redmi note 5 lcd module free sample

Xiaomi has deliberately built up the Redmi 10’s camera housing to make it seem advanced, but the camera array you get here is actually mediocre at best. While its primary camera has 50 megapixels to its name, the results are inconsistent and rarely all that pretty.

The real strong points are the stereo speakers, even if sound quality isn’t remarkable, solid battery life, and a decently sharp screen. As such, the Redmi 10 isn"t as easy to recommend as some real Xiaomi hits of the last year or so, like the fantastic Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro or Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC.

Motorola’s Moto G50 is a worthy alternative too. It generally costs slightly more and it has a lower-resolution screen, but its software is superior, the battery life even better, and it has 5G and a faster chipset.

We shouldn’t overlook one of the key draws of buying a budget Xiaomi phone, though. The Redmi 10 has a Full HD display, at a price for which several of the other big names only offer 720p screens. It makes a significant difference, even if it is something you take for granted rather quickly after switching from a 720p phone.

This phone is more expensive than its predecessor, at $179/£149 (around AU$270) with 64GB of storage or $199/£199 (roughly AU$365) with 128GB of storage, with the latter being the model reviewed here. Some regions also get a version with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM (up from 4GB) for $219 (approximately £160 / AU$290).

The Redmi 10"s design is a good example of ‘faking it’. This is a concept we"ve talked about before. Lots of all-plastic phones are dressed up like higher-end ones, with the intention to appear like metal and glass designs.

Xiaomi has gone a little further this time, using a camera housing design far larger and more elaborate-looking than the simple strip seen in the Redmi 9. The Redmi 10"s back really does look like glass. The camera really does look like it might belong on a $1,000/£1,000 phone.

It"s all a sham, of course. The Redmi 10’s back is plastic, and uses a metallic-looking color gradient underneath to class-up its appearance. We’ll get onto the camera later, but a big chunk of it is just a black border that actually sits in the rear finish, and has nothing to do with the camera itself at all.

The Redmi 10 has painted-on cheekbones. But does it matter? If you flashed us the phone’s back and told us it cost $450, we’d believe you. We can appreciate a phone that can fool friends into thinking you spent more. It"s fine as long as you"re not the one fooled when you come to buy a Redmi 10.

There are some less deceptive parts to the design. The Redmi 9 had a teardrop notch, the Redmi 10 has a punch-hole, which looks more modern to most eyes.

Screen borders are typical of a cheaper Android, but are not excessive, and the Redmi 10 is a lot easier to handle than some other Xiaomi phones. Many of the company"s affordable lines use ultra-large displays that add significantly to a phone’s width. The Redmi 10 is 75.5mm wide, similar to a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.

You get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for secure unlocking, and while there’s a slightly longer pause while it works than some top-end phones, it’s a reliable pad. The Xiaomi Redmi 10 also has an IR blaster, which is something you only tend to see in select Chinese phones these days.

An IR blaster sends out the same signals as classic TV remote controls, using a Mi Remote app. It turns the Redmi 10 into a universal remote. We couldn"t actually get it to work, testing with an LG TV, a Planar projector and an Anthem AV receiver. But you may have better luck. It may be disabled in our device"s firmware for some reason.

The Xiaomi Redmi 10"s screen is one of the stronger parts of the phone, although primarily against rival brands rather than other Xiaomi Androids you might buy.

At this affordable level, Samsung and Motorola both use 720p screens with a lower pixel density than the Redmi 10’s. This 6.5-inch screen is very sharp. Pixel density of around 405 pixels per inch is fantastic for a phone this cheap.

Color saturation is good too although we do recommend tweaking it a bit. Fresh out of the box the Redmi 10’s color temperature was a little too cool, likely used as a way to make it appear to ‘pop’ a bit more.

The Redmi 10 is a 90Hz phone but this skill wasn"t enabled as standard. You can choose either 60Hz or 90Hz modes, and the faster one makes Android menus appear to scroll more smoothly.

This is one of the better displays you"ll find at the price. But it"s not perfect. It is an LCD, so blacks won"t appear perfect in dark rooms. We don"t think that"s really an issue. Brightness might be, though. The Redmi 10 can reach 445 nits outdoors in bright sunlight. While this is fine for a cheap phone, it’s less than the 600+ you can get from the Redmi Note 10 Pro.

The Xiaomi Redmi 10"s camera is its most deceptive area. It looks and sounds advanced. The camera array seems like the photographic equivalent of a Swiss army knife from a glance, and it has a 50MP sensor.

Bad news: where phones at this level typically have one decent camera and a bunch of duds, the Redmi 10 has no good cameras. Until now we"ve only really had high-quality 50MP cameras in phones, like those of the Oppo Find X3 Pro. But Samsung, as it has done several times in the past, lowers the tone with the S5KJN1 sensor seen here.

A great example of why more megapixels is often bad news, this sensor fits 50 million pixels into a very small 1/2.76-inch chip. So where the Oppo Find X3 Pro has sensor pixels of one micron size, these are 0.64 microns. They are some of the tiniest pixels seen in a phone camera.

We only dug this information up after going out on several shoots with the Redmi 10, having witnessed all the negative effects we’d usually associate with such tiny photosites, and wondering why.

The Redmi 10’s dynamic range is bad. The HDR mode can try to hide this to some extent, but it too is faulty, sometimes refusing to engage (when using HDR Auto) and generally pumping out highly inconsistent results. And there"s only so much you can do to hide the deficiencies of a crappy sensor with software-based enhancement.

HDR modes typically merge multiple exposures so very bright and dark parts of the scene can be captured in one frame and look properly resolved. While the Redmi 10 has a crack at this, when HDR works, the shadow/darker parts of the picture often look like porridge. Any natural textures become fuzzy and vague, as if captured by a weak selfie camera rather than a primary camera.

Color reproduction is poor in less than solid lighting, and when the Redmi 10 tries to help things by applying color filters to sunsets, the results rarely match what your eyes perceive.

Next to a slightly older phone you can buy at a similar price (albeit the lesser storage version), the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, the Redmi 10’s main camera is dismal. Video clips taken with the phone will also often turn out unusable because there is no stabilization.

In a phone at this level we don’t expect high-end video features like stabilized 4K and 120fps slow-mo, but the Redmi 10 is limited to 1080p, 30 frames per second capture. And even at this lowly capture rate it can’t manage electronic/software stabilization.

It’s not impossible to take good shots with the Xiaomi Redmi 10. You can find a few in this review"s photo gallery that look just fine. But Xiaomi doesn’t make it easy.

Sky gradients often look unrealistic, and clipped highlights in clouds are to be expected. The Redmi 10’s image signal processor (ISP), the brains behind the camera, doesn’t seem to be so hot.

You can choose whether to have an app drawer or not. Some may not like the stylistic choices of the settings menu, but it’s hardly worth getting upset over. However, the Redmi 10’s drop-down is not helpful.

In a conventional take on Android, you swipe down once to open up your notifications bar. You swipe again to access brightness controls and feature toggles. The Redmi 10 takes a different approach, using the right side of the screen for feature toggles, and the left for notifications.

General performance of the Redmi 10 is okay, with some common caveats that come with an entry-level CPU. There are some short waits when you load an app that has not been sitting in the cache, because it was used a moment ago. And there’s some minor lag in the interface in general.

The Xiaomi Redmi 10 does have some more obvious issues with gaming, particularly when compared to a slightly more expensive barnstormer like the Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro.

Even with the top-end version of the Redmi 10, with 6GB of RAM, you can’t run Fortnite. Epic Games won’t even let you install it. ARK: Survival Evolved runs quite poorly at higher graphics settings and Asphalt 9’s frame rate noticeably slows down in busier moments. That game’s busier moments often arrive several times in a 10-second window.

Xiaomi also uses relatively slow eMMC storage in this phone, although with read speeds of 283MB/s and writes of 152MB/s we’re not looking at anything too bad. Still, the Poco X3 Pro gets you reads of around 1000MB/s. It"s a real performance outlier.

The Xiaomi Redmi 10 has a 5,000mAh battery, much like most of its arch rivals and its significantly larger siblings. We find that while the Moto G50 tends to last longer between charges, few will find any reason to complain here.

There’s no improvement to battery charging with this generation, though. The Redmi 10 has 18W charging, although it comes with a 22.5W charger. We used a power meter and plugged it into both the bundled charger and a 30W one. In both cases the phone only draws around the claimed 18W.

After 30 minutes of charging the Redmi 10 from a completely flat state it reached 29% charge. This is not close to the ‘50% in 30 minutes’ fast charging standard.

You want a good screenThe Redmi 10 has a significantly sharper screen than the rival Samsung and Motorola phones you might buy instead. 1080p resolution looks great at the size, and the display is rich and vibrant, particularly after you make a few tweaks.

You want a long-lasting batteryIts 5,000mAh battery lasts a good while off a charge. You can hammer it fairly hard and still see the Redmi 10 last a full day. While this isn’t a two-day phone for us, it might get close to that for very light phone users.

You want something that looks goodThis phone fakes its way to success fairly convincingly. It looks less cheap than some others you might shop for around the price, and does not have a giant logo plastered across its back like some Poco-series and Redmi phones.

You take a lot of photosDon’t believe the 50MP hype. The Redmi 10"s camera is flat-out disappointing. Its HDR mode is unreliable, lower-light images are very poor and dynamic range is severely lacking, leaving some HDR-ified pictures looking distinctly mushy.

You"re a mobile gamerWe can’t recommend the Redmi 10 for gamers when the super-powered Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro is available for just slightly more. The chipset doesn’t handle top-end games that well, and can’t play Fortnite at all at the time of review. Its stereo speakers disappoint for gaming a bit too, as the output is so lopsided.

Xiaomi had a landmark year in 2017, edging past Samsung to become the largest handset manufacturer in India. A lot of that momentum was down to the success of the Redmi Note 4, which was the best-selling phone in the subcontinent last year.

As such, there"s a lot riding on the Redmi Note 5. Before we get to the review, a little background on the naming convention. The Redmi Note 5 is identical to the Redmi 5 Plus, but because the Redmi Note series is more recognizable in India, Xiaomi is rebranding the phone in the country.

This isn"t the first time Xiaomi rebranded a device for the Indian market. Last year"s Redmi Y1 initially launched as the Redmi Note 5A in China, and the Android One-based Mi A1 was a rebrand of the Mi 5X.

Although the internal hardware is identical to last year"s Redmi Note 4, the Redmi Note 5 does have a few tricks up its sleeve. Let"s find out if the device has what it takes to further Xiaomi"s ambitions in 2018.

I (Harish Jonnalagadda) am writing this review after using a combination of Redmi 5 Plus and Redmi Note 5 for over a month. I picked up the Redmi 5 Plus in January, and have been using the device for the last four weeks. With the Redmi Note 5 being just a rebrand of the Redmi 5 Plus, I"m comfortable sharing my thoughts on the device after using the Indian retail variant for just six days.

At its core, the Redmi Note 5 is identical to its predecessor. The phone features a similar design aesthetic and is powered by the same Snapdragon 625 chipset.

The design itself hasn"t changed all that much either, and although the Redmi Note 5 has more pronounced curves at the back — leading to better in-hand feel — the overall aesthetic is similar to the Redmi Note 4. Once again, the top and bottom sections at the back are made out of plastic, with the rest of the body crafted out of metal. To Xiaomi"s credit, it"s hard to make out that the antenna inserts are plastic, as they have a metallic finish.

Like its predecessor, the Redmi Note 5 features a hybrid SIM card tray, allowing you to either slot in two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD slot (up to 128GB).

There are two key areas that Xiaomi focused on with the Redmi Note 5: display and camera. The 18:9 FHD+ panel is a necessary change for 2018, and keeps the Redmi Note 5 competitive in this category.

Xiaomi has a strong track record when it comes to LCD displays, and the panel used in the Redmi Note 5 is one of its best yet. Colors are accurate out of the box, and you can tweak the color balance to your preferences from the settings. Sunlight legibility is also great, and I had no issue viewing the panel under harsh sunlight.The two big changes in the Redmi Note 5 are the camera and display.

Because of the reduced bezels, Xiaomi had to get rid of hardware navigation buttons and instead switched to on-screen keys. That"s a welcome change for me as I can finally configure the position of the back and overview buttons from the settings. Xiaomi (like Samsung) put the back button to the right of the home key, so it"s great that the Redmi Note 5 comes with configurable on-screen navigation buttons.

As for everyday usage, the Snapdragon 625 is a well-known chipset at this point, delivering the ideal balance between performance and battery efficiency. It would"ve made more sense to go with the newer Snapdragon 630 as it comes with a higher-clocked Adreno 508 GPU, but Xiaomi is clearly playing it safe here.

Furthermore, Xiaomi has been optimizing the Snapdragon 625 for over a year now, so that could be the reason for wanting to stick with the older SoC. And even though it"s a few years old, the Snapdragon 625 is one of the best chipsets in this segment — you"re not going to see many lags or slowdowns in day-to-day usage.

While there isn"t a whole lot of difference when it comes to the external design, Xiaomi says it is undertaking stricter quality control measures on the Redmi Note 5, leading to tighter tolerances. That should lead to fewer issues as the device starts making its way to customers in the coming weeks.

With a 4000mAh battery, the Redmi Note 5 has similar battery life as its predecessor. To put it in another way, the phone is once again a battery champion. You"ll easily get a day"s worth of usage under heavy load, and more often than not, you can eke out two days" worth of usage from a full charge.

I routinely saw over eight hours" of screen-on-time spread over two days on a single charge. Battery longevity was one of the main reasons for the Redmi Note 4"s success, and the Redmi Note 5 picks up where its predecessor left off.

Xiaomi mentions that it is working on Oreo update plans, but there isn"t a timeline yet. Considering how slow the manufacturer was at rolling out Nougat to the Redmi Note 4 last year, there"s a long wait ahead.

The Redmi Note 5 has a 12MP camera with 1.25um pixels and an f/2.2 lens. If those specs look familiar, it"s because Xiaomi is reusing the same module that was featured in the primary camera of the Mi A1.

After using standalone camera modules for each device in 2016, Xiaomi started standardizing hardware in its budget portfolio last year, and as a result, a lot of the devices in this segment have ended up sharing components.

As for image quality, the Redmi Note 5 is identical to the Mi A1 — photos taken in daylight have a lot of detail, but the camera suffers when it comes to low-light shots. Images come out soft and full of noise, and colors look washed out as well.

So little has changed from the Redmi Note 4 to the Redmi Note 5 that the latter could"ve been termed the Redmi Note 4 Prime instead. Xiaomi is decidedly playing things safe with the Redmi Note 5, and it"s easy to see why.

There really wasn"t a whole lot that was wrong with the Redmi Note 4, and by making a few key upgrades, Xioami is ensuring that the Redmi Note series stays relevant in 2018. And for those that are looking for the absolute best that a budget phone can deliver, there"s the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

Sure, there are a few drawbacks with the device — the design is stale, there"s no USB-C or fast charging, and you get Nougat out of the box — but the upgrades to the display and camera are enough to make it hold its ground in this category.Upgrades to the display and camera are enough to make the Redmi Note 5 stay relevant.

Xiaomi knows how to play the budget segment more than any other manufacturer, and that"s one of the main reasons why it is currently leading the pack. The Redmi Note 5 costs less than its predecessor, with the 3GB version retailing for ₹9,999 and the 4GB variant with 64GB of RAM costing ₹11,999 in the country.

That"s a huge deal considering the competitive nature of the budget segment. It"s also a win-win for Xiaomi — customers won"t have to pay more to get their hands on the Redmi Note 5, and the manufacturer stands to make more revenue from each unit.

The most important phone in India isn"t the Galaxy S flagship or the iPhone. It is the Redmi series, as this is the lineup that gets the most amount of attention, and increasingly, the majority of the sales. If you"re already using the Redmi Note 4, then it doesn"t make much sense to pick up the Redmi Note 5; you"re better served by the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

But with the Redmi Note 4 being phased out, the Redmi Note 5 is a shoe-in replacement, one that should be more than adequate for the millions of customers that will be lining up to get their hands on a new budget phone in 2018. When you consider the fact that the 3GB model is available for under ₹10,000 it becomes an easier decision.

There"s no question that the Redmi Note 5 will sell well; the only issue now is whether Xiaomi can meet the inevitable demand. That was a huge issue last time around with the Redmi Note 4, with the device unavailable for more than a few seconds every week, but with Xiaomi leading a renewed push into the offline segment, there should be more availability of the Redmi Note 5 in the initial launch window.

Xiaomi has also invested significant resources into local production, with all units of the Redmi Note 5 sold in the country locally assembled at its factories. That should also lead to faster turnaround times for new units.

Xiaomi had a landmark year in 2017, edging past Samsung to become the largest handset manufacturer in India. A lot of that momentum was down to the success of the Redmi Note 4, which was the best-selling phone in the subcontinent last year.

As such, there"s a lot riding on the Redmi Note 5. Before we get to the review, a little background on the naming convention. The Redmi Note 5 is identical to the Redmi 5 Plus, but because the Redmi Note series is more recognizable in India, Xiaomi is rebranding the phone in the country.

This isn"t the first time Xiaomi rebranded a device for the Indian market. Last year"s Redmi Y1 initially launched as the Redmi Note 5A in China, and the Android One-based Mi A1 was a rebrand of the Mi 5X.

Although the internal hardware is identical to last year"s Redmi Note 4, the Redmi Note 5 does have a few tricks up its sleeve. Let"s find out if the device has what it takes to further Xiaomi"s ambitions in 2018.

I (Harish Jonnalagadda) am writing this review after using a combination of Redmi 5 Plus and Redmi Note 5 for over a month. I picked up the Redmi 5 Plus in January, and have been using the device for the last four weeks. With the Redmi Note 5 being just a rebrand of the Redmi 5 Plus, I"m comfortable sharing my thoughts on the device after using the Indian retail variant for just six days.

At its core, the Redmi Note 5 is identical to its predecessor. The phone features a similar design aesthetic and is powered by the same Snapdragon 625 chipset.

The design itself hasn"t changed all that much either, and although the Redmi Note 5 has more pronounced curves at the back — leading to better in-hand feel — the overall aesthetic is similar to the Redmi Note 4. Once again, the top and bottom sections at the back are made out of plastic, with the rest of the body crafted out of metal. To Xiaomi"s credit, it"s hard to make out that the antenna inserts are plastic, as they have a metallic finish.

Like its predecessor, the Redmi Note 5 features a hybrid SIM card tray, allowing you to either slot in two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD slot (up to 128GB).

There are two key areas that Xiaomi focused on with the Redmi Note 5: display and camera. The 18:9 FHD+ panel is a necessary change for 2018, and keeps the Redmi Note 5 competitive in this category.

Xiaomi has a strong track record when it comes to LCD displays, and the panel used in the Redmi Note 5 is one of its best yet. Colors are accurate out of the box, and you can tweak the color balance to your preferences from the settings. Sunlight legibility is also great, and I had no issue viewing the panel under harsh sunlight.The two big changes in the Redmi Note 5 are the camera and display.

Because of the reduced bezels, Xiaomi had to get rid of hardware navigation buttons and instead switched to on-screen keys. That"s a welcome change for me as I can finally configure the position of the back and overview buttons from the settings. Xiaomi (like Samsung) put the back button to the right of the home key, so it"s great that the Redmi Note 5 comes with configurable on-screen navigation buttons.

As for everyday usage, the Snapdragon 625 is a well-known chipset at this point, delivering the ideal balance between performance and battery efficiency. It would"ve made more sense to go with the newer Snapdragon 630 as it comes with a higher-clocked Adreno 508 GPU, but Xiaomi is clearly playing it safe here.

Furthermore, Xiaomi has been optimizing the Snapdragon 625 for over a year now, so that could be the reason for wanting to stick with the older SoC. And even though it"s a few years old, the Snapdragon 625 is one of the best chipsets in this segment — you"re not going to see many lags or slowdowns in day-to-day usage.

While there isn"t a whole lot of difference when it comes to the external design, Xiaomi says it is undertaking stricter quality control measures on the Redmi Note 5, leading to tighter tolerances. That should lead to fewer issues as the device starts making its way to customers in the coming weeks.

With a 4000mAh battery, the Redmi Note 5 has similar battery life as its predecessor. To put it in another way, the phone is once again a battery champion. You"ll easily get a day"s worth of usage under heavy load, and more often than not, you can eke out two days" worth of usage from a full charge.

I routinely saw over eight hours" of screen-on-time spread over two days on a single charge. Battery longevity was one of the main reasons for the Redmi Note 4"s success, and the Redmi Note 5 picks up where its predecessor left off.

Xiaomi mentions that it is working on Oreo update plans, but there isn"t a timeline yet. Considering how slow the manufacturer was at rolling out Nougat to the Redmi Note 4 last year, there"s a long wait ahead.

The Redmi Note 5 has a 12MP camera with 1.25um pixels and an f/2.2 lens. If those specs look familiar, it"s because Xiaomi is reusing the same module that was featured in the primary camera of the Mi A1.

After using standalone camera modules for each device in 2016, Xiaomi started standardizing hardware in its budget portfolio last year, and as a result, a lot of the devices in this segment have ended up sharing components.

As for image quality, the Redmi Note 5 is identical to the Mi A1 — photos taken in daylight have a lot of detail, but the camera suffers when it comes to low-light shots. Images come out soft and full of noise, and colors look washed out as well.

So little has changed from the Redmi Note 4 to the Redmi Note 5 that the latter could"ve been termed the Redmi Note 4 Prime instead. Xiaomi is decidedly playing things safe with the Redmi Note 5, and it"s easy to see why.

There really wasn"t a whole lot that was wrong with the Redmi Note 4, and by making a few key upgrades, Xioami is ensuring that the Redmi Note series stays relevant in 2018. And for those that are looking for the absolute best that a budget phone can deliver, there"s the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

Sure, there are a few drawbacks with the device — the design is stale, there"s no USB-C or fast charging, and you get Nougat out of the box — but the upgrades to the display and camera are enough to make it hold its ground in this category.Upgrades to the display and camera are enough to make the Redmi Note 5 stay relevant.

Xiaomi knows how to play the budget segment more than any other manufacturer, and that"s one of the main reasons why it is currently leading the pack. The Redmi Note 5 costs less than its predecessor, with the 3GB version retailing for ₹9,999 and the 4GB variant with 64GB of RAM costing ₹11,999 in the country.

That"s a huge deal considering the competitive nature of the budget segment. It"s also a win-win for Xiaomi — customers won"t have to pay more to get their hands on the Redmi Note 5, and the manufacturer stands to make more revenue from each unit.

The most important phone in India isn"t the Galaxy S flagship or the iPhone. It is the Redmi series, as this is the lineup that gets the most amount of attention, and increasingly, the majority of the sales. If you"re already using the Redmi Note 4, then it doesn"t make much sense to pick up the Redmi Note 5; you"re better served by the Redmi Note 5 Pro.

But with the Redmi Note 4 being phased out, the Redmi Note 5 is a shoe-in replacement, one that should be more than adequate for the millions of customers that will be lining up to get their hands on a new budget phone in 2018. When you consider the fact that the 3GB model is available for under ₹10,000 it becomes an easier decision.

There"s no question that the Redmi Note 5 will sell well; the only issue now is whether Xiaomi can meet the inevitable demand. That was a huge issue last time around with the Redmi Note 4, with the device unavailable for more than a few seconds every week, but with Xiaomi leading a renewed push into the offline segment, there should be more availability of the Redmi Note 5 in the initial launch window.

Xiaomi has also invested significant resources into local production, with all units of the Redmi Note 5 sold in the country locally assembled at its factories. That should also lead to faster turnaround times for new units.

IP53*The device has been tested in a controlled environment and certified to be resistant to splash, water, and dust in specific laboratory conditions with the classification IP53 under IEC standard 60529. Resistance is not permanent and may deteriorate naturally over time. If your device is wet, do not attempt to charge it. Liquid damage is not covered under warranty.

The budget segment, a major driving force in developing markets, is overshadowed by the likes of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro with its beefier hardware, good cameras, appreciable battery life and feature-rich MIUI OS. However, the segment has recently seen another new entrant from a brand with lots of heritage — Nokia. Under HMD Global"s supervision, they have come out with the 6.1 Plus, which surely turns a new page for the brand and embraces current design trends head-on. The device follows a new premium design philosophy, incorporating a 19:9 notched display, a glass rear body, moderately powerful hardware and a decent pair of optics.

On paper, the Redmi Note 5 Pro and Nokia 6.1 Plus have similarities under the hood and are priced competitively close to each other. Therefore, why not pit them against each other in a head-to-head comparison?

The Redmi Note 5 Pro, on the other hand, is sleek and premium, and sports an elegant metal unibody design that blend with the plastic bit well on the top and bottom. As the phone is narrow, it fits easily into your hands. However, the Note 5 Pro doesn"t include a notch and has a visible bezel on the top and a larger chin. The phone offers the old micro-USB port and not the USB Type-C as compared to the 6.1 Plus. Xiaomi bundles a case for protection against physical damages, sadly, Nokia doesn"t bundle in a case given that the glass body on the 6.1 Plus is more prone to damage.

Both the phones feature a dual rear camera setup with a dual flash module along with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. The Note 5 Pro has a similar design language that we have seen in many other devices in 2018 and the Nokia 6.1 Plus follows its own design philosophy which looks classic and modern in the segment.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus embraces a 5.8-inch 19:9 FHD+ screen and the Note 5 Pro sports a 5.99-inch full HD+ display. Both the display"s render fairly vibrant colours with decent contrasts. However, HMD Global here seems to have done a good job by chopping the bezels down and adding a notch, further giving a full-screen immersive display. A higher screen-to-body ratio result in smaller bezels and a compact factor, thereby making the Nokia 6.1 Plus more appealing.

And this is where the competition begins in true essence. Both the Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Nokia 6.1 Plus run on the same Snapdragon 636 SoC, which one of the chipsets outside the Qualcomm"s flagship 800-series to feature custom Kryo cores, providing best-in-class performance. The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes in single variant — 4GB/64GB configuration (expandable up to 400GB). And the Redmi Note 5 Pro is offered in 4GB/64GB and 6GB/64GB configuration. Both the phones offer a hybrid dual-SIM slot which can accommodate two nano-SIMs or a microSD card in the second slot.

To gauge the true potential of these phones we put them to their paces in AnTuTu benchmark. The Nokia 6.1 Plus scored an average of 116281 whereas the Redmi Note 5 Pro scored managed a slightly lower average of 106697. The Nokia"s 6.1 Plus scored higher, which is mostly due to the lighter and more efficient stock Android interface whereas the Note 5 Pro takes a toll on the performance due to extensive modifications and bloatware over the base operating system. However, in the real world, the performance is pretty close.

The UI is also smooth and we didn"t notice any lag or stutter while flicking between the regular apps. However, when it comes to software, the 6.1 Plus seems to have a slight edge over the Redmi Note 5 Pro, as the former device offers a pure stock Android Oreo experience with a clean, optimised, bloat-free and easy-to-use UI with a promise of up to two years of a security update. While stock Android has its pros, it does miss out on a lot of value-added benefits that Xiaomi"s MIUI offers. It comes with a lot of features and customisations that you don"t get in stock Android. Things like theme support, App lock, Dual apps (which lets one use two windows of a single app with different accounts), Second space (this helps one create a separate profile on the same device), Caller ID (this identifies unknown numbers and also alerts if that is a spam) and much more. However, it does come with some amount of bloatware too.

Moving ahead, Nokia has so far not disappointed when it comes to delivering the latest Android updates. Our review unit was running on the August Android security patch at the time of writing. The 6.1 Plus is said to get the latest Android 9 Pie as and when it is officially released in the market and this is something that we cannot confirm for the Redmi Note 5 Pro. While it was a little disappointing that the latter was running on the dated Android 7.1.1 Nougat (based MIUI 9) — given that the Android 9 Pie is out — thankfully the smartphone has now received the latest MIUI 9.5.6 update based on Android 8.1 Oreo but is running the July Android security patch.

Now, this is where the Redmi Note 5 Pro has a slight edge over the 6.1 Plus. The former smartphone packs a dual camera setup, comprising of a 12MP f/2.2 sensor and a 5MP sensor for sensing depth for the Portrait mode. The Note 5 Pro captures good shots with a fair amount of details and sharpness. It renders true-to-life colours and handles light metering well. The device manages to capture decent shots in low light, with fewer details and noise present. Additionally, the image quality degrades at night. The camera takes good selfies but due to the beautification mode, the picture contains fewer details.

Coming to the Nokia 6.1 Plus, it features a dual rear camera system, including a 16MP f/2.0 sensor and a 5MP f/2.4 sensor, tuned for portrait modes. The handset in daylight captures reasonably crisp and detailed shots. However, a fair amount of oversaturation is clearly visible, where a few colours seem to be unnaturally bright. In low light, it takes average photos that lack details as compared to the Note 5 Pro. The selfie camera output is decent.

Going by the sample shots, the Redmi Note 5 Pro and the Nokia 6.1 Plus seems to be on par, however, the Note 5 Pro takes a tad better photographs and exhibits more details and natural colours than the Nokia 6.1 Plus.

The battery life of a smartphone is the main requirement for any user. And here one can clearly make out which device performs better. The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with a large 4000mAh battery, which delivers around one and a half days of battery life, whereas the Nokia 6.1 Plus offers a smaller 3060mAh battery, which only manages to give an entire days stamina. Clearly, the Redmi Note 5 Pro wins brownie points in this section. Do note that the outcome of the test was largely dependent on the usage scenario, which included casual browsing, regular social media apps, music streaming, binge-watching YouTube and much more.

Overall, both the smartphones perform equally good for a value-for-money budget daily driver. However, the Note 5 Pro gives a tad better set of cameras and healthier battery life, while the Nokia offers glamourous glass aesthetics and stock and clean Android UI.

If stock Android, fluid performance and a stylish design is your priority, then the Nokia 6.1 Plus is the one you should pick. However, the Redmi Note 5 Pro performs a tad better in terms of photography and delivers noticeably better battery life a feature-rich MIUI based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Both the phones offer tremendous value for money, but Xiaomi"s Redmi Note 5 Pro trumps Nokia"s 6.1 Plus by a considerable margin.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro has your typical mid-range four-camera setup on the back. There is a high-res 108MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth camera. A single LED flash is also around this quarter, while a single 16MP sits within the screen"s perforation and takes care of your selfies.

The primary camera is the same across all three - it uses a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 1/1.52" sensor with 0.7µm pixels and 24mm f/1.9 lens. The color filter is Nona-Bayer, meaning 9 sensor pixels are combined into one 2.1*µm, and the output resolution is 12MP. PDAF is available. Night Mode is available, too.

The ultrawide camera relies on an 8MP Sony IMX355 sensor behind a 16mm f/2.2 lens. Some units may come with an 8MP OmniVision OV8856 sensor instead of Sony"s IMX355. Either way, the focus is fixed at infinity. Oddly, there is Night Mode here, unlike on the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G"s ultrawide cam.

There"s a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You can use the primary, the ultrawide and even the macro cameras here. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there"s a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option, particularly useful for the macro), and shutter speed (1/4000s to 30s/15s/0.25s for main/ultrawide/macro) and ISO control with range depending on which camera you"re using. A tiny live histogram is available, and a toggle for zebras can be found in the hamburger menu.

Still, these photos are much better than the ones we got from the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G with its identical 108MP camera. It seems the processing is different on the two Redmi Note 11 Pro models, and the 4G version has the better one.

First, if you crop their center and then resize it to 12MP, you will get much better 2x zoom. In fact, this is what lossless zoom could have looked on the Note 11 Pro, if it had the processing power to make it on the go - which it doesn"t, obviously.

It takes time to get used to the fixed focus, and it"s still not guaranteed you will get a sharp photo with accurate focus. We are missing the telemacro camera from the Note 10 Pro and its autofocus quite dearly.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro shoots great portrait photos - the subjects are proficiently separated from the background, well exposed and detailed. The contrast and colors are great. The simulated blur looks nice, and we did like it.

Unlike the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, the 4G model does offer Night Mode for the ultrawide camera. And if for whatever reason you want to use this camera at night, it is a must-use feature.

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Redmi Note 11 Pro. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro supports up to 1080p@30fps video capturing with its primary, ultrawide and selfie cameras. The 2MP macro camera is limited to 720p@30fps.

The Redmi Note 10 Pro and its Snapdragon 732G chipset offered 4K video capturing, while the Helio G96 has no support for such resolution and the new model sure feels like a big downgrade. And while some of our readers doubt the necessity of 4K video capturing on phones with 1080p screens - our experience shows that 4K videos look much better when shown at 1080p resolution, be it on the phone, tablets, PCs, TVs. Meanwhile, the 1080p clips are not always that good, and they look even worse when shown at full resolution.

An affordable dual-SIM 5G phone that compromises on the display and cameras to keep the price low. If you need 5G on a budget, it’s still a great choice.

When you’re on a budget it’s inevitable you’ll have to make compromises in one area or another. When it comes to 5G phones, if the price is low you should expect to find corners cut elsewhere to make the numbers add up.

And so it is with the Redmi Note 10 5G, which at £199/US$199 is one of the cheapest 5G phones you can buy. Unlike the regular Note 10, which has a lovely AMOLED display, the 5G model has to make do with an IPS screen, less RAM and no waterproofing.

The Note 10 is a phone you can’t officially buy in the UK, making it an irrelevant comparison. But it’s there to illustrate the point anyway. Read our full

However, if you must have 5G as the top priority in a phone and you don’t want to increase your budget, the Redmi Note 10 5G is certainly a compelling option. Most phones at this price are still limited to 4G.

Poco used to be a Xiaomi brand sold alongside Redmi, but it split off in January 2021, so the two phones were likely designed alongside each other before that happened.

As Xiaomi said at the phone’s launch, the Note 10 5G is all about its 5G. And that means dual-SIM, dual-standby 5G. You can pop two 5G SIMs into the tray (which stops you from adding a microSD card, by the way) and you can then receive calls and messages on both SIMs.

Of course, while you can get 5G from your carrier, often for the same price as 4G, it’s worth checking whether you have coverage where you live and work. The 5G rollout has been quicker in cities than rural areas, but even in cities, there are still parts where you can’t get a 5G signal.

It’s unusual (but not for Redmi phones) to see a 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio and IR blaster, but it’s a shame that that unlike some of its siblings, the Note 10 5G doesn’t have stereo speakers. You do get Bluetooth 5.1, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and in some regions (including the UK), NFC. This means you can use Google Pay for contactless payments.

Though its 6.5in screen is normal by 2021 standards, this is still a big phone – and a tall one because of its 20:9 aspect ratio and the fact it doesn’t run right to the top and bottom. The central punch-hole camera doesn’t really get in the way and the factory-applied screen protector is a nice touch.

The is because it’s designed specifically for budget 5G phones. It has a 5G modem built-in, as well as enough power to drive 90Hz displays, up to 64Mp cameras and supports UFS 2.2 storage.

Manufacturers don’t have to use all its capabilities, but the Redmi Note 10 5G is notable for taking full advantage of the latter which is faster storage than normal. There are two models to choose between, one with 64GB of storage and one with 128GB. Both have 4GB of RAM.

But as long as you only want to play games casually, the Redmi Note 10 5G will happily oblige. Thanks to Game Turbo, performance is optimised when you’re playing a game and it will adjust settings to ensure the phone doesn’t overheat.

Look at the rear camera module and you can be fooled into thinking the Redmi Note 10 5G is, again, a more expensive phone. But in reality, there’s just one camera with a 48Mp sensor and an f/1.8 lens.

The only disappointment here is the slow ‘fast charging’. The 18W charger in the box is still technically ‘fast’ but not by 2021 standards. A 30-minute charge from empty saw the battery reach 27% and 50% in an hour. But a full charge took well over two hours.

The 4GB+64GB model costs £199 / US$199, and it’s only £10 more for 128GB. This is great value for a 5G phone, but as mentioned, there are now several similarly specified alternatives from Realme (including the new

Xiaomi’s effort in the Redmi Note 10 5G is a good one, but there are plenty of signs that it’s built on a budget. So if you won’t be happy with a screen that has mediocre colours and viewing angles, or decidedly average cameras, then it may not be the best choice for you.

Then again, the alternatives aren’t a whole lot better. The Realme 8 5G may be thinner, lighter and have a 16Mp selfie camera, but it uses the slower UFS 2.1 storage. So tradeoffs are inevitable: it’ll be down to which components you value most that determines which of the bunch is the best.