Tech reviews

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro Review: The Knight In Xining Armour – Tech


When I shift phones and do not change the default ringtone, I begin noticing how prevalent these phones are in the wild. Staying true to the “Kiska Baja?” axiom, I observed how common Xiaomi phones are in my environment. That makes sense, factoring in that the Redmi Note series have become the best-selling line of smartphones in India.

In recent years, we see Xiaomi move to a 6-month refresh cycle, but until now, these refreshes were more like incremental upgrades and not something that would bring FOMO to current-gen Redmi Note users. The Redmi Note 7 Pro changes that with an offering that is not only exceptionally well made for Xiaomi’s standards, but even across the price segment.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro made its global debut in India, bringing a lot of firsts for the price segment. It comes in two variants, with storage and RAM varying from 64GB and 128GB, and 4GB and 6GB respectively. These are priced at INR 13,999 and 15,999 respectively. We tested out the 4GB=64GB variant, in this dazzling Sapphire Blue variant.

 
Redmi Note 7 Pro, in Nebula Red colour

A familiar yet appreciated design

Checking out the phone for the first time, it’s evident that the Redmi Note 7 Pro takes design cues from other recent flagships. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as the result is this pretty glass sandwich protected by Gorilla Glass 5 on both the sides. Gradient backs were all the rage in 2018, and I don’t think it is slowing down any time soon. The Note 7 Pro follows that trend with a gradient back that goes from dark to light blue. It looks just as cool as the photos suggest.

A Display that steps up, but does not stand out

In contrast, the front looks rather dull and similar to every other notched phone. The bezels are nothing to ride home about either. The display itself is a 6.3-inch LCD panel with a FullHD+ resolution. The black rendition was above average for LCDs and so was the color accuracy. I’d prefer it to be a little more saturated, because of my history with OLEDs. The maximum brightness was adequate, even on a clear sunny day.

High performance, usually delivered

The Redmi Note 7 Pro is powered by the new Snapdragon 675 chipset, clocked at its max frequency. For the most part, the phone was flawless in regular use. The animations may suggest otherwise, but the processor barely broke sweat. However, during gaming, there would be phases when the game would drop frames for a perceivable lot of seconds, and would run smooth for the rest. Something similar was seen on the Vivo V15 Pro too, which uses the same Snapdragon 675. Not sure if it is the hardware or the software, but my guess would be the slightly underpowered GPU. During a bout of PUBG on lowest graphics, the top half of the phone did get considerably warm. Even more so if you are not using a case.

Having said that, this is the most powerful processor you can get at this price segment, and with the correct expectations, you will not be disappointed with the performance.

The 4GB of RAM was surprisingly able to keep up with multiple apps in background memory without needing to start over. Again, don’t let the animations fool you.

A competent battery

Staying true to its roots, the Redmi Note 7 Pro also houses a big 4,000mAh battery, and combined with MiUI’s efficiency, offered amazing battery life. On days of light usage, I was able to get more than 7 hours of screen on time, with lots of social media, photography, push notifications and music streaming over Bluetooth. The battery held its own during gaming too, with a discharge of around 10% over a period of half an hour.

The USB Type-C connector

The phone supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4.0, however the supplied charger has a output of 5V/2A which takes over 100 minutes to charge from near-empty to full. I tried using a OnePlus Dash charger too, and the speeds were better. Oh, that brings us to the long-due move to a USB Type-C connector. I usually do not recommend phones that charge via a micro USB connector to those who use their phones for multiple years. You’re safe, Redmi.

A mixed (shopping) bag of software experiences

On the topic of safety, let’s talk about Xiaomi’s famous software skin, MiUI. Yes, everything you’ve heard about it is true. It is far from stock Android. It can look childish at times. There are ads littered all over the UI. But I’m not going to bash them for that, as most of that can be avoided by changing a few settings or the launcher. What MiUI does well is being stable, coming in with very few app crashes or force closes. It is hella efficient too, especially during light tasks. The animations were janky and will often make you feel like you’re using a phone that is struggling to keep up. I’m glad to report that th phone runs on Android 9 Pie out-of-the- box.

Ads in the UI, during installing another app

We were told to hold on to our review till a special update was flashed on our unit. We moved to MiUI 10.2.0.6, but haven’t noticed any apparent changes. We have reached out to them for a change log, and we are waiting for a response.

The camera bump

Camera

Xiaomi made a big deal with the camera package on this phone, with a 48-megapixel f/1.79 primary camera, assisted by a 5-megapixel secondary sensor. The primary camera works akin to the execution on the Honor View 20 and the Vivo V15 Pro, both of which had the same primary 48-megapixel sensor, and received lots of praise from us. This camera is set to 12-megapixels by default, where it combines 4 adjacent pixels to effectively increase the pixel size to 1.6μm, resulting in brighter images.

The Redmi Note 7 Pro’s camera is also right up there, with admirable results in ALL lighting conditions. Day time photos had ample detail and auto-focus was really fast. The dynamic range was sufficient to not lose details in the shadows even when shooting against the sun. There may seem a slight shutter lag when shooting but the images are usually sharp.

 
30-second exposure

The night mode was bliss, revealing a lot more in the shadows without blowing out the highlights. Not just that, the noise was also minimal and I had no problem shooting these handheld, thanks to the smart stabilisation.

Regular vs. Night mode
Regular vs. Night mode

Overall, I was pretty impressed with what Xiaomi was able to pull off with the Redmi Note 7 Pro’s camera, and has created a solid contender for the best camera capabilities in this segment.

The included case

Let me quickly touch upon the smaller stuff, before sliding into my final thoughts. The vibration motor, while receiving calls, is probably the weakest one I have experienced. My colleague who sits on the same table 5 feet away, has a phone whose vibration was more perceivable than mine. You get an included case in the box, which is always a nice touch. The audio output is taken care of by the bottom firing speaker, and you also get a headphone jack, though it is awkwardly placed away from the corner. The buttons were nice and meaty to press, and the fingerprint scanner worked perfectly. Lastly, the Redmi Note 7 Pro also includes an IR Blaster.

Verdict

Rounding things up, the Redmi Note 7 Pro scores high in almost every department, and the few where it does not, should be fixed via OTA updates soon. If you’re fine with MiUI taking charge of things, then the Redmi Note 7 Pro by Xiaomi surely deserves your wallet. The 15K segment of India is really competitive, and has compelled brands to up their game if they hope to survive the competition. And, the Note 7 Pro steps up to the task gracefully.



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