Redmi Note 8 Pro, Note 8 with Quad-Cameras go official: Price, Specs and features

Today’s an eventful day for Redmi as it unveiled the new Note 8 series along with the Redmi TV and the refreshed Redmibook 14 laptop. Since the last generation Note 7-series phones still stand highly competitive, we were eager to see what Xiaomi sub-brand has to offer this time.

Here, we will go through the specs, features, pricing and availability details of the new Note 8 and Note 8 pro here. We have detailed Redmi 70-inch Smart TV and RedmiBook 14 2019 in a separate article.

Redmi Note 8 Pro highlights

The Note 8 Pro has a 6.53-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. There is a teardrop cut atop which houses the phone’s 20MP selfie snapper.

It comes in 3 color variants – White, Jade Green, and Grey. The White edition is something similar to the prismatic editions of Galaxy Note 10+ (review) and Huawei P30 Pro (review). As light reflects off its back, seven rainbow colors shimmer on the surface.

Flip to the back and you might sense a Déjà vu. The rear adopts design elements of the K20 series. The back is made of Gorilla Glass 5 with a diamond cut grade texture.

You get a vertical camera island situated in the middle where a 64MP Samsung GW1 primary sensor aligns next to an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera (2cm focal distance) and a 2MP depth sensor at the end. The main sensor is capable of capturing at 8K (9248×6936) max resolution.

The Note 8 Pro is powered by an Helio G90T. Yes, as you may already know, Xiaomi has teamed with MediaTek and the real-life implication on performance is something to be seen. For what it’s worth, Redmi claims it can outsmart the 730 and 710 SoCs on the basis of Antutu benchmark scores.

For gamers out there, the brand has backed the performance with Gamer Turbo 2.0 and MediaTek Hyperengine optimizations. It is equipped with liquid cooling that claims to lower temperature from 4 degrees to 6 degrees. The display will shift between various contrast, the network will auto-switch between WiFi and 4G mobile data during gameplay.

There is a 4500mAh battery within, which is anew for a Redmi phone. It can be refilled using an 18W fast charger that’s USB Power Delivery (QC4.0+ and Pump Express) complaint. You can dock it inside a USB-C port, roomed alongside a 3.5mm jack.

Coming to the software side of things, you have the familiar MIUI 10 skin upon Android 9 Pie. Needless to say, this has a world of features, expected out of a skinned ROM.

Other miscellaneous things include :

• A capacitive fingerprint scanner seated right underneath the rear camera panel
• 960fps slo-mo video recording support
• Splash resistant screen
• Allegedly better speakers with Smart PA technology and p2i coating
• It has IP52 water resistance
• TUV Rheinland certification for the high-performance network connectivity whilst gaming.
• Supports dual-band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5.0 GHz)
• There is an IR blaster, support for NFC contactless payments
• A special World of warcraft edition is also launched. It has its own special package, designer case, and other goodies.

Redmi Note 8 vs Redmi Note 8 Pro: What’s different?

At the core, Redmi Note 8 has the Snapdragon 665 processor, which in itself places it in a different chipset club. Another big change is the 48MP Sony IMX586 main sensor in the camera quartet. The display stretches to 6.3-inches only. The front camera is a 13MP shooter but does support AI beautify, Portrait mode and AI scene detection. It draws from a slightly smaller 4000mAh battery.

Here are the spec comparison table between the Notes.

Redmi Note 8 Pro, Note 8 pricing and availability

• The Redmi Note 8 Pro 6GB+64GB edition is priced at 1399 yuan (around Rs. 14,200), 6GB + 128GB variant at CNY 1,599 (about Rs. 16,000), and lastly the 8GB + 128GB variant has a price tag of CNY 1,799 (circa Rs. 18,000).
• Note 8 Pro special case retails at 39 Yuan (or Rs. 390).