Xiaomi has unleashed a whole pack of new Redmi and Redmi Note smartphones
over the past month, as the market shows no signs of slowing down. There has so
far been no lack of competition for the Chinese giant, but it has managed to
keep up. Buyers don't seem to mind too much, as they're getting more for their
money than ever before. The Redmi 8 is the latest iteration of one of Xiaomi's
most affordable models, and so it automatically has a huge potential target
audience.
With the launch of the Redmi 8, the company has taken a few steps
forward in terms of features, while also seeming to regress in one key area –
the processor. Does this mark a major shift for Xiaomi
and a repositioning of a key product, and does it make sense to allocate more
of the budget to other things like cameras and battery capacity? It's time to
review the Redmi 8 and find out.
Redmi 8 design::
Like we've already seen with the Redmi
8A (Review) and Redmi Note 8 Pro (Review), Xiaomi has given this generation of phones a pretty
major design update. There's a very specific new design language that stands
out from the generic iPhone-inspired look of past models. The Redmi 8 also feels extremely high-quality,
with loads of attention paid to small details, and no rough edges anywhere. No
wonder the company has slapped a “Designed by Xiaomi” label prominently on the
back.
The Redmi 8 is available in three colours – Onyx Black, Sapphire Blue, and
Ruby Red. Our review unit was the latter, and we love the rich, deep jewel tone
which clearly isn't just a surface-level coating. There are no unnecessary
gimmicks here with gradients, patterns, or textures. The back of this phone is
glossy but not slippery. It's surprisingly resilient against fingerprints but
you'll want to use a case to prevent small abrasions and scratches. It's curved
just right at the edges and corners to make usage comfortable.
The two cameras and fingerprint sensor are in a black vertical strip down
the middle of the rear. This strip is flush with the rest of the phone, unlike
the protruding equivalent on the Redmi Note 8 (Price:
9,999) Pro. The fingerprint sensor is small, but reasonably within
reach. The Redmi 8 doesn't rock from side to side when used flat on a table.
The front of the Redmi 8 is fairly standard – there are thick borders around
the 6.22-inch display, and a waterdrop-style notch at the top. The chin is
thick enough for a Redmi logo to fit, which we would have preferred not to be
there. It's fairly obvious that Xiaomi has used several common elements across this phone and the lower-priced
Redmi 8A, and the two are impossible to distinguish when seen from any
angle other than the rear.
Xiaomi surprised us with a USB Type-C port on the entry-level Redmi 8A so of
course there's one here too. It's joined on the bottom of the phone by a 3.5mm
audio socket and single speaker. The power and volume buttons are comfortably
positioned on the right, and the tray on the left accepts two Nano-SIMs as well
as a microSD card. Unlike its less expensive sibling, the Redmi 8 does have an
Infrared emitter on the top, for controlling appliances with.
Overall, the Redmi 8 looks and feels like it's much more expensive than it
really is. It would have been impossible to even imagine this level of finesse
for less than Rs. 10,000 a few years ago.
Redmi 8 specifications and software::
While the exterior of this phone is impressive, Xiaomi's choice of
components on the inside raises a few questions. We have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor, which is a bit of a downgrade compared to the Snapdragon 632 used in
the Redmi
7 ₹ 6,806 (Review). Both these processors were launched at the same
time last year, so Xiaomi hasn't even gone with a newer chip that might have
been substantially more efficient. Interestingly, this is the same chip that
powers the entry-level Redmi
8A (Review) and even the Redmi
7A ₹ 4,896 (Review). It has four ARM Cortex-A53 cores running at up to
1.45GHz and another four at 1.95GHz and integrated Adreno 505 graphics.
There are many more similarities between the Redmi
8 and the Redmi 8A. The two share the same screen specifications —
6.22-inch 720x1520-pixel IPS panels rated to handle 70.8 percent of the NTSC
colour gamut. Both phones also have 5000mAh batteries and support 18W charging,
and Xiaomi supplies 10W chargers in both models' retail boxes. Another nice
touch is that you can use FM radio without plugging a headset in to act as an
antenna.
While the Redmi 8A tops out at 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, the Redmi 8 gets
that much in its base variant with an option that steps up to 4GB of RAM and
64GB of storage. Interestingly, Xiaomi is selling only this variant at a discount as an introductory
offer, and it's what we're reviewing today. MicroSD cards of up to 512GB are
supported. Both phones have 12-megapixel f/1.8 primary rear cameras and 8-megapixel
f/2 front cameras, though the Redmi 8 also has a depth sensor on the rear.
You might not be surprised to read that both phones weigh 188g and share
identical dimensions. As far as hardware goes, the only differences between
these phones seem to be the depth sensor, fingerprint reader, IR emitter, and
amounts of RAM and storage you can get with the Redmi 8. Considering the minor
price difference between them, this shouldn't be unexpected, but it does make
it hard to see the Redmi 8 as delivering great value.
We have MIUI 10.3.1 based on Android 9, and our review unit was running the
August 2019 security patch. MIUI is generally well regarded, but has annoyed us
in the past with lots of preinstalled bloatware, ads, and spammy notifications.
That hasn't changed here – we saw UC Browser, Paytm, Amazon Shopping, Facebook,
Dailyhunt, Gaana, and Opera Mini in addition to a multitude of Xiaomi's own
apps and quite a few from Google as well. There's really no point to the
choices Xiaomi has made either – no one needs four preinstalled Web browsers.
Several of these apps started throwing up regular advertising notifications after their
first use. The good news is that you can uninstall all the third-party ones.
Sadly, there are also still ads in Xiaomi's default apps, and you see pop-up
ads when installing anything from the Google Play Store.
At least MIUI looks relatively slick and polished. There are several useful
features such app locking, app cloning, a private “second space” profile,
navigation gestures and shortcuts, and independent whitelists for restricting
apps from using mobile data and Wi-Fi. Google's Digital Wellbeing is also
supported.
Redmi 8 performance and battery life::
We might be a little spoiled after reviewing so many of Xiaomi's previous
phones that have exceeded our expectations that the Redmi 8 falls a little
flat. There's nothing wrong with its performance and it's definitely good
enough for all day-to-day tasks, but it isn't exciting or new. There are other options available for less than Rs. 8,000 that have
stronger processors, including the Realme
3i (Price:- 7,755 (Review).
The fingerprint sensor worked fine, but we were warned that face recognition
isn't very secure and can potentially be defeated with a photo of you or by
people who look like you. MIUI is easy to use and you can manually disable
notifications for many of the problematic apps, or get rid of them entirely,
though no one should really have to go through this. As always, the Infrared
emitter is a nice touch that many people can get at least some use out of.
The display is good enough for movies and casual social videos. It isn't
especially vivid, but is bright enough to be used just fine even under direct
sunlight. Widevine DRM is restricted to L3 so you'll be streaming videos at
lower-than-HD quality, but you might not even notice. The speaker is
surprisingly crisp and loud.
Our benchmark tests showed exactly how the Snapdragon 439 stacks up against
its competition. We got scores of 95,930 in AnuTuTu and 4,698 in PCMark, as
well as 178 and 822 respectively in Geekbench 5's single-core and multi-core
runs. Graphics performance was also on the low side with just 35fps and 14fps
in GFXBench's T-rex and Manhattan
3.1 tests.
As for gaming, you're better off sticking with simple titles. We were able
to run PUBG Mobile, but only at its low settings and that too with a lot of
jerkiness. Asphalt 9: Legends also ran, but with some serious lag that made it
much less enjoyable than usual. We also found that the back of this phone got
quite warm after two or three races.
On the other hand, the battery lasted us comfortably through a full day of
heavy usage which involved taking a lot of camera samples, playing these games,
and about two hours of video streaming. Our HD video loop test ran for 11
hours, 44 minutes which isn't great, but isn't too bad either. We were able to
charge up to 25 percent in 30 minutes and 51 percent in an hour using the
included 10W power adapter.
Redmi 8 cameras::
Cameras are hugely important in a smartphone, and some manufacturers now
offer multiple cameras to try to tempt buyers. Xiaomi has stuck with a
dual-camera setup, which actually means you get one camera with a depth sensor for
portrait effects. However, quality leaves a lot to be desired.
We found the Redmi 8 sometimes took a bit too long to lock onto a subject,
and didn't quite get exposures right when dealing with white subjects or bright
backgrounds. At night as well as in portrait mode during the day, we often
encountered a deep yellow tone in the viewfinder and in saved shots. We had to
point away from our subject or restart the camera app to force it to
recalibrate its colour balance.
As for photo quality, things were hit-or-miss during the day. We did capture
some crisp shots with good detail, but many times we were also disappointed to
see blurred or dull results. We wound up taking several shots of each subject
to maximise our chances of getting a good one.
You can get some nice depth-of-field naturally using the camera in its
default mode. Portrait mode shots looked botched in the viewfinder, like the
phone was simply unable to detect edges, but the saved results were fine. The
front camera didn't capture great detail in selfies.
At night, other than the colour tone issue we described earlier, we found it
hard to get usable shots. Details were blotchy and focus was not very sharp. We
had to stand very still to avoid causing motion blur. However, there was a fair
amount of detail and subjects were well defined with a bit of ambient lighting
around. Selfies were unfortunately completely blurry and messy.
Video recording goes up to 1080p 30fps and detail as well as exposure were
decent in the daytime as well as at night. Stabilisation is non-existent and
you shouldn't try to move around while shooting.
Verdict::
Many Indian smartphone buyers are very conscious of specifications, down to
the number and type of SoC CPU cores. This is especially true of young people
who upgrade at least once a year and buy devices online – which is a huge
swathe of the market. With the Redmi 8, Xiaomi is sidestepping raw performance
and focusing on quality-of-life features as well as design. The intention seems
to be to establish a firm distinction between the Redmi models and their Redmi
Note siblings which are a step or two up the price ladder.
The Redmi 8 is certainly a good-looking phone, and on paper at least the
battery, camera, and aesthetics are all highly appealing. You get generous
amounts of RAM and storage for the price. Gorilla Glass, 18W fast charging (if
you have or buy your own charger), wireless FM radio, USB Type-C, and the IR
emitter are all value-adds.
In the real world, we were disappointed with the cameras though. This is
something that we think Xiaomi could have done much better at, and unless the
issues we faced can be fixed with software updates, some buyers are going to
feel let down.
Buyers considering this phone should take a close look at the Redmi
8A (Review) to see if there's anything they don't mind losing,
since that could save them some money. You might be tempted to act quickly in
order to snag the 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant at a discount while the
introductory offer lasts. However, we'd suggest that people who value
performance wait a little while for our upcoming review of the freshly
announced Redmi Note 8, which looks like it could deliver a lot more
for a relatively small step up in price.
Design- 8/10
Display- 7/10
Software- 7/10
Performance-6/10
Battery Life-8/10
Camera-6/10
Value For Money- 8/10
USB Type-C port, wireless FM radio.
All-day battery life.
Bad
Poor camera quality in low light.
Bloatware and spammy notifications in MIUI.
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