Redmi Note 8 review - Another great mid-range option - Android
While the Redmi Note Pro series is the mid-range leader for Xiaomi, the company has maintained a fantastic tier-two option for users who don’t want to spend as much, but still want some of the niceties introduced by the new generation of hardware. Accompanying the Redmi Note 8 Pro, a phone that we rated very highly in our review, is the all-new Redmi Note 8. The phone comes in somewhere between the Redmi Note 7S that it replaces, and the higher-end Redmi Note 8 Pro.
The Redmi Note series has almost always been an easy recommendation for its best-in-class performance. Can the Redmi Note 8 continue the momentum? We find out in the Android Authority review.
The Redmi Note 8 enters a competitive landscape that has more than a few quality options available to buyers. Between the brand appeal of Samsung, clean software offered by Motorola, and growing threat of Realme’s focus on design and specifications, Xiaomi has taken big steps forward. Including a quad-camera setup and fast-charging should certainly help the Redmi Note 8 bridge the gap. However, the design is starting to look a bit dull and the internals are slowing their advances.
Xiaomi has stepped up its game with in-box contents: It now throws in an 18W fast charger in the box. Additionally, you’ll find the usual TPU case, USB-C cable, and SIM ejector tool. It would have been nice to see a pair of earphones thrown in for good measure, but you’ve probably got a favorite pair lying around anyway.
The design of the Redmi Note 8 leans more towards the Redmi Note 7S than the Redmi Note 8 Pro. While the latter incorporates a curvy design and a luxurious build that belies its price, the Redmi Note 8 is very much a mid-range smartphone as far as looks go. The entire design is an extension of the flattened-out, glass-and-metal sandwich that first debuted on the Redmi Note 7. Yes, Xiaomi’s budget portfolio can get quite complicated.
The Redmi Note 8 places its 6.3-inch display under Gorilla Glass 5, which is flanked by not-too-large bezels on three sides. Xiaomi’s decision to run a color-matched blue trim around the display area is questionable. Personally, I think it cheapens the look of the phone, but you may feel differently. The chin at the bottom is inoffensive even though the Redmi branding comes across as a bit much. A small notification LED sits to the left of the waterdrop notch. The LED is just a bit too small to be noticeable from a distance, but it is better than not having one at all.
It is hard to fault the construction of Xiaomi devices, and the Redmi Note 8 is no exception. From the volume rocker and power button, to the SIM tray and USB-C port at the bottom, high-quality construction is apparent everywhere. The buttons are solid with no wobble and they offer near-perfect tactile feedback. The phone even has an IR blaster that you can use to control electronics like televisions and air conditioners.
The rear panel is also made of Gorilla Glass 5 and sports a subtle blue/purple gradient. A fingerprint scanner sits in the center and is as fast as they come. The quad-camera module, however, sits way too far above the surface glass. This causes the phone to rock when placed on a table, and it will inevitably catch on to your pocket when sliding it in.
Overall, the Redmi Note 8’s design should appeal to most. Sure, it isn’t quite as exciting as the Redmi Note 8 Pro, but that’s a concession you have to make for a lower price point.
The display on the Redmi Note 8 isn’t bad, but in a sea of great panels it comes across as a bit underwhelming. Out of the box, the color tuning skews too far towards cooler tones. This has a profound effect on how images and videos look on the display. That said, it is easy to switch to a more neutral color profile that immediately makes content look a lot more natural.
Unlike some competing devices, such as the Moto One Macro, the Redmi Note 8 has a Full HD+ display. Stretched across 6.3-inches, the resolution is more than adequate. Icons and text look perfectly crisp and reading long web pages is a pleasurable experience.
We measured peak brightness levels of about 430 nits with the display set to the standard mode. This is just under Xiaomi’s claimed 450 nits peak brightness level. The Redmi Note 8 is certainly not the brightest phone in the segment, but unless you spend a lot of time walking about in direct sunlight you shouldn’t face much of a problem.
The Snapdragon 665 chipset powering the Redmi Note 8 is the same as that of the Realme 5. Performance doesn’t differ too much from the Snapdragon 660 chipset that powers the Redmi Note 7S. The chipset is based on an 11nm architecture, which should make it a bit more frugal. The 665’s CPU is a touch slower than the 660, while the 665’s GPU is a tad more powerful. All-in-all, the performance gains and losses should even out.
The gaming performance is less than stellar, and the phone heats up in no time.
As far as general performance is concerned, the phone is usually able to keep up with whatever you throw at it. Jumping between apps will on occasion cause frame drop and a bit of jitter.
The gaming experience is not amazing. Pushing the graphics setting in PUBG results in noticeable lag and dropped frames. It doesn’t help that the phone heats up a fair bit over just a few minutes of gaming. The Snapdragon 66x family of chipsets are being outpaced by their successors, and it shows here.
We put the phone through a standard range of benchmarks and the results were in line with what we expected. The phone manages a score of 170,973 points in AnTuTu, which is ahead of both the Redmi Note 7S that it replaces and the Moto One Macro. Graphics performance, however, benchmarked worse than the Redmi Note 7S and especially the Moto One Macro.
While we’re starting to see 5,000mAh batteries in the entry-level segment, the 4,000mAh cell in the Redmi Note 8 is definitely no slouch. The phone easily lasts a full day and then some. In my time with the phone, I found it hard to deplete the battery with heavy use, including a few hours streaming Spotify and YouTube, browsing Reddit, and sending a dozen or so emails.
The 4,000mAh battery is no longer the biggest in the segment.
The bigger and more relevant change for end-users is support for 18W charging. Not only that, Xiaomi tossed a fast charger in the box. A full charge takes just over two hours. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t include support for wireless charging, but that is common at this price.
I’ve been very vocal about my disdain for the preloaded bloat on Xiaomi’s devices. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the company is taking steps to tone it down. Starting from the onboarding process, Xiaomi pushes recommendations for a wide range of apps to download. For the first-time user, it can be easy to click next and start the download process for this junk.
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