Two-minute assessment
The Xiaomi Redmi 10 is a price range 4G Android telephone whose highlights usually are not initially what they could seem like.
Xiaomi has intentionally constructed up the Redmi 10’s digicam housing to make it appear superior, however the digicam array you get right here is definitely mediocre at finest. Whereas its major digicam has 50 megapixels to its title, the outcomes are inconsistent and infrequently all that fairly.
The actual robust factors are the stereo audio system, even when sound high quality isn’t exceptional, strong battery life, and a decently sharp display. As such, the Redmi 10 is not as simple to suggest as some actual Xiaomi hits of the final 12 months or so, just like the improbable Xiaomi Redmi Observe 10 Professional or Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC.
The enchantment can also be barely undermined by the quite a few gross sales Xiaomi has held that see strong telephones just like the Redmi Observe 9 Professional promote for a lot much less.
Motorola’s Moto G50 is a worthy various too. It typically prices barely extra and it has a lower-resolution display, however its software program is superior, the battery life even higher, and it has 5G and a quicker chipset.
We shouldn’t overlook one of many key attracts of shopping for a price range Xiaomi telephone, although. The Redmi 10 has a Full HD show, at a value for which a number of of the opposite large names solely provide 720p screens. It makes a big distinction, even whether it is one thing you’re taking as a right quite shortly after switching from a 720p telephone.
Xiaomi Redmi 10 launch date and value
- Out now
- Begins at $179/£149 (round AU$270)
The Redmi 10 by Xiaomi launched in August 2021, arriving somewhat greater than a 12 months after the Redmi 9.
This telephone is costlier than its predecessor, at $179/£149 (round AU$270) with 64GB of storage or $199/£199 (roughly AU$365) with 128GB of storage, with the latter being the mannequin reviewed right here. Some areas additionally get a model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM (up from 4GB) for $219 (roughly £160 / AU$290).
The pricing is accessible, however do not forget it is a 4G-only telephone. There’s no 5G cell web, which is on the market in telephones of an analogous value at this level.
Design
- Mid-size Android, smaller than a lot of the Xiaomi siblings
- Plastic design dressed as much as appear like glass and steel
- A shift from a teardrop notch to a punch-hole
The Redmi 10’s design is an effective instance of ‘faking it’. It is a idea we have talked about earlier than. Plenty of all-plastic telephones are dressed up like higher-end ones, with the intention to look like steel and glass designs.
Xiaomi has gone somewhat additional this time, utilizing a digicam housing design far bigger and extra elaborate-looking than the straightforward strip seen within the Redmi 9. The Redmi 10’s again actually does appear like glass. The digicam actually does appear like it’d belong on a $1,000/£1,000 telephone.
It is all a sham, after all. The Redmi 10’s again is plastic, and makes use of a metallic-looking shade gradient beneath to class-up its look. We’ll get onto the digicam later, however an enormous chunk of it’s only a black border that really sits within the rear end, and has nothing to do with the digicam itself in any respect.
The Redmi 10 has painted-on cheekbones. However does it matter? When you flashed us the telephone’s again and instructed us it price $450, we’d consider you. We will respect a telephone that may idiot buddies into pondering you spent extra. It is high-quality so long as you are not the one fooled while you come to purchase a Redmi 10.
In different phrases, keep on studying to be taught extra concerning the Xiaomi Redmi 10’s budget-related limitations.
There are some much less misleading components to the design. The Redmi 9 had a teardrop notch, the Redmi 10 has a punch-hole, which appears extra fashionable to most eyes.
Display borders are typical of a less expensive Android, however usually are not extreme, and the Redmi 10 is rather a lot simpler to deal with than another Xiaomi telephones. Most of the firm’s inexpensive strains use ultra-large shows that add considerably to a telephone’s width. The Redmi 10 is 75.5mm extensive, much like a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.
You get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for safe unlocking, and whereas there’s a barely longer pause whereas it really works than some top-end telephones, it’s a dependable pad. The Xiaomi Redmi 10 additionally has an IR blaster, which is one thing you solely are inclined to see in choose Chinese language telephones today.
An IR blaster sends out the identical indicators as traditional TV distant controls, utilizing a Mi Distant app. It turns the Redmi 10 right into a common distant. We could not really get it to work, testing with an LG TV, a Planar projector and an Anthem AV receiver. However you will have higher luck. It could be disabled in our gadget’s firmware for some cause.
Show
- 6.5-inch 1080p LCD
- 90Hz refresh fee with 60Hz battery saver mode
- Honest 445-nit brightness turbo mode for outside
The Xiaomi Redmi 10’s display is among the stronger components of the telephone, though primarily towards rival manufacturers quite than different Xiaomi Androids you would possibly purchase.
At this inexpensive stage, Samsung and Motorola each use 720p screens with a decrease pixel density than the Redmi 10’s. This 6.5-inch display may be very sharp. Pixel density of round 405 pixels per inch is improbable for a telephone this low-cost.
Coloration saturation is nice too though we do suggest tweaking it a bit. Recent out of the field the Redmi 10’s shade temperature was somewhat too cool, doubtless used as a option to make it seem to ‘pop’ a bit extra.
Set the colour temperature to ‘heat’, or swap from the Vivid to Normal mode, to provide the show a extra relaxed, inviting look. We additionally discovered, as with so many telephones, that the default wallpaper actually would not exhibit the colour all that properly. Just a few little alterations in and it went from trying first rate to wonderful.
The Redmi 10 is a 90Hz telephone however this ability wasn’t enabled as normal. You’ll be able to select both 60Hz or 90Hz modes, and the quicker one makes Android menus seem to scroll extra easily.
This is not a super-clever display that modifications refresh fee as required, dipping down on static screens, however it’ll drop all the way down to 60Hz for apps that do not make use of a better refresh fee, like Netflix.
This is among the higher shows you will discover on the value. However it’s not good. It’s an LCD, so blacks will not seem good in darkish rooms. We do not suppose that is actually a problem. Brightness is likely to be, although. The Redmi 10 can attain 445 nits outside in shiny daylight. Whereas that is high-quality for an inexpensive telephone, it’s lower than the 600+ you will get from the Redmi Observe 10 Professional.
We seen this when taking pictures exterior. This sort of display brightness doesn’t make the preview picture seem all that clear in direct daylight.
Cameras
- 50MP major sensor is okay at finest, usually poor
- 1080p 30fps unstabilized video is weak
- Poor ultra-wide and tertiary cameras
The Xiaomi Redmi 10’s digicam is its most misleading space. It appears and sounds superior. The digicam array looks as if the photographic equal of a Swiss military knife from a look, and it has a 50MP sensor.
Dangerous information: the place telephones at this stage usually have one first rate digicam and a bunch of duds, the Redmi 10 has no good cameras. Till now we have solely actually had high-quality 50MP cameras in telephones, like these of the Oppo Discover X3 Professional. However Samsung, because it has carried out a number of occasions previously, lowers the tone with the S5KJN1 sensor seen right here.
An incredible instance of why extra megapixels is usually dangerous information, this sensor suits 50 million pixels into a really small 1/2.76-inch chip. So the place the Oppo Discover X3 Professional has sensor pixels of 1 micron measurement, these are 0.64 microns. They’re among the tiniest pixels seen in a telephone digicam.
We solely dug this data up after going out on a number of shoots with the Redmi 10, having witnessed all of the unfavourable results we’d normally affiliate with such tiny photosites, and questioning why.
The Redmi 10’s dynamic vary is dangerous. The HDR mode can attempt to disguise this to some extent, but it surely too is defective, generally refusing to have interaction (when utilizing HDR Auto) and usually pumping out extremely inconsistent outcomes. And there is solely a lot you are able to do to cover the deficiencies of a crappy sensor with software-based enhancement.
HDR modes usually merge a number of exposures so very shiny and darkish components of the scene will be captured in a single body and look correctly resolved. Whereas the Redmi 10 has a crack at this, when HDR works, the shadow/darker components of the image usually appear like porridge. Any pure textures change into fuzzy and obscure, as if captured by a weak selfie digicam quite than a major digicam.
Coloration replica is poor in lower than strong lighting, and when the Redmi 10 tries to assist issues by making use of shade filters to sunsets, the outcomes not often match what your eyes understand.
Night time-time pictures look dangerous whether or not you utilize the Night time mode or not. It brightens up pictures a bit, however pictures stay noisy and are sometimes much less warm-looking than these taken with the Auto mode.
The worst outcomes are maybe in mid-level lighting, when taking pictures indoors or underneath tree cowl. Photos look comfortable, vague, and muddy tracks that ought to look brown change into purple.
Subsequent to a barely older telephone you should purchase at an analogous value (albeit the lesser storage model), the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, the Redmi 10’s major digicam is dismal. Video clips taken with the telephone may also usually end up unusable as a result of there isn’t a stabilization.
In a telephone at this stage we don’t count on high-end video options like stabilized 4K and 120fps slow-mo, however the Redmi 10 is proscribed to 1080p, 30 frames per second seize. And even at this lowly seize fee it could possibly’t handle digital/software program stabilization.
It’s not not possible to take good pictures with the Xiaomi Redmi 10. You’ll find a number of on this assessment’s photograph gallery that look simply high-quality. However Xiaomi doesn’t make it simple.
We’ve nonetheless solely simply lined the telephone’s first digicam. The 8MP ultra-wide is nearer to what we have anticipated in a price range telephone. It’s a low-end OmniVision digicam with softer pictures and restricted dynamic vary.
Sky gradients usually look unrealistic, and clipped highlights in clouds are to be anticipated. The Redmi 10’s picture sign processor (ISP), the brains behind the digicam, doesn’t appear to be so scorching.
The opposite two cameras are filler items, typical of lower-end telephones. There is a 2MP depth sensor, used within the Portrait mode to allow you to seize pictures with a blurred-out background. The final digicam is a 2MP macro that, like all 2MP macro cameras, takes very poor footage. An 8MP selfie digicam sits on the entrance and is unremarkable.
If you’d like a superb digicam, the Redmi 10 is just not the plain alternative. Plenty of 12MP, 13MP, 16MP and 48MP cameras will outperform this telephone’s 50MP one.
Digital camera samples
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Software program
- Has an unusually annoying model of MIUI
- Android 11 core software program
- Some minor lag
The Xiaomi Redmi 10 is an Android 11 telephone and makes use of Xiaomi’s MIUI 12.5 interface. And it’s a quite annoying model of this software program.
You’ll be able to select whether or not to have an app drawer or not. Some could not just like the stylistic decisions of the settings menu, but it surely’s hardly price getting upset over. Nevertheless, the Redmi 10’s drop-down is just not useful.
In a traditional tackle Android, you swipe down as soon as to open up your notifications bar. You swipe once more to entry brightness controls and have toggles. The Redmi 10 takes a distinct method, utilizing the best aspect of the display for characteristic toggles, and the left for notifications.
It’s a dangerous thought.
This feels clunky for one-handed use, as a result of it’s important to attain over fairly far to tug down your notifications. Xiaomi doesn’t use this method in all its Androids. The Poco X3 Professional has standard gestures: one swipe down for notifications and quick-access toggles, two for extra entry to settings.
The Xiaomi Redmi 10 looks like an actual step backwards. Will you get used to it? Most likely. However we nonetheless discover it very annoying after per week.
Normal efficiency of the Redmi 10 is okay, with some frequent caveats that include an entry-level CPU. There are some brief waits while you load an app that has not been sitting within the cache, as a result of it was used a second in the past. And there’s some minor lag within the interface usually.
Nevertheless, most of it’s minimal sufficient that we barely registered it after a number of days of use.
Gaming and efficiency
- One of many weaker telephones for gaming on the value
- Stereo audio system, however they’re lopsided in output
- Barely an improve over the last-gen Redmi 9
The Xiaomi Redmi 10 does have some extra apparent points with gaming, significantly when in comparison with a barely costlier barnstormer just like the Xiaomi Poco X3 Professional.
This telephone has a MediaTek Helio G88, a low-end processor made for 4G telephones. You would possibly examine it to one thing just like the Snapdragon 662 used within the Moto G30.
Even with the top-end model of the Redmi 10, with 6GB of RAM, you’ll be able to’t run Fortnite. Epic Video games received’t even allow you to set up it. ARK: Survival Developed runs fairly poorly at larger graphics settings and Asphalt 9’s body fee noticeably slows down in busier moments. That recreation’s busier moments usually arrive a number of occasions in a 10-second window.
The hole in gaming efficiency between this and the Xiaomi Poco X3 Professional is huge contemplating the pretty small value disparity.
This telephone does have stereo audio system, which is sweet for gaming. Nevertheless, we weren’t all that impressed once we fired up Asphalt 9 because the output may be very uneven. The underside speaker is a lot louder than the one on the highest of the telephone that it barely looks like a stereo array.
Often stereo arrays like this have one speaker a lot bassier/heavier sounding than the opposite, however roughly match up higher-frequency output to offer a way of L/R channel steadiness.
There’s much less mid-range and ‘bass’ (no telephones have actual bass) than within the Poco X3 Professional too, though it passes the take a look at of creating podcasts audible when you have a bathe. Most quantity is strong, the tone is simply barely thinner or extra brittle than some.
Xiaomi additionally makes use of comparatively gradual eMMC storage on this telephone, though with learn speeds of 283MB/s and writes of 152MB/s we’re not something too dangerous. Nonetheless, the Poco X3 Professional will get you reads of round 1000MB/s. It is an actual efficiency outlier.
Benchmarking fan? The Redmi 10 scores 1,236 factors in Geekbench 5 (372 per core). The Moto G50’s rating is round 35% higher, and it’s virtually precisely the identical because the rating of the last-generation Redmi 9. This isn’t nice efficiency for a $199/£199 telephone (which is what our center mannequin price).
Battery life
- 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging
- Excellent common use battery life
- Barely costlier Xiaomi telephones cost quicker
The Xiaomi Redmi 10 has a 5,000mAh battery, very similar to most of its arch rivals and its considerably bigger siblings. We discover that whereas the Moto G50 tends to last more between fees, few will discover any cause to complain right here.
It could actually final via a heavy day of use, and usually has round 30-40% cost left by the point we come to plug it in at lights-out. That is with the display set to its 90Hz mode, and also you’re more likely to see a slight increase by proscribing the refresh fee to 60Hz.
There’s no enchancment to battery charging with this era, although. The Redmi 10 has 18W charging, though it comes with a 22.5W charger. We used an influence meter and plugged it into each the bundled charger and a 30W one. In each circumstances the telephone solely attracts across the claimed 18W.
After half-hour of charging the Redmi 10 from a totally flat state it reached 29% cost. This isn’t near the ‘50% in half-hour’ quick charging normal.
Do you have to purchase the Xiaomi Redmi 10?
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
First reviewed: December 2021