Redmi Note 10 Summary
The Redmi Note 10 isn't pathbreaking in terms of
features and specifications for the sub-Rs. 12,000 segment, but it does cover
all the bases and offer a few nice extra touches. It's slimmer and lighter than
the Redmi Note 9, and debuts a new 'Evol' design language which makes it look
quite smart. The 6.43-inch full-HD+ AMOLED screen is a major highlight,
producing crisp details and colours that pop. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 678
SoC which is powerful enough for casual gaming as well as everyday tasks.
Battery life is good enough to get you through at least a full day, and
charging is quick. The cameras are quite ordinary, with the 48-megapixel
primary one taking good shots in the daytime ad acceptable ones at night. The
ultra-wide and selfie cameras are also serviceable, but the macro one is just
for amusement. MIUI is still full of promotional content and ads, but the
company promises to remove these with a future update.
Redmi
Note 10 design
Xiaomi has introduced a new
“Evol” design language which freshens up the Redmi Note 10 series a
bit. There's little scope for differentiation on smartphones, and the main bit
of design flair we see is the camera module on the rear. The four lenses, all
of different sizes, are arranged in a chunky but rounded panel that protrudes
by about 1mm from the rear.
The rest of the rear panel
is completely plain if you choose the Frost White or Shadow Black options,
though the Aqua Green colour does have a slight gradient. Each of the three has
a matching frame, which is flattened on the top and bottom. The rear panel
curves at the sides to offer a comfortable grip. I liked the matte texture of
the rear panel, and it doesn't get smudged very easily which means this phone
still looks good after being used for a while.
Thanks to the 6.43-inch
screen and its relatively narrow borders, the Redmi Note 10 is
actually quite easy to hold and manage. At 8.3mm thick and 178.8g in weight,
even one-handed use isn't much of a problem. The Redmi Note 10 is not only
easier to handle than the Redmi Note 9, but also pretty convenient overall,
considering its features and price.
One design touch I don't
quite like is the silver ring around the front camera, which is embedded into
the top-centre of the screen. It's highly reflective and can be distracting
when gaming or watching video, which defeats the entire purpose of having an
embedded camera. The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button on
the side. It's quite small and shaped like a regular button rather than being
slightly recessed. It seemed quick and accurate enough in use, even with such a
small surface area.
The Redmi Note
10 has stereo speakers. There are extra speaker holes on the top, though
it appears that Xiaomi is using the earpiece itself as a speaker, which is
weaker than the main one on the bottom. There's also the company's trademark
infrared emitter on the top for controlling appliances with. The tray on the
left has slots for two Nano-SIMs and a microSD card. Thankfully, there's a
3.5mm audio socket on the bottom next to the USB Type-C port.
The screen is made of
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and an adhesive protective film is pre-applied. You
also get a simple plastic case in the box. What's most interesting is the IP53
rating for splash and dust resistance which is very uncommon at this price
level.
Redmi
Note 10 specifications and software
The processor of choice for
this generation is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 678, a recently launched
upper-mid-range option which improves very slightly on the Snapdragon 675. It
has two Kryo 460 Gold CPU cores running at 2.2GHz (compared to 2GHz in its
predecessor) and the same six Kryo 460 Silver cores running at 1.7Ghz for
low-power situations. There's either 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and 64GB or
128GB of UFS 2.2 storage depending on which variant you choose.
The 6.43-inch display has a
full-HD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. Brightness goes up to 1100nits peak
which is enough for apps like YouTube to display HDR videos with boosted
brightness, although HDR isn't listed on the spec sheet. You can adjust the
colour tone or switch to Reading Mode which makes everything appear warmer,
which Xiaomi says can reduce eye strain.
The Redmi
Note 10 has stereo speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Type-C port
The Redmi Note
10 has a 5000mAh battery. It can be charged at up to 33W, and a USB Type-C
charger matching that rating is included. You also get dual-band Wi-Fi ac,
Bluetooth, dual simultaneous 4G, multiple navigation systems (though NavIC
isn't listed among them), and all the usual sensors. Xiaomi also touts the use
of a Z-axis haptic motor which is said to allow for more subtle vibrations.
As of now, Redmi Note
10 units in the market will come running MIUI 12 based on Android 11. My
unit had version 12.0.1 and didn't get any security updates beyond the January
2021 security patch, which is okay but not ideal. The company does promise a
huge update with MIUI 12.5 which is coming soon. It also says you can expect at
least quarterly security updates for around three years and one or two major
Android version updates, but that isn't set in stone.
The biggest change coming
with MIUI 12.5 will be the removal of all promotional content, advertising
notifications, lockscreen ads, and bloatware. Xiaomi says it wants to give power
to the users, and so nearly all apps will be removable – with the exception of
the absolute essentials such as the dialler, camera, clock, and settings apps.
It should be interesting to see how this plays out, but for now you'll have to
deal with all these annoyances. Some of the preloaded apps, such as Netflix,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Zili, Mi Remote, Mi Credit, and Mi Store are already
removable, but others including Mi Pay, Music, and ShareMe are not.
MIUI does have a lot of
functionality that goes beyond stock Android, such as floating windows, a Game
Turbo mode, plenty of home screen customisation options, optional gesture
navigation, and iOS-like UI shortcuts. You don't get all the features of the
Remi Note 10 Pro and Pro Max, for instance, there's no Second Space private
profile, and there are fewer creative camera modes.
Redmi
Note 10 performance
Other than occasional
notifications from some of the spammy apps, there isn't much to complain about.
The Redmi Note 10 has more than enough power to run everyday apps and
tasks smoothly. It's also relatively light and convenient to use. The
fingerprint sensor is responsive but I found myself unlocking the phone
unintentionally when just holding it in my hand, or picking it up to put it in
my pocket, and I had to consciously teach myself to avoid touching the sensor.
The screen is bright and
crisp, with rich colours. You can customise the tone but the reflective ring
around the front camera is annoying at times. There's an always-on display
feature that isn't active by default and doesn't actually always stay on – you
still have to tap the screen to see the time, battery status and notifications,
so you might as well just use the tap-to-wake gesture. The Redmi Note
10 does have Widevine L1 DRM certification so you can stream at high
resolution.
Games including Asphalt 9:
Legends and Call of Duty Mobile ran pretty well at High graphics quality. There
was very minor stuttering and the rear of the phone did get slightly warm after
about 15 minutes. Performance in graphics benchmarks was also decent for a
budget phone. I got scores of 484 and 1,487 in 3DMark's Wild Life and Sling
Shot Extreme tests, while GFXBench's T-Rex and Manhattan 3.1 scenes ran at
42fps and 15fps respectively. As for general performance benchmarks, AnTuTu
managed a score of 245,114 while Geekbench's single- and multi-core scores were
543 and 1,641 respectively.
Battery life is good
overall, and you should be able to get through at least one full day without
having to reach for the charger. I wasn't disappointed even with my usage,
which involved streaming one full movie and some music, a lot of Wi-Fi web
browsing, and some use of the cameras. Our HD video loop test lasted for a
reasonable 15 hours, 12 minutes. Charging the Redmi Note 10 with its
own charger, it got up to 66 percent in 30 minutes and 91 percent in an hour,
which isn't bad at all.
Redmi
Note 10 cameras
Unlike the Redmi Note
10 Pro Max with its 108-megapixel primary camera, there's nothing unusual
or pathbreaking about the Redmi Note 10's photography capabilities. You get a
very standard 48-megapixel f/1.79 main rear camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide
camera, and the very basic 2-megapixel macro and depth sensors which companies
use to fulfil that “quad camera” marketing requirement on budget phones.
The Redmi Note
10 also lacks many of the software touches that its more expensive
siblings offer. The vlog, dual exposure, clone, and dual video modes are
missing, potentially due to the more modest processor, but this is still
surprising. You can record 4K 30fps video, and slow-motion capture goes up to
960fps at 720p.
Daytime camera performance
is fairly good, with adequate sharpness and detail. Colours pop a little and
exposures are generally fine. Landscape shots are okay, but distant objects can
be somewhat blotchy. Close-ups tended to be crisp and detailed as long as the
subjects weren't brightly coloured – but some red flowers, for instance, looked
dramatically oversaturated and indistinct. Portrait mode usually did a good job
of gently blurring the background to emphasise the subject, and portrait shots
looked noticeably better in terms of composition than close-ups taken in the
standard mode, though some overall detail is lost. Quality is weaker with the
wide-angle camera, of course, but it could be useful sometimes since edge
distortion is not too jarring. The macro camera, as expected, is only really
suitable for novelty shots and doesn't produce great quality results that you'd
want to rely on.
As for low-light shots, you might want to tap
the shutter button a few times for a better chance that your subject will be
captured crisply. While the Redmi Note 10 usually gets it right,
there were cases in my testing that were disappointingly blurred or out of
focus. If there's enough artificial light around, objects will look good enough
and colours will show up decently well. Night mode can boost brightness and
balance exposures nicely, but results depend heavily on ambient light and shot
composition. The ultra-wide camera delivers quite poor results at night.
Selfies looked ok, but skin
textures and details are weak when seen at full magnification. Beautification
is on by default. The selfie portrait mode works well enough and separated the
background accurately.
Video recorded in the
daytime is relatively smooth. At 4K, colours tend to get overblown and there's
an unnaturally warm tone. Even the wide-angle camera does okay, though detail
is less crisp. At night, the lack of stabilisation is evident if you're moving
around while recording, but detail even in moving objects is decent if you
stand still. 4K video still looks way too warm and there's noticeable jitter
when moving. The wide-angle camera produced wobbly footage which was much
darker and murkier in terms of detail.
Verdict
The Redmi Note
10 doesn't push any major new boundaries for a budget phone, which is a
little disappointing considering how popular its predecessors have been. That
said, prices are rising and taxes are steeper than before so it's hard for
companies to pull off huge surprises these days while keeping costs low. This
is still a very competent phone and offers good value for money in 2021.
It offers a striking new design,
solid performance for everyday tasks, good battery life, and a competent enough
main rear camera. Little touches such as the AMOLED display, stereo speakers
and the IP53 rating are what set the Redmi Note 10 apart from other
budget phones. The promise of clean, annoyance-free software is tantalising,
but we have to rate this phone based on our actual experience with it at the
time of review. As of now, that means the spam and ads cost it a few points,
but if you're reading this after the rollout of MIUI 12.5, do take that into
account.
The Redmi Note
10 will compete with the Poco M3 (Review), Moto G10 Power and G30, Samsung Galaxy M12, and even the Redmi 9 Power (Review), plus many other recent launches in the sub-Rs. 15,000 space.
This isn't an exciting phone but it should prove to be quite popular in its
segment.
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