Redmi 8 review: Redmi 8A offers almost same value at lower price

The Redmi 8 is one of the most affordable Xiaomi phones in India right now. It is part of a Redmi numeric series that has been popular in India due to its combination of great price and good value for money. The Redmi 4, the Redmi 5, the Redmi 6 and the Redmi 7 were all great value for money smartphones. The Redmi 8 now hopes to offer the same to the consumers.

The formula with the Redmi 8 is big battery paired with capable hardware. The Redmi 8 comes with the biggest battery we have seen in a Redmi numeric series so far. It comes packed with a 5000 mAh. Along with the big battery, the Redmi 8 also gets 18W fast charging support.

The Redmi 8 also comes with improvements in several other core areas like camera, display and performance when compared to the Redmi 7. But before diving into the review a few bits about the phone. Let me talk about the headline of this review. It says: " Redmi 8A offers almost same value at lower price".

Before the Redmi 8, Xiaomi launched the Redmi 8A in India and we at India Today Tech reviewed that phone. after using both the phones I have found is that the Redmi 8A is almost as good as the Redmi 8 at a lower price. The major difference between the two smartphones is the fingerprint sensor on the more expensive Redmi 8. There's no fingerprint sensor on the Redmi 8A. Both the phones include AI face unlock and it is fast enough. For example, in my use, I mostly relied on face unlock to get into the Redmi 8.

Redmi 8 design and build

The Redmi 8 looks decent for the price it comes for. I believe some people will like how the Redmi 8 looks, but some may not. The Redmi 8 with Aura Mirror design comes in three colours options in India -- Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue and Onyx Black. The Ruby Red colour of the Redmi 8 is featured in this review. I personally don't fancy the colour Red, so the Onyx Black of the Redmi 8 looks much better to me.

The Redmi 8 looks different and better than the previous phones in this Redmi numeric series. This difference is because of the unique design of the camera setup. The Redmi 8 includes a black vertical strap in the middle of the back cover that houses two cameras, fingerprint sensor, and Redmi brand logo. I would have personally liked the fingerprint sensor to be placed separately as this design appears slightly cluttered to me. I also feel the fingerprint sensor should have been placed slightly lower for easy reach.

I'm not a great fan of smartphones with a glossy back. Redmi 8 is one of them. It comes with Mirror or glossy back finish and this makes the phone prone to fingerprints. I had to wipe the back cover of the Redmi 8 to remove oily fingerprints more than often. I would have liked the Redmi 8 with Aura grip design similar to the Redmi 8A finish, as that design doesn't let ugly fingerprints spoil the look as well as offers a better grip. The build quality of the phone is really top class.

Redmi 8 display

The Redmi 8 lets users watch videos, read messages and emails easily in all lighting conditions. Overall, the screen of the Redmi 8 is pretty good considering its a sub-Rs 10,000 price phone. Besides being a bright screen it is also bigger compared to what we saw in earlier comparable Redmi phones. The Redmi 8 comes with a 6.22-inch HD+ IPS display. It has screen resolution of 1520x720 pixels.

I used the Redmi 8 as my primary phone for a week. This means I used it to watch videos on YouTube, movies on Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar, browsed the internet, read and sent emails and WhatsApp messages, and played Subway Surfer. At all times, the screen of the Redmi 8 was bright and I found viewing angles good. Indoors, keeping the brightness level to 60 per cent worked for me. Outside the house or under scorching Delhi sun I had to increase the brightness level to maximum (100 per cent).

Redmi 8 camera

I used the Redmi 8 to click pictures in all lighting conditions -- in good and not-so-good light -- and believe the phone's camera does a decent job. For a Rs 7,999 smartphone, the Redmi 8 clicks pretty well-detailed pictures in good light but often tends to oversaturate them. In low-light, the phone struggles slightly to capture pictures with good details.

Overall, the Redmi 8 clicks fairly decent pictures if not great. The Redmi 8 includes a 12MP image sensor on the back and an 8MP image sensor on the front for selfies. The selfies are nice in good light. They may seem light on colours but details are captured well. The dynamic range in the pictures clicked with the Redmi 8 isn't great. Most of the time I clicked pictures with HDR camera mode but in this mode, the Redmi 8 takes an extra second or two to process the images.

Xiaomi phones are often good with portrait pictures. Redmi 8 is no exception. The smartphone clicks decent bokeh shots with good amount of details and background properly blurred out. I wish the edges were slightly more distinct or sharp.

In my opinion, if you're looking for a smartphone with a camera that gets the work done the Redmi 8 is a decent option to consider under Rs 10,000.

Redmi 8 performance and software

The Redmi 8 is powered by the same processor that is inside the Redmi 8A or the Redmi 7A. It is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor. As far as the overall performance is concerned the Redmi 8 appears to be fairly decent. I used the Redmi 8 as my primary phone for a week and it was capable of handling basic games like Temple Run and Subway surfer very well. In my opinion, the Redmi 8 isn't one of the fastest performing phones but for the price it offers pretty smooth to handle the day-to-day task.

I used the Redmi 8 to make calls, send messages on WhatsApp, browser the internet as well as social media applications like Facebook and Twitter, play games and so on. The Redmi 8 takes time to open apps or switch between apps but the smartphone, I believe, still gets the work done. I'm using the Redmi 8 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.

The Redmi 8 runs MIUI 10 based on Android 9 Pie. Xiaomi has confirmed that the Redmi 8 will be upgraded to MIUI 11 between November 13 and November 29, 2019. Xiaomi's MIUI 10 brings features like Dark mode to the Redmi 8. Similar to other Redmi phones the Redmi 8 also comes with unwanted advertisements and several third-party apps -- some can be deleted while can't be.

Redmi 8 battery

For me, the Redmi 8 lasts for almost 1.5 days in a single charge very easily, which is great. The Redmi 8 comes with a 5000mAh battery. The Redmi 8 includes USB Type C and up to 18W fast charging support. It is for the first time that a Redmi numeric series phone comes with USB Type C port and not micro USB support. Interested buyers should note that the 18W fast charger will need to be bought separately from Mi.com for faster-charging speed. I used the 18W fast charger from Xiaomi to charge my Redmi 8 and it took around 1.5 hours to get fully charge -- 0 to 100 per cent.

Should you buy Redmi 8?

The Redmi 8 is almost similar to the cheaper Redmi 8A. Both the phones come with the same camera, battery, processor, and screen. In fact, the front design of both the Redmi 8 and the Redmi 8A is almost similar. Both the phones include Dot Drop notch. Personally, I prefer the Aura Grip design of the Redmi 8A and not the Aura Mirror design of the Redmi 8. Two other differences between the Redmi 8A and the Redmi 8 are the latter includes a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The Redmi 8A offers up to 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage but there's microSD card support to expand the storage space.

Overall, I believe if you're looking for a good budget phone the Redmi 8A makes more sense. The Redmi 8A starts at Rs 6,499 in India. If you can spend some more money and want a phone that looks great, clicks well-detailed pictures, offers great performance and battery life then there's the Redmi Note 8. The Note 8 from Redmi comes with a starting price of Rs 9,999 in the country.