Here is my full review of the Redmi Note 10 Pro after using it for over 2 months.
Before we begin, let me make one thing very clear, This is the Indian variant of the Redmi Note 10 Pro, and unlike the Note 10 Pro sold elsewhere in the world, this one comes with a 64-megapixel camera.
The one with a 108-megapixel camera is also available in India, but it is called the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. With that taken care of, let us move ahead with this blog.
Table of Contents
Redmi Note 10 Pro Full Specifications
General
| Brand | Xiaomi |
| Model | Redmi Note 10 Pro |
| Price in India | ₹15,999 |
| Release date | 4th March 2021 |
| Launched in India | Yes |
| Form factor | Touchscreen |
| Dimensions (mm) | 164.50 x 76.15 x 8.10 |
| Weight (g) | 192.00 |
| Battery capacity (mAh) | 5050 |
| Fast charging | Proprietary |
| Colours | Dark Night, Glacial Blue, Vintage Bronze |
Display
| Screen size (inches) | 6.67 |
| Touchscreen | Yes |
| Protection type | Gorilla Glass |
Hardware
| Processor | octa-core |
| Processor make | Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Internal storage | 64GB |
| Expandable storage | Yes |
| Expandable storage type | microSD |
| Expandable storage up to (GB) | 512 |
| Dedicated microSD slot | Yes |
Camera
| Rear camera | 64-megapixel (f/1.9, 0.7-micron) + 8-megapixel + 5-megapixel + 2-megapixel |
| No. of Rear Cameras | 4 |
| Rear autofocus | Yes |
| Rear flash | Yes |
| Front camera | 16-megapixel (f/2.45, 1.0-micron) |
| No. of Front Cameras | 1 |
Software
| Operating system | Android 11 |
| Skin | MIUI 12 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Wi-Fi standards supported | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| GPS | Yes |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Infrared | Yes |
| USB Type-C | Yes |
| Headphones | 3.5mm |
| Number of SIMs | 2 |
| SIM 1 | |
| SIM Type | Nano-SIM |
| GSM/CDMA | GSM |
| 3G | Yes |
| 4G/ LTE | Yes |
| Supports 4G in India (Band 40) | Yes |
| SIM 2 | |
| SIM Type | Nano-SIM |
| GSM/CDMA | GSM |
| 3G | Yes |
| 4G/ LTE | Yes |
| Supports 4G in India (Band 40) | Yes |
Sensors
| Fingerprint sensor | Yes |
| Compass/ Magnetometer | Yes |
| Proximity sensor | Yes |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| Ambient light sensor | Yes |
| Gyroscope | Yes |
Redmi announced 3 variants of this phone.
The 6GB RAM and 64GB variant is priced at Rs.15,999 and Redmi finally made it available for sale after 2 whole months.
The 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant, which is the one I have, is available for Rs.16,999. And I think this variant gives you the most value for your money.
And finally, there is the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and it retails for Rs.18,999.
Even though the Redmi Note 10 Pro comes with a dedicated MicroSD card slot, I think you should choose the 128GB storage variant if you plan to use this phone for 2 years or more.
I really like the size of this phone, and in the last 2 months, I have appreciated its size and build quality even more.
Even though this phone packs in the same display and battery as the Redmi Note 9 Pro, Redmi was able to make it narrower, shorter, thinner, and lighter as well. And all of this, while not compromising on the build quality or materials.
I really like how this phone feels in my hands.
The frame running around is made of plastic, but it is painted to look like metal.
And front and back of the phone are made of glass, and the front is protected by gorilla glass 5.
It’s even more impressive, that the back gets a frosted matte finish.
This is only on the Bronze and Blue colors phones, Black colored one gets a glossy glass back.
Redmi is one of the only companies giving glass back phones in this price range, while most of the others are still using plastic for the back.
I think by now you all can guess that I am very impressed with the build quality of this phone.
If you give this phone in someone’s hand who doesn’t know how much it costs and ask them to guess the price, they would definitely say it costs upwards of 23 or 25 thousand. It looks and feels THAT premium.
If there is something that I don’t like about the design, then it is how far this camera module sticks out.
Even with the case on, the phone rattles if you try to use it when placed on any flat surface. Other than that, I have no issue with the design of this phone.
Redmi has also made sure to include all the ports and sensors that most people expect to get on a phone in this price range.
It gets the 3.5mm headphone jack, and IR blaster which many people love and use to control various gadgets in their home, and it even gets stereo speakers.
Add to it the SIM tray which can hold 2 nano-SIM cards and a MicroSD card at the same time, and you will find very little to complain about the build or design of this phone.
It even gets an IP53 splash and dust resistance rating.
Continuing the list of amazing features, Note 10 Pro comes with a gorgeous 6.67 inch Super AMOLED display, 2400x1080p resolution, peak brightness of 1200 nits, 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch Sampling Rate, and HDR 10 support.
This is one of the good AMOLED panels and it doesn’t feel cheap.
Since it is SuperAMOLED, colors look punchy and vibrant. Blacks are deep, and they can get very bright so you won’t have any issues viewing them in most outdoor lighting situations.
Now the peak brightness rating of this display is 1200 nits, but you can’t reach it by just moving the brightness slider to max.
To reach peak brightness levels, you have to view HDR content at maximum brightness. Otherwise, the typical peak brightness of the display for normal conditions is 450nits.
Some people have reported screen flickering at low brightness levels or when in dark mode. Xiaomi also acknowledged this issue, but they said that a very very small number of devices are affected by this, and they are working on a fix for it.
Fortunately, there is no such issue with my Note 10 Pro.
There is Widewine L1 support, so you can view higher resolution content on Amazon, Netflix, and other streaming services. So if you like binge-watching content, you are going to love this phone for its display.
Honestly, I am surprised at how Redmi managed to pack in such a wonderful display in a phone which starts at just over 15K rs because, at this price, this is the best display you will find on any phone right now.
You do get an Always-on display option and you can choose from quite a few things which you would like to display when the screen is off. But although this mode is called always-on display, it doesn’t always stay on.
It comes on for 10 seconds when you move or tap the phone and then it goes off. I would have liked the option to dim it and have it on all the time.
Since it’s an AMOLED display, I don’t think it would consume a lot of battery.
I have used this phone in 120Hz mode since the beginning and other than for the first week or so, I did not face any major stuttering or lagging issues.
It is super smooth while scrolling, or while playing games, but occasionally I see a few frame drops when I switch between apps. This is not a major issue, and I am sure most people won’t even notice it. But I did, so I thought I will mention it here.
The fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone is placed on the side, and I like this physical fingerprint sensor over the in-display ones on other phones in this price range. Quite simply because it is very fast and accurate.
I have had no issues with it, and for me, it has been working 10 out of 10 times.
The earpiece speaker above the display is clear and it can also get pretty loud if you find yourself in a noisy environment. The stereo speakers are also good, they sound deep and can get very loud.
I won’t call them the best speakers on any phone or anything like that, but for this particular price range, they sure are one the best sounding pair of stereo speakers.
Audio via the headphone jack is also very nice. So if you pair this phone with good or even decent sounding earphones, you can get good audio out of them and an overall good listing experience.
The Redmi Note 10 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 732G processor, and coupling that with Adreno 618 GPU, you get a very good performance out of this phone.
It can open and run all the apps and games that you can throw at it.
Everyday apps run like a breeze, and after 1 or 2 updates, RAM management has also got a lot better.
I remember when I first got this phone, it could only keep 4 to 5 apps open in the background, but now it has no problem keeping 10 or even more in its memory.
You might want to play the more graphics-intensive games at medium settings because, at the highest settings, you might see a few frame drops, which might come in the way of smooth gameplay.
And at the highest settings, the phone also gets a bit warm after long hours of gaming sessions. It doesn’t overheat like the OnePlus 9 Pro or anything like that, but it does get a bit warm.
If you are looking for a gaming phone with better performance, you might want to look at the POCO X3 Pro, because it performs better while playing games.
For most people, I think this Redmi Note 10 Pro can do everything that they could throw at it.
It was running MIUI 12 out of the box, and I have got a few updates and right now it is on MIUI 12.5.1 to be precise.
MIUI gives you a lot of customization options and features like gaming mode, dual apps, split-screen, dark mode, and so on, but it also shows you ads and/or vague notifications, and promoter apps every now and then.
It also comes with a lot of bloatware, some of which you cannot uninstall. I think MIUI is the biggest downside of this Redmi Note 10 Pro or most of the other Redmi and Xiaomi phones.
Redmi needs to make it lighter, stutter-free and somehow get rid of the spam notifications and let us delete all the apps that we want to. That might make the MIUI experience a bit better.
You get all the features like carrier aggregation, native video calling, wifi calling, call recording via google dialer, and so on.
Right now, everything or most of the things on this phone are very good. But honestly, I can’t say whether or things will remain the same in the future.
Redmi has a very bad reputation and track record of ruining very good phones with software updates, a few months or years down the line.
Take any of their phones Redmi Note 5 Pro, Note 6 Pro, Note 7 Pro, or even the Note 8 Pro, these were very good phones at the time, but Redmi has ruined them with software updates over time.
I just hope the same thing doesn’t happen to this phone. What I like to do is, for the first 6 months after getting the phone, I install all the software updates as and when they come. But after that, I don’t install new updates right away.
I wait for a few weeks to install them.
At that time, other people who install them made it clear online whether or not we should update them. I suggest you do the same.
One of the reasons that you are considering this phone might be its cameras. The cameras on this phone are very good.
I just feel there is a bit extra contrast in the images from its main camera, so the shadows are crushed in these shots. And it captures a bit warmer images compared to the actual scene, which depending on your color preference, you may or may not like.
These things could be easily fixed with updates or you could fix them in editing.
Or better yet, you could also use Gcam with it, and this phone will take much better images in all lighting conditions.
The wide camera is more or less similar to other phones in this price range.
It is not bad, but it isn’t too good either.
It can take good portrait shots, but the dynamic range could and should have been better while taking portraits.
The macro lens on this phone is one of the best. You can get so close to your subject and thanks to the 5-megapixel sensor behind this lens, these macro shots have a very good amount of details.
Low light performance is average at best, both with and without the night mode turned on. I mean it is better than the Realme 8 Pro’s low light performance, but I think it should have been slightly better.
All I would say, the cameras on this phone are again the best in its price range.
If you like to take most of your images in the daytime, or if you like to take portraits or macro shots, you will love these cameras.
Coming to the battery. There is a 5020mAh battery inside this phone, and I found it to be perfectly adequate to comfortably take me through the day and then some.
Typically I get a screen on time of anything between 6 and a half to 8 hours, by the time I connect it to the charger.
In the beginning, I had some battery draining issues when the phone was sitting idle, but this was fixed with a software update.
The most it drains is while playing demanding games. Overall I am happy with the battery life of this phone.
When it’s time to charge this phone, it does come with a 33-watt fast charger in the box.
For some reason, People are having different charging times with this charger.
For some people, this charger will take their phone from 0-100% in around 90 minutes, but for others and for me, it takes around 110 minutes or 1 hour and 50 minutes to completely charge it.
If you have this phone, please let us know in the comments, how long it takes to go from 0 to 100% with the included charger.
After looking at all these things, I feel like the Redmi Note 10 Pro is the best phone that most people can get for under Rs.20,000.
Surely it does come with some issues like minor stutters or lag while switching between apps, the low light performance of the cameras is not the best, charging speed is behind the competition, and MIUI is not as refined as it should be.
But despite all these things, you get many things that the comparison just doesn’t provide at this price range.
Like the superior build quality with Glass at the front and back, Frosted matte glass back, SuperAMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, Good stereo speakers, good vibration motor, best cameras in the price range, very good performance, and amazing battery life.
I think all these things make the Redmi Note 10 Pro, THE best mid-budget phone that you can get right now.
There is the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max 108 megapixel camera, but it costs Rs.3000 more than this one, and to be honest, in real life, if you don’t compare the side of the image by side, you can’t tell which is from a 64-megapixel camera and which is from a 108 megapixel one.
So my honest opinion is, get the Redmi Note 10 Pro and save yourself some money.
Well, these have been my thoughts about the Redmi Note 10 Pro. What do you think about it let me know in the comments.
Great job, excellent review 👌 I was just waiting for this review. I was just confused to buy pro or pro max. but now it’s cleared for me after reading this blog, I am gonna buy Redmi note 10 pro 😉👍
I just bought Redmi note 10 Pro & I’m in love with this phone. Thanks
I also have the same red I note 10 pro in White colour. It really feels premium.
Redmi Note 10 Pro is really great in terms of performance in it’s range, but it lacks in Camera. The camera doesn’t produce Vibrant images as other Competitors provides like real me, oppo etc . The camera could be improved.
Awesome phone in this price range.Totally value for money. Best budget phone, Go for it.
The best part of this device is It’s Display. I think I have used almost 15+ mobiles in my life till now. Before this redmi n10 pro, I was using realme xt mobile. And honestly, It’s the best Display Of My All Experience. I loved it 😍😘