Which Xiaomi smartphone to choose?

The Redmi line from Xiaomi is primarily aimed at young people who are not ready to pay a lot of money, but at the same time they want to get modern chips from a smartphone like a dual camera, a back panel with gradient coloring or fast charging, This is the new Redmi 7 smartphone. Taking into account the price of $ 120, Redmi actually has one competitor for the title of the best low-cost smartphone of 2019 — Samsung Galaxy A10 32GB 32 GB / 2 GB . Chinese smartphones from unpopular brands with a dubious reputation do not count.

According to the hardware , the picture is as follows: an old Snapdragon 632, an Adreno 506 video chip, 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in storage with support for memory cards. On the one hand, the equipment is not the most powerful, on the other hand, it fully corresponds to the spirit of the times: 3 GB of RAM allows you to run applications in batches and keep a bunch of open tabs in the browser, and Snapdragon 632 provides decent system speed. After all, this is a mid-level chip rather than a state employee.

The low-cost of the smartphone is manifested rather in the camera and screen. The dual module snaps good shots during the day in good light, but it is expected to merge in poor light. Although, in comparison with other low-cost smartphones, the Redmi 7 camera is impressive. The screen here is quite good: 6.26", IPS, quite natural colour reproduction and a good supply of brightness. But the resolution is only 1520x720 pixels. If you switch to Redmi 7 after the device with FullHD resolution, the graininess will immediately catch your eye. Plus, there are traditional screen settings from MIUI: a separate reading mode, changing the colour rendering, zooming and waking up with a double touch.

The manufacturer also pleased potential buyers with a separate slot for a memory card and two SIM cards, a fingerprint scanner and a long-lasting 4000 mAh battery with a fast charging function. But the use of outdated microUSB was a little frustrating, but USB-C is still a rare guest in the low-cost segment. There is no NFC here, as well as most state employees. Therefore, it is better to look for another model for contactless payments.

Most smartphone manufacturers are innovating mainly in flagship models. And the middle class, usually, gets the leftovers from the master's table. In contrast, Xiaomi is tightly developing the market of inexpensive smartphones, luring potential buyers not only with low prices, but also with interesting chips. They were the first to supply their low-cost devices with fast charging, screens with teardrop-shaped cutouts and back covers with fashionable gradient coloring.

So the new Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro has become the first smartphone in the world to use the brand new 64-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 camera sensor. It has a resolution of 64 MP with the same pixel size as the previous 48-megapixel model — 0.8 microns. This means that the novelty has larger physical dimensions and is able to capture more light, which should have a good effect on the quality of the shooting. In total, there are four modules in the main camera: a 64 MP sensor is complemented by an 8-megapixel wide-angle object, a 2-megapixel depth sensor and the same camera for macro photography.

But that's not all. The middle segment is now frankly overheated (thanks to Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung) and it is impossible to imagine just a good phone here, since it will immediately get lost. Therefore, the Redmi Note 8 Pro received a huge 6.53-inch IPS display with Full HD+ resolution and excellent colour reproduction, a MediaTek Helio G90T gaming processor with a liquid cooling system, 6 GB of RAM, an NFC module for contactless payments and a capacious 4500 mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging.

In fact, the Chinese have turned out such a near-flagship device without any weaknesses, but with a very tempting price tag of $ 250. The only thing is that it's still a phablet with a huge screen — it's big and weighty, so before buying, we advise you to hold it in your hands and evaluate how convenient it will be for you to use it.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is essentially the European version of the recent novelty Xiaomi Mi CC9 64 GB / 6 GB . However, it has several improvements. For example, the device received an 8 MP wide-angle camera, whereas the CC9 has a resolution of 8 MP. The main module has a resolution of 48 MP, and the depth sensor is equipped with a 2-megapixel image sensor. If we let go of the technical details, then the triple camera shoots a little better than the Xiaomi CC9, but the difference is insignificant. In general, the level of photos is much higher than average, but without frills.

Externally, the smartphone looks like most and is unlikely to surprise with its design. The case of the device is glass, the fingerprint scanner is built into the display, the volume and power buttons are on the right side of the device. On top of the screen there is a teardrop-shaped cutout for the front camera. And instead of the familiar back cover with a gradient colour, the company's designers used textured glass, the texture of which differs depending on the colour of the smartphone. And the Xiaomi logo on the back of the device starts to glow when notifications come to the device. It looks at least unusual.

The diagonal of the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite display is 6.39", the resolution is 2340 x 1080 pixels, the matrix of the AMOLED class. The official website of the company says that the maximum brightness level of the smartphone screen at its peak is 600 nits, in normal mode — 430 nits. Because of this, the brightness slider even indoors has to be constantly unscrewed by 70 — 80 percent. We have no other complaints about the display, it looks great.

The filling of the smartphone corresponds to its class: it is based on the Snapdragon 710 processor, which is complemented by 6 GB of RAM and the Adreno 616 video chip. At the beginning of 2019, it was flagship-level hardware, but now such equipment is also available for medium-level devices. Therefore, there is no need to talk about a lack of performance here: in AnTuTu, the smartphone fills about 180K points and easily turns most modern toys. For example, Call of Duty Mobile on Mi 9 Lite flies at high graphics settings without slowing down and FPS subsidence.

The smartphone also received a front-facing camera with a resolution of 32 MP, a 4030 mAh battery with fast charging support (18 W power), an NFC module and a MIUI 10 shell based on Android 9 Pie. The upgrade to Android 10 is promised in early 2020. The fingerprint scanner is built into the screen and works fine. That is, it is quite comfortable to use it, but a traditional scanner on the back side would work faster. Well, it's bad that the SIM card slot is hybrid, and not dual as in most of the company's models.

Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro is actually a premium smartphone with powerful hardware, NFC, fast charging and a "tasty" non—flagship price tag below $400. Its main feature is a completely frameless AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 6.4". There are no bangs or teardrop-shaped cutouts here. Where to put the front camera? It was made extendable, as it was already in some Vivo and Huawei models. It moves out quickly and has protection from accidental falls and damage. According to Xiaomi, the mechanism is designed for 300,000 opening and closing cycles.

The frameless display visually looks very good, does not go blind in the sun, boasts rich colour reproduction, high contrast and HDR support. According to subjective feelings, the quality here is no worse than the displays in more expensive flagship models from competitors. But it is difficult to say something about appearance, frameless displays have deprived any reasoning on this topic of meaning. Therefore, we note only a nice textured glass back cover. Each colour variant has its own texture: carbon in the black model, haze in the blue, etc. It looks more interesting than the gradient colour, which has become very familiar over the past year.

The Redmi K20 Pro is powered by the top Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, which boasts factory overclocking, Wi-Fi version 5 support and the ability to record 4K HDR video. It is complemented by Adreno 640 graphics, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of built-in storage. In general, the filling is quite a flagship, and there is only a slot for a memory card missing here. Although, with such a volume of memory, it is not particularly needed. But there is NFC and aptX HD. As for the camera, everything is fine, but not great. Somewhere at the level of Huawei P20 64 GB . Not "great" because the triple camera often misses at night and in a room with poor lighting.

If you look for flaws, then the main problem of the Redmi K20 Pro is unlocking the smartphone. The fact is that to bring it out of sleep mode, there is a simple face unlock using the front camera, and a fingerprint scanner mounted in the screen. In the first case, you need to wait until the front-end comes out, in the second, not the fastest scanner will work yet. Anyway, you have to wait a few seconds. If you unlock your smartphone 50 times a day or often use contactless payments, it can be decently annoying. Well, for this money I would like a full-fledged stereo speaker. Although, this is not so much a minus as our wishlist.

In 2019, there was a tectonic shift in the smartphone market, mid-level models can do almost everything the same as flagships. And flagship smartphones don't have to cost $1,000. Presented in November 2019, the Mi Note 10 Pro is the best confirmation of this, it is a smartphone with an excellent screen, flagship hardware, a top-end camera for 5 modules and an official price tag of $ 500.

Let's start with the camera, because we haven't seen this yet — a smartphone for $500 received 121 points for photo and video capabilities from the authoritative DxOMark resource, in fact becoming the best camera phone on the market. 121 points is more than Samsung Galaxy Note10 Plus 256 GB Price from 14 446 up to 16 614 ₴ or Apple iPhone Xs Max 64 GB Price from 12 089 up to 25 891 ₴ and on the same level with the top Huawei Mate 30 Pro 128 GB / 5G ! And all these beauties cost at least twice as much. DxOMark specialists noted the excellent zoom and autofocus, good detail and praised the gorgeous night shots taken with four flashes at once.

By the way, the camera of the Mi Note 10 Pro is not quite ordinary: instead of three or four modules, there are five of them at once. The first Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor boasts a resolution of 108 MP, an f/1.7 aperture and four-axis stabilization (OIS). It is complemented by a 12 MP TV speaker with 5x optical, as well as 10 or 50x hybrid zoom. Next comes a depth sensor for portrait photos with a resolution of 5 MP, a 20 MP wide object with a coverage angle of 117 degrees and a 2 MP macro lens with a focal length of 1.5 cm.

Everything else matches the camera and the overall top level: The device received a glass case with metal frames and a curved 6.47-inch OLED display. It has a teardrop-shaped cutout with a 32 MP front camera, as well as Full HD+ resolution and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The screen supports HDR and DCI-P3 colour space. A gaming 8-nanometer Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor is installed under the hood of the device. It comes paired with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of built-in storage. The cherry on the cake was a reinforced 5260 mAh battery with fast 30-watt charging (from 0 to 100% in 65 minutes).

Against the background of all that has been said, it's even kind of awkward to look for cons. Yes, most likely the price at the start of sales will be higher than the stated $ 500, but as it usually happens, in a few months it will return to normal.