Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 2021 Review

Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 2021 Review; In March 2021, Redmi announced that it had managed to sell 25 million units of the Redmi Note 8 worldwide. The company decided to launch a new version of this phone called Redmi Note 8 2021 on the occasion of this success.

Xiaomi initially wanted to sell more of this popular phone, but the problem of chip shortage forced the company to replace the Snapdragon 685 with the Helio G85 processor. The processor supports Bluetooth 5.2 technology, but unlike the Snapdragon 685, it does not have the ability to record 4K video and record videos in full HD.

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 2021 Review

The Redmi Note 8 2021 is also available in only three colors, black, white, and blue, while the previous version of the phone also supported two other colors. Other than that, there is no significant difference between the two phones and both phones have the same combination of camera, battery, screen, and price.

Unboxing

The Redmi Note 8 2021 comes with a clear protective case and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. The only difference between the contents of this box and the original version of Redmi Note 8 in its charger. The Redmi Note 8 2021 comes with a 22.5-watt charging adapter, while the previous version used a 10-watt charger.

Also in some areas, the phone comes with a screen protector, which, although not much to say about the first-class protectors, but to some extent provides screen security.

Designing

The Redmi Note 8 2018 is a long way from other economical phones in terms of design. The use of thick edges on the side of the screen and the ratio of the screen to the body of 81.7% are things that are less common in new phones. Nevertheless, the new Redmi Note 8 has one of the most beautiful bezels among smartphones, and the blue light at the bottom and side of the screen gives the phone a distinctive look.

Although the Redmi Note 8 2021 has a low price, it does not look like an economical phone. Xiaomi has used Gorilla Glass 5 protector on both the front and back of the phone, and it is said that a waterproof cover has been used inside the phone. Most likely, Xiaomi did not take action to reduce the cost of obtaining IP certification in this phone. Also, the back of the phone acts like a magnet against the fingerprint, and the use of glass in this part has increased the possibility of the phone slipping and falling.

The placement of the buttons on this phone is completely standard and there is no particular problem. The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone, and the speaker is located on the bottom. The performance of this speaker is normal at best. The 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port of the phone are also located next to this speaker. Also, at the top of the phone, a noise-canceling microphone and infrared blaster are used, which we rarely see used in smartphones today.

The Redmi Note 8 2021 is also equipped with a fingerprint sensor, but unlike many other phones, this sensor is located on the back of the phone. These types of sensors are not very expensive and their use in economical phones is not surprising. Fortunately, the fingerprint sensor of this phone has high speed and responsiveness and has good accuracy.

The new version of Redmi Note 8 supports two nano SIM card ports and it is possible to use a microSD card to upgrade the internal memory. However, the phone does not support 5G connections, and this is quite understandable given its low price.

One of the attractive additions to this phone is its LED status light. This light at the top of the screen is not RGB and only shows white. The Redmi Note 8 2021 also does not support NFC but is instead equipped with an FM radio, accelerometer and rotary monitor.

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screen

Xiaomi has used a 6.5-inch full HD display with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, but tests have shown that the company did not use the base version panel in this phone and used a weaker panel instead. The screen of the Redmi Note 8 2021 supports a maximum brightness of 599 nits, but this number also reaches 620 nits in sunlight, which is an acceptable number for an LCD panel.

However, the screen color accuracy of this phone is much lower compared to the base version. While the previous version of the Redmi Note 8 had high color accuracy and covered the sRGB color space as standard, the new version does not have this capability and displays blue, red and green colors in a not-so-natural way. The phone also has the ability to adjust the white dot, but these settings have not had much effect on increasing the color accuracy of the screen.

The Redmi Note 8 2021 also supports two colors, light and saturated. Bright mode is actually the default color view of the phone, and sometimes changes the colors of the image to some extent depending on the content being played. However, saturated state is strangely no different from clear state, and it works exactly the same. Therefore, if you encounter a problem using the light mode, it is enough to set the color view to the saturated state.

As expected, this phone does not support HDR technology and only managed to get Widevine L1 certification. Another problem with this phone’s screen is the low response speed of the pixels, which can be seen when scrolling through the screen, rejecting previous posts. In general, the screen of the Redmi Note 8 2021 is standard at best and performs worse than the previous version.

Battery

Xiaomi has used a 4000 mAh battery in the new version of Redmi Note 8. As the screen and processor of this phone became weaker than the base version, it was expected that the battery life of this phone would increase slightly. But the phone’s Helio G85 processor seems to be more powerful than the Snapdragon 685, draining the battery faster than expected.

The battery of the Redmi Note 8 2021 is charged at a speed of 18 watts, which is the standard of economical phones. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the phone, and a 30-minute charge charges about 34% of the battery. According to Xiaomi, this phone also uses Quick Charge +3 technology, but considering the Helio G85 processor and the low charging speed of the phone, such a thing seems unlikely. However, the charging speed of the Redmi Note 8 2021 is slightly higher than the base version.

operating system

Xiaomi has always offered the latest version of the operating system and user interface available for its budget phones, and the Redmi Note 8 2021 is no exception. This phone uses version 12.5.6 of the MIUI user interface, which is based on the Android 11 operating system. This user interface provides many personalization features and provides the closest experience of using the Android operating system compared to other versions of MIUI.

The MIUI 12 notifications section is divided into two parts, and this is the most important change made in the new version of Xiaomi UI. Now swipe down from the left side of the screen to open the notifications section, and access to the shortcuts by swiping down from the right side of the screen. Also, the latest shortcuts used are marked with a different color, which is one of the new features of this version of MIUI.

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MIUI 12.5 has received new security features that allow you to prevent applications from accessing personal information. The update also adds new animations to Xiaomi’s UI, making smoother switching between pages smoother. MIUI 12.5 also uses fewer software, with a power consumption of about 25 percent and memory consumption of 35 percent.

Function

Chip shortages prompted Xiaomi to use the Helio G85 processor in the phone, which was supposed to be a more advanced version of the Redmi Note 8. The processor uses two large Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and six smaller Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. The Note 8 Snapdragon 685 Redmi Note 8 processor uses four Cryo 260 Gold cores with a frequency of 2.0 GHz and four Cryo 260 Silver cores with a frequency of 1.8 GHz.

Gig Bench benchmark tests show that the chip of the previous version of the Redmi Note 8 performed better in the multi-core segment than the 2021 version, but instead consumed more energy. On the other hand, the G85 performs better in single-core tasks than the base Redmi Note 8.

Also, the AnTuTu benchmark, considering the amount of RAM and memory of both phones, considers the Redmi Note 8 2021’s performance to be better than the base version. The main reason for this was to increase the internal memory of the new version of this phone from 64 GB to 128 GB. Probably the newer user interface of this phone has been the reason for its superior performance in AnTuTu.

In short, the Redmi Note 8 2021 is not significantly different from the base version in terms of performance and even performs some tasks better. However, both phones have difficulty running some games and applications and perform heavy tasks with delays. Note that the Redmi Note 8 2021 is a good phone for everyday use and there is no particular problem in this regard.

Camera

Like the base version, the Redmi Note 8 2021 uses a combination of 48-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, 13-megapixel selfie camera, and a macro camera and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The main camera of this phone uses the isocell S5KGM1 sensor of Samsung and its ultra-wide camera is also equipped with OV8856 Amni-Vision sensor. The MIUI camera app is also simple and efficient, and the only problem is that the macro mode is located in a separate menu, which makes it a little difficult to access. However, most important options are available from the home screen.

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Although the Redmi Note 2021 does not use a dedicated telephoto camera, it offers 1x, 0.6x and up to 10x zoom. The app’s Pro mode also provides features such as focus control, shutter speed change and exposure density. This mode is provided for both main and ultra-wide cameras.

Although the Redmi Note 8 2021’s main camera uses the famous GM1 sensor, its image quality is lower than expected. The images of this camera have good details and good color accuracy, but the noise problem is clearly visible in them. However, the main problem with the phone’s main camera images is its exposure.

By setting HDR to auto mode and activating the auto image enhancement feature, the Redmi Note 8 2021 captures overexposed images. The main reason for this problem is the ability to automatically improve the image, because by disabling it, an important part of this problem will be solved.

Unfortunately, this problem is not specific to the main camera, and the phone’s ultra-wide camera also suffers from it. This issue is more visible due to the more limited dynamic range of the phone’s ultra-wide camera. The images of this camera also suffer from noise problem and are not of high quality by disabling the automatic image enhancement mode. However, the color accuracy of the camera images was the same as the main camera.

The Redmi Note 8 2021 selfie camera has a very good performance and the images recorded by it have high detail and color accuracy. Fortunately, the noise problem is not observed in these images, or at least is so large that it is not detectable. In general, the performance of the Redmi Note 8 2021 selfie camera is beyond expectations and there is no particular problem.

The new Redmi Note 8 also supports portrait mode. You can use this mode in the main camera, ultra-wide or selfie. The portrait images of the main camera are excellent and the quality of the selfie portraits is not less than that of the main camera. The phone’s 2-megapixel macro camera also captures acceptable images due to its limitations.

Changing the processor of the Redmi Note 8 2021 has dealt the biggest blow to the video recording capability of the phone. You can save your full HD videos with h.264 or h.265 codec. The first codec generates less compression on videos and saves them at approximately 30 frames per second. The quality of the main camera videos is good and these videos have a dynamic range and good color accuracy. The videos of the phone’s ultra-wide camera have a similar situation, but sometimes there is a noise problem in them.

Alternatives

Today, the market for low-cost handsets is very different from a few years ago, and many handsets offer users a variety of features for less than € 200. Items such as the old display with high refresh rate, high water resistance, stereo speakers, powerful cameras and fast charging are just some of the features of the new budget phones. Of course, none of the cheap phones offer all these features together, and you must first determine your priorities for buying these phones.

Xiaomi has launched a number of affordable handsets that offer a lot of features at a price similar to the Redmi Note 8 2021. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 is only a few euros more expensive than the Redmi Note 8 2021, but it uses stereo speakers, a larger 33-watt battery and, most importantly, a Supermold display.

The phone also uses a Snapdragon 678 processor and records videos at 4K resolution. The Redmi 9 also supports a 90Hz refresh rate LCD, a 5000mAh battery and a 50-megapixel main camera with f / 1.8 aperture.

The Reelmi 8 is also a tough competitor to the Redmi Note 8 2021. The 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display of this phone supports HDR10 technology and its maximum brightness is 657 nits. An under-screen fingerprint sensor, a 5000mAh battery, a 30-watt charge, a Helio G95 processor and a 64-megapixel main camera are other features of the 8-reel.

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The newly launched Moto G30 also supports a powerful main camera, a 90Hz display and long battery life. However, the 720p resolution of the 6.5-inch screen of this phone can deter those who are interested in buying it. This phone does not use stereo speakers and its main feature is the use of Android operating system. In fact, the Moto G30 is one of the few budget phones on the market that uses the Android operating system.

There are currently many similarly priced handsets on the market that offer more features than the Redmi Note 8 2021. Phones like the Redmi Note 10 and Riley 8 are just two examples of powerful budget phones that perform much better than the new version of the Redmi Note 8. Therefore, Xiaomi is expected to reduce the price of this product or add support for 5G networks.

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Conclusion

The base version of the Redmi Note 8 was one of Xiaomi’s best-selling handsets launched in 2019. However, the formula used in this phone, which is now used in the 2021 version, does not guarantee high sales of the new version. The Redmi Note 8 2021 uses the Helio G85 processor instead of the Snapdragon 685, eliminating 4K video recording capability and instead adding 5.2 Bluetooth technology.