Redmi 10 Review

Social oriented, budget phone for the masses

Introduction

The Redmi series is very known for its lineup of budget devices for a long time. Surely every year there will be an iteration of the Redmi that introduces a few upgrades from its predecessor. Usually most of the series will come out at the price of RM1399 or lower, which suits all that wants a practical smartphone, or just as a back up device. Let’s look at the new Redmi 10 and find out what it can do in this review.

As a start, the Redmi 10 is an upgrade over last year’s Redmi 9 and some of the series. A few notable upgrades are seen over the Redmi 10, which is the Processor, Memory, screen display and of course, the camera.

Design

The Redmi 10 is based on the similar material as the Redmi 9, which is plastic back and side. However the camera placement is moved towards the side on an island format. The overall design is nice to hold on the hand carrying on the similarity towards other Xiaomi and Redmi series in 2021.The unit we got for review is the black color and no complains over fingerprint smudges, even if there is a little, its easy to wipe off with a soft cloth.  is built similarly to the Poco F3, which is also another model released earlier this year.

The camera portion is an island of bump consisting of 4 camera sensors and a flash. When putting it flat on a table, it definitely doesn’t sit flat but its easily solved with installing the soft case that comes with it. 

Continuing on the sides, on the right hand side, there is a volume up and down button and a power button that also functions as a fingerprint scanner. There’s a dual SIM slot on the left side, while the top houses an IR blaster for remote control, 3.5mm headphone jack, a top speakerphone which also acts as a loudspeaker and mic while the bottom portion has a speaker, mic and a USB C port. Since there are two microphones on the phone, there are no issues in filtering surrounding noise and good call quality. The stereo speaker setup gives a proper enjoyment when streaming video or your favorite music. 

Display

Over the display portion, the Redmi 10 is powered by a 6.5 Inch FHD+ 90Hz LCD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Display is vibrant, clear, however the colors displayed are a bit washed out. It has adaptive refresh rate display which means when the screen is sitting idle, it will run at 60FPS, once you start your browsing and work or play, it will automatically adjust up to 90FPS. Depending on your daily usage, just a handful of games do support 90FPS gameplay, as long as the user tweaks the game settings too low with a mix of medium. 

Camera

When it comes to the camera setup, the Redmi 10 rear camera consists of one 50MP wide camera, one 8MP ultra-wide camera, one 2MP depth lens and a 2MP macro lens. Pictures taken are fairly well with some of the clarity and details captured properly with some AI enhancements. On video recording you get support up to 1080P at 30FPS, stutters are visible while recording but it’s very minor with good details during recording with zoom up to 6X.Night shots outcome are just nice, depending on situation and environment, certain shots still bring in noises and contrast results are just OK, however certain shots at night will still show some washed out colors, but still presentable. The selfie images are bright and good during the day which is powered by a 8MP wide angle lens. A few shots were taken over different modes as above and the result truly works well. A sample of zoomed, normal, 50MP and automatic shots taken were balanced, with some saturations. 

Performance

Performance wise, the Redmi 10 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 Octa-Core Processor, which is an upgrade over the previous G80, 64/128GB of internal storage and choice of 4/6GB RAM. Call quality with Whatsapp and normal cell calls are fairly good with a choice of calling via 3G, VOLTE or WO-WIFI depending on your Telco Carrier.  The phone does come with WiFi AC (2.4/5GHz), and Bluetooth 5. Testing over WiFi connection gets up to an average of 420MBPS transfer speeds, ensuring good stable speed for multimedia and streaming. If you have a WiFi AC router, you will be able to take most of the speed advantages without issues over any type of generic usage.

Over to the gaming side, this phone does what we call an affordable range game device. From PUBG to Mobile Legends, the phone is able to play with low to medium settings.You may notice some of the games may take a short while to load, such as Asphalt 9 however it does not impact on the gaming experience. For games that support over 60FPS, it will try to bump the frame rates up with minimal stutter.Over to much intensive games such as Genshin Impact, just keep the settings low.

Benchmark performance is fairly expected as a low mid budget level smartphone. From the scores, it indicates a practical device that works absolutely fine for daily usage, work, social media and streaming, with some light gaming. While it is just a synthetic score, it does what it does with smooth transition when switching from applications to another.

Battery performance wise, you will get around 10 hours of it, a mix of calls, surfing, email, streaming, and a few MLBB matches with its supplied 5000MAh battery capacity. Turning on the battery saving mode under 20% will get you around extra 2 hours of conservative usage. The Redmi 10 comes with a 20W fast charger, which will charge up the phone to 100% from 10% in around 1hour and 50minutes average. 

Specifications

Conclusion 

The Redmi 10 is definitely a great device for those who look for a budget device that is meant as a start for its affordability, with reasonable performance much suited to the user category ranging from new smartphone users, budget conscious ones and as a second backup device. With every region starting to plan on a 3G tower, this could be the perfect phone and the timing to change, taking on the advantage of the 4G calling era with fast speed connectivity for everyone needs. 

Pros

• 90Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate Display
• Has reverse charging
• Budget oriented performance unit
• MicroSD expansion Card Slot

Cons

• Plastic back/rear
• Camera performance may depend on the environment, but it’s a minor issue.

Pricing and availability

Starting now, the Redmi 10 will be available in two variants from RM 599 for the 4GB+64GB variant and RM 699 for the 6GB+128GB variant, and can be purchased on Lazada.