traditional jack buckle. At the top we find the infrared and a second microphone. On the left are the usual SIM tray, on the right are also the usual power and volume keys. The latter has risen quite high. I had no problem reaching for the button, but if your hand is small, you can certainly stretch your thumb by the time you reach the top of the volume control button.

The phone, by the way, brings what we expect from a Xiaomo in terms of assembly anyway. Flawless, and although the metal frame was left out due to the carving of the price, it doesn’t feel at all, it’s impossible to twist, but I didn’t manage to squeeze out a single little bit of it, no matter how I screwed it.

Last but not least, in connection with the exterior, we must also mention the color of the phone. As with my recent phone tests, I haven’t stayed with the usual and boring black back cover now, not least because the Xiaomi uses exciting colors. In addition to the usual Black (Mineral Gray), you can buy an exciting Green (Forest Green) and a Pearl White variant. If I wanted to keep the phone, I would definitely choose the green, so I ordered the white one because I was wondering what it was like. I was not disappointed, true to its name, it is really pearl white, the back cover is a bit playful in light. It doesn’t even happen that Apple wants to look white, and that’s definitely a good point for me.

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Hardware

There’s a way for the tester to read the specification, then sway the edge of his mouth and just look in front of him, not understanding why this iron had to be put together the way it is. Well, that’s exactly what I might have looked like when I realized that Xiaomi didn’t choose a central unit selected from the usual Qualcomm Snapdragon shelf, but a solution from competing MediaTek. The case is not unprecedented, there have been (maybe two years ago) MediaTek chip Xiaomi, but then they quickly quit, and we didn’t cry about it.

So, it was more than surprising to choose the Helio G90T chip. It’s not as if the MediaTek inserts are bad, in the middle, at the bottom of the mid-range, they can even kick into a ball, because undeniably modern, low-power units, there are only problems with muscle strength.

Xiaomi claimed in the Redmi Note 8 Pro press release that the MediaTek Helio G90T is faster than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710. We tried to believe this, or rather hoped for it, because the 710 is not the beast that destroys walls, although it is a fact that it in the lower middle category it fits perfectly.

Then the Note 8 Pro arrived, I ran the tests, and it turned out that the G90T was really faster than the Snapdragon 710. How much, for me, really only became clear when I was able to test the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 as well, in which the Snapdragon 730G, a steroid-dipped version of the 730 chip created specifically for running games, works. The fact that I searched for the state after comparing the results says nothing about how I felt. The Helio G90T pounded not only the Snapdragon 710, but also the much more powerful 730G. Cruel!

Since then, the current top list of the company that makes the popular AnTuTu test program has been published, based on the measurements of their own program, and the Note 8 Pro, with the Helio chip, is in the top ten mid-range phones, not even at the end of the field. space, instructing several Snapdragonos mobiles behind him.

Tests have also shown that the Note 8 Pro excels not only in raw power, but also in memory management, for example. This is important because, for example, the time it takes for programs to load depends on memory speed. To access memory quickly, two things are a must. A good memory interface, it is located in the central chip and has quality memory modules. In the latter, fortunately for the Xiaomi, I want to say the Redmi did not save, so it can be said that the excellent Helio G90T chip and fast memory collaboration has led to visible, measurable results.

All in all, then, the phone we thought was a camera mobile is actually a real two-in-one device, a bloody gaming phone, spiced up with plenty of cameras.

The table shows the results of measurements performed with the usual synthetic test programs:

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Cameras

As you can read above, there are no less than 4 cameras on the back of the phone. There’s also a fifth camera, of course, in front of the self-timer camera, which is 20 megapixels and delivers average or slightly better quality thanks to the Samsung sensor and the f / 2.0 aperture lens located above it.

But the point, as everyone might guess, is on the back of the phone, and that’s nothing more than the first 64-megapixel camera that went into Xiaomi’s phone. The old, well-served 48-megapixel sensors are slowly sliding one category down, replacing the 64-megapixel, which shoots 4-megapixel images with the usual 1-in-16 pixel layout. Of course, there’s also a way to take advantage of the 64-megapixel capabilities and take staggering photos, and with the Note 8 Pro, it will even make sense.

64 megapixel photos (be sure to zoom in!):

What does this camera know and what is the software that processes the images? If we’re clever we can shoot brutal images, if we just click, it’s better to stick to 16 megapixel photos. This is because when you take 64-mega images, you get amazingly sharp, detailed photos that work in perfect colors, at least when you look at the center of the image, but as you move toward the edges, the angle gets out of the bag more and more. Detail drops sharply, and noise doesn’t increase significantly just because the software does its job well. Of course, noise filtering also results in the disappearance of details, so from cybers to buckets is a typical case.

So the bottom line is that with a cleverly chosen subject, we can shoot photos that keep everyone’s mouths open, and anyway, it’s much better to stay at 16 megapixels. In other abilities, this main camera is really not bad. Distortion is minimal, background blur is perfect, and white balance is fine for the most part, though it’s a bit like the photos are yellower than necessary, but in a non-disturbing way, just enough to get involved.

If we’ve praised our photographic skills so far, we can finish this now. With an eight-megapixel wide-angle camera for maximum work, property owners will be good to put photos that show the apartment or house much larger in online ads. The geometry is fine after all, but besides, a lot of good things can’t be said, if the lighting conditions are a little bad, the image is already getting very noisy.

The macro camera is essentially a joke. I’m not saying it’s useless, adequate to shoot really close-ups, which we then upload to Facebook or Insta at lightning speed. Anyone who takes the work a little more seriously prefers to take macro photos to the 64-megapixel camera as well, because the magnified image details will be of better quality than macro shots. Okay, so you have to work a little in front of the computer, but for something.

So the point about cameras is this:

The main camera is more than good, but less than sensational. With a little learning, getting used to it, we can take professional photos with it, ones that make the chin of our acquaintances tap on the ground. If we’re even more demanding, we can tweak the white balance a bit on the computer, in an image manipulation software, and the perfect vacation photo will be ready!

The other cameras, on the other hand, do not deserve special praise. The category that still goes away is the 8 mega wide angle because it works well when the sun is shining and less if not, and the macro will really only be a joy for those who care about being able to take macro photos in a matter of seconds, which can then be done in 1 minute. acquaintances like the net.

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Other Skills

We’re past the interesting parts, maybe even the display, which deserves a little more words. Nowadays, when AMOLED is slowly becoming available in the mid-range as well, we tend to look down on IPS displays. Yet there is also a difference between IPS and IPS, both in terms of panel and backlight. A good example of this for me was when I put Redmi 8, Redmi Note 8 Pro and Xiaomi Mi Note 10 side by side on my desk. The first two have IPS, the third has an AMOLED panel. If we look at the quality of the image, and only for a better understanding of the proportions, take the Redmi 8 as zero and the Mi Note 10 as a hundred, the display on the Redmi Note 8 Pro can be worth about 70-75 points. That is, even though this is both an IPS and a display on the Redmi 8, the picture quality is much closer to the Mi Note 10 on the AMOLED than on the Redmi 8.

Of course, this won't make it AMOLED yet. The viewing angles are a bit worse, when viewed from a sharp angle, the colors also shift a bit, the brightness is also less, but whoever dares to tell the display of the Redmi Note 8 Pro that it is bad, just because it is not AMOLED, is not telling the truth.

It is also worth highlighting the battery from the list, which has a slightly larger than usual capacity of 4500 mAh, which allows for a comfortable two-day battery life.

We also get the best in other abilities. Bluetooth 5.0, a dual-channel unit with Wi-Fi, capable of communicating at 2,4 GHz in addition to 5, has been added, there are plenty of sensors, so an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, infrared and fortunately NFC was not left out. skills. It hurts a little that wireless charging doesn’t fit into this category yet, but luckily we get a quick charge.

Redmi Note 8 Pro - Summary

As I wrote in the introduction, for me, this mobile has become a phone of surprises. The MediaTek Helio G90T central unit is lightning fast, almost scrubbing the performance of high-end units. In practice, this means that you don’t have to give up any games, and during use, we don’t even notice a millisecond of uncertainty on the system.

Of the cameras, the 64 megapixel unit is more than usable. If you don’t adjust it, you can shoot amazing images in automatic 16 megapixel mode, and if you’re smart, you can also use it in 64 megapixel mode, just pay attention to the lighting conditions and subject selection, and you’ll be the ace among your friends, at least in mobile photography.

I was also really surprised by the quality of the display, which is not much behind, most of all, perhaps behind the brightness of the AMOLED, but it is still great to use, even in bright sunshine.

Overall, the Redmi Note 8 Pro is an all-in-one phone. If you’re looking for a cell phone for photography, it’s perfect. If you are looking for a mobile phone to play, it is perfect. If you just want a nice phone, it’s perfect. Sure, let’s not forget that it’s still “just” a mid-range device, but among them, right now, it’s one of the best!

Here you can buy it:

Gearbest: https://www.gearbest.com/sale/redmi-note-8-pro?lkid=11111215

Banggood: https://www.banggood.com/search/redmi-note-8-pro.html?p=CE09146403323201609I