Xiaomi Redmi 10 Prime Review: Is it worth it

Xiaomi’s latest smartphone, the Redmi 10 Prime, is part of a highly desired series of cheap and mid-range smartphones. Nowadays, people hardly make a list of the top budget or mid-range smartphones without at least one Redmi handset. Naturally, expectations and demand for the Redmi 10 Prime have been raised after its first release on 7th September 2021 in India. But as much as can be foretold, the experience with it won’t leave anyone in awe. Having said that, the Redmi 10 Prime offers certain points where it makes a compelling choice to smartphone consumers.

Xiaomi Redmi 10 Prime Full Review

Design

Xiaomi has maintained the design language introduced with the Redmi Note 10 series. This design adds to the Redmi 10 Prime a recognizable appearance. Weighing about 192g, the smartphone has a large body (161.2 x 75.6 x 9.6 mm dimension) with visible bezels on all sides.

A punch-hole for the selfie camera is located in the center of the display, towards the top. The frame is constructed of plastic and is contoured to make the gadget easier to grasp. The rear panel is also composed of plastic. When placed on a flat surface, the lens module containing four cameras protrudes slightly, causing the gadget to rock.

The phone has a fingerprint scanner built into the power button at the right. The volume controls are located above it. The left side is entirely devoted to the SIM tray. As with the Redmi 9 Prime, the frame’s top and bottom have been kept flat. The top has a 3.5mm audio socket, an IR emitter, and two speaker holes, while the bottom features a USB Type-C connector, main microphone, and loudspeaker.

Display

Xiaomi Redmi 10 Prime’s 6.5-inch full HD+ display is powered by an LCD screen featuring 1080 x 2400 pixels resolutions, 20:9 ratio, and ~405 PPI density. It is adequate for regular applications. For light users, the 90Hz refresh rate will make the phone seem more premium, which makes a big difference in the cheap smartphone market.

The display is nice to look at and provides vibrant colors with no noticeable oversaturation. Additionally, it provides adequate color fidelity, but there is a small color shift at acute angles — this is particularly noticeable when viewing darker material.

While the touch responsiveness is excellent, the Redmi 10 Prime’s adaptive brightness is not the greatest in the industry. In this situation, we suggest that you change your brightness manually. However, the auto-adapting refresh rate works well, and the display is one of the finest aspects of this phone. Its display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Rear Cameras

The Redmi 10 Prime has a quad-camera system with the main camera of 50mp (f/1.8), an ultra-wide-angle camera of 8mp (f/2.2), a macro camera of 2mp (f/2.4), and a depth sensor of 2mp (f/2.4). The camera application is almost identical to the ancestor redmi 10 phone. There are easy toggles for both HDR and AI, and a Pro mode provides full control over settings.

Photos taken in the daytime come out quite well with average detail. Additionally, the frames’ borders were somewhat blurry. While the 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, featuring a 120-degree field-of-view, allows for a larger frame, users will find the output to be much worse in quality than the main sensor. Additionally, the output exhibited some edge distortion.

Close-up pictures showed excellent clarity, and the AI can be fast to identify where the smartphone is pointing. The colors are pretty realistic, and the phone is capable of distinguishing between the subject and the backdrop to create a sense of depth. Portrait pictures feature excellent edge recognition, and the phone is capable of successfully blurring the backdrop.

The video recording capacity for the rear cameras is 1080p at 30fps.

Front Camera

Xiaomi has used an 8mp (f/2.0) lens as the front camera. Selfies shot with the front camera come great in the daytime. Additionally, the output seems to have been sharpened, with blacks forcefully increased.

Portrait pictures show excellent edge recognition, and in the daytime, the phone produces an acceptable amount of background blur. Selfies taken in low light beneath a street lighting perform poorly, but those taken with a stronger light source nearby performs well.

The selfie camera captures video at a maximum resolution of 1080p@30fps. While filming in the daytime or at night, the footage was not properly stabilized.

Performance

The Redmi 10 Prime’s MediaTek Helio G88 (12nm) processor is not quite a performance beast. Its Octa-core CPU is built with two Cortex-A75 cores featuring 2.0 GHz clock speed combined with six numbers of Cortex-A55 cores with 1.8 GHz clock speed at maximum. The graphic unit is enriched with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU.

This phone is available in two variants: 64GB by 4GB RAM, 128GB by 6GB RAM. Here eMMC 5.1 data transfer technology has been applied which is a pity in the era of UFS technology.

After booting, the phone takes some time to achieve a condition of smooth operation. The users might face noticeable stutters when they open or use five or six applications at a time. Therefore, for heavy users, purchasing the 6GB RAM version would be the best option. The top variant’s overall performance is very smooth.

Despite the phone’s 90Hz display, gaming performance lacks fluidity compared to the other devices with higher processing capabilities. To be fair, games on the Redmi 10 Prime are not completely unplayable, but they lack the fluidity seen on the finest mid-range phones.

Software and Charging

The Redmi 10 Prime is powered by MIUI 12.5, one of the most popular and modified interfaces of Android 11 available today. Xiaomi has recently made a few of its bloatware removable. But even so, it is clear how Xiaomi’s version of Android is distinct from standard Android and has both positive and negative aspects.

The Redmi 10 Prime’s battery life is excellent, lasting a full day with heavier-than-average use for its huge 6000mAh battery. However, once run out, the phone takes a long time to be refilled than most other phones. With a similar but slightly shorter battery life, the Realme Narzo 30 charges in approximately half the time.

Users should charge 10 Prime overnight to ensure that it is fully charged for the next day or blame its 18W charging system.

Source: United News of Bangladesh