Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro: This year's ruler of value-for-money smartpho

Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro: Ο φετινός κυρίαρχος των value-for-money smartphones - iThinksmart.gr

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Now that we've reached the heart of the holidays, it's time to talk about one of the top smartphones we've got our hands on this year, with the top designation going to the overall combination of performance, looks and price. The reason for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro , which was presented in Thailand at the end of September and has since found its way to Western markets through Asian online stores. One of them, Gearvita , did us the honor of making it available to us for the needs of this presentation, and now we can share our impressions with you.

But before we move on to the analysis, it is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is the first with dual front and rear cameras for this mid-range category, and that it has developed into one of Xiaomi's strongest best sellers for 2018.

Construction - Design

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro comes with a modern look characterized by curved corners, an ultra-wide 19:9 ratio screen coated with Gorilla Glass 2.5D and a relatively heavy chassis that some find annoying, some find it convenient. I personally think that 176gr is not enough to be called "heavy", while the distribution of this weight has been done correctly so that you can manage it with one hand without it slipping easily. The long and narrow construction also makes it easy to carry and fit in your pocket, while also leaving a premium feel due to the combination of glass and metal.

Screen

The company has chosen a 6.26'' IPS LCD panel with FHD+ resolution and 19:9 aspect ratio. The eye naturally automatically goes to the notch at the top, which houses the dual front camera, various sensors and the earpiece. Compared to other smartphones, the notch is smaller, but whether it bothers or not depends on the user's taste. Those who cannot tolerate it have the option to hide the notch from the settings. The color performance is satisfactory, the image is clear and pleasant both during gaming and when watching multimedia, but we would definitely like it to be brighter, especially in bright light conditions (during the day).

Hardware - Performance - Battery

Inside the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro we find the mid-range 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor built with the 14nm scale architecture together with the Adreno 509 GPU graphics processor. Multitasking and gaming at good levels, without getting into "hard cores of long hours of gaming or many demands." In this particular area it is true that we put the brakes on the requirements ourselves because we had in our hands the inferior version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space.

We imagine that the versions with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and more storage space "blow" more, but this does not mean that the combination of 3GB + 32GB is a problem. For purely psychological reasons, however, we would pay €20-30 more for a more powerful version.

What cannot be disputed, however, is the fact that it "flies" in terms of autonomy. This is due both to the processor (proper energy consumption management), and to the 4000mAh battery which is more than enough to get you through at least a day without even thinking about whether you need to charge it. It charges to 100% in 100 minutes and here we would like a little better performance, but you can't have it all at such a low price. Be careful, however, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro supports the Quick Charge 3.0 protocol, but the company has chosen to include a 10W charger in the box. So if you want faster times you could invest in a faster QC 3.0 compatible charger.

In terms of connectivity, we are complete with dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, FM radio, IR, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou and 4G LTE, while it has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Its speaker, however, is average and the fingerprint sensor could also be better (not that it's bad of course...).

Software

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro arrived in our hands with the previous version of the MIUI operating system, but along the way it was upgraded to MIUI 10.4, which of course is also based on Android 8.1 Oreo. So, we expect to see Android 9.0 Pie on this as well, since our company is used to regularly upgrading the user interface to the latest versions of the Android OS.

As far as MIUI is concerned, we have said it dozens of times in previous reviews of Xiaomi smartphones. Clean, fast and generally seems to combine the best of Android OS and iOS, but lately it's started to look stagnant. Quite a few pre-installed tools - apps, which sometimes spam you with notifications, but if you get used to the gesture system and shortcuts then you'll be playing your device...with your fingers doing everything quickly. However, he wants an adjustment period especially for rookies.

Camera

On the camera front, the Redmi Note 6 Pro retains the layout and sensors of its predecessor, except this time the main 12MP sensor is a Samsung ISOCELL with an f/1.9 aperture lens and is accompanied by a 5MP f/2.0 sensor for stills depth of field. Like any self-respecting company, Xiaomi boasts about its AI performance in shooting with 32 scene recognition, but the results are exactly what you'd expect from a €150 device. Decent in good lighting conditions, especially if you view the photos on a smartphone screen, and average in low light conditions. Everything you need to capture your everyday moments, but under no circumstances could it be used as your main camera on a trip.

Regarding the dual front camera, here too we have a Samsung ISOCELL main sensor, this time 20MP whose pixels are combined in quads to create a single 1.8μm size for greater light intake. It is accompanied by a 2MP sensor for taking depth of field shots and setting up beautiful portraits, while on the plus side we also note the Auto HDR mode which is automatically activated depending on the conditions for taking selfies. Video capture is limited to Full HD resolution, but at least there is electronic image stabilization for decent quality.

Conclusions

Xiaomi has been established for years as the "queen" of value-for-money smartphones. It is by far the most reliable company in the category of smartphones costing up to €250 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is without a doubt one of its top proposals.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro