Its only been a few days since I received the product hence an update on this review might be given later. I own a Oneplus 5T and have used almost all Oneplus devices released after that through friends and family, so read this review keeping my past experience in mind. As of now I am sharing what I am happy with,
1. The Screen: This phone has one of the BEST displays... Period. The brightness is superb, the colour calibration is excellent and that 120hz refresh rate makes it feel even better. A good 1080p amoled display is always better than a power hungry 1440p one which doesn't look at all different unless one reads very small text using a magnifying glass. The display used here is high quality enough to be used in phones worth twice this price. No doubt.
2. The stereo speakers: To compliment the beautiful screen are the excellent stereo speakers. These may not be as loud as ASUS ROG but the tuning, stereo separation and overall feel is just superb. Its definitely at the level of Oneplus Pro lineup. I am Happy with the bass it provides. Sound is subjective so never listen to reviewers who say it lacks this and that, I thought it had low bass going through such reviews but that was not the case at all, for me. However, the most important aspect of stereo speakers on a phone is the Left and Right channel balance. Majority of stereo speaker phones use a smaller driver on the earpiece side making the sound feel more biased towards the bottom end. Hence music, movies and especially dialogues tend to sound a bit off centered. In this phone however its 100% balanced. No matter the volume level, the sound is equal from both sides. What Redmi did is put the drivers firing outwards (not towards the face) hence if held with folded palms one can get even louder sound. This implementation is perfect as it doesn't take screen real estate from the front side allowing edge to edge display. However do note that there is no separate earpiece driver, the same loudspeaker is used for phones and hence there is a feeling that voice is coming out of top instead of the earpiece side during calls. It isn't an issue, infact this makes voice sound more punchy as a bigger driver is used to generate the sound. Although do note that this implementation makes calls audible to nearby people if they stand too close.
3. Vibration Motor: Its not a powerful motor, but it has definition. It can vibrate in different modulations giving a sense of quality. Because of this quality I am finally able to use vibration during typing. Each of the inbuilt phone ringtones have separate vibration patterns which make it feel unique. Since the vibration isn't too strong though, so in-pocket feel may be compromised sometimes. Still, I find it more legible than my Oneplus 5T.
4. Fingerprint sensor: I absolutely hate indisplay fingerprint sensors because its not at all practical. Neither it provides the convenience of back side sensor that allows pulling of notification panel nor does it respond without having to wake the phone first. So I was thrilled to see Redmi use the side mounted sensor design. Both front and back fingerprint sensor have the inherent problem of not being able to unlock the phone if its flipped on the other side. In case of my Oneplus 5T I always had to lift the phone from the desk to allow me to put the finger. Yes, this is not an issue with front sensor when screen is facing upwards but what if it was facing downwards? So a side fingerprint sensor solves this basic problem. Now no matter how the phone is kept, I can always unlock it without lifting it from the desk, bed or whatever. As for the quality of the sensor, it is as good as any optical sensor. Fast and responsive. Any lag one does notice is because of MIUI slow transition, not the sensor. That too isn't very noticeable.
5. Camera: I am really happy with the camera combination given by Redmi. All of the sensors are great for the price and is much better than the likes of Realme 8 Pro which has substandard Ultra wide and Macro Sensors. For this budget the non primary sensors in Redmi is very good. As for the primary 108MP camera, I haven't used the cameras much to give an indepth review, so seek youtube videos to get your answer. I never really bought this phone for the camera but the reason I went for the 108MP Max variant and not the Pro variant is because I can always use the extra pixels to capture more detail while shooting landscapes and monuments if and when I travel. But is the extra pixel worth the extra 3 grand... maybe not. But as 3 grand difference isn't much for me, I chose the full blown variant so that I don't feel any buyer's remorse later thinking I could have gotten more resolution.
I would also like to clarify on some concerns that are floating on the net regarding the phone. One being the Proximity Sensor. Yes, it doesn't have any hardware proximity sensor and no, I didn't feel the need for it either. The AI Proximity is actually working flawlessly, if and when 1 in 20 times the display light up while talking is only because I moved my head too quickly giving the phone an impression that I have moved the display away from the face. Yes, this will definitely cause intermittent issues while talking in a vehicle thats going down a insanely jerky road but thats a rarity and in normal scenarios I can always move the phone away slowly and pull it back into my ears fast to turn the screen off. Or better still, just lock the phone during the conversation and the screen will remain off the whole time. This issue, honestly, is unjustifiably being blown out of proportion. Just make a well thought out decision before buying it. If proximity sensor is your TOPMOST priority then avoid this phone. Anyone with such priority is already misguided enough to not be worthy of such a good value for money phone.
I have always wanted a phone that had the combination of a Good edge to edge Amoled display, perfectly balanced Stereo Speakers, Dedicated Expandable Storage (I don't understand why flagships don't provide this, in the days of 4K resolution video recording and 108MP photo capture, this feature should be mandatory), 3.5mm Headphone Jack, IR Blaster (such a useful feature for people who works in offices where the AC remotes are always disappearing or batteries are rarely replenished), a good battery size of 5000mah or more, premium looking design, good aftersales services and performs well for day to day tasks and media consumption (A working person don't care about gaming performance, besides I have Gaming PC which is how graphic intensive games should actually be played on, as for normal games the processor on this is absolutely sufficient, infact its at the same level as yesteryear's flagship Snapdragon 835 that I have on my 5T.) This phone has satisfied each and every desire of mine where above mentioned combination is non existent today in any budget segment. Redmi Note 10 Pro series quite aptly raises the question "Is it really worth buying flagships anymore??".
As for those who are worrying at the fact that this phone has a plastic frame instead of metal, do know that 50K worth Oneplus 9 is made of plastic frame as well and THAT too breaks when folded in half with force. As long as one uses this phone AS a phone, its going to last for a long time. Besides plastic frame solves the issue of me getting mild shocks while trying to pick the phone up while it being connected to my PC. My 'metal' Oneplus 5T gave me many shocks till now.
UPDATE:
The biggest weakness of this phone is the MIUI software provided with it. Its an absolute garbage when it comes to optimization. You will find apps like Youtube scroll at a frame rate of <10 fps most of the time. But once in a while it will scroll extremely smooth (120hz level smooth). So its obvious that the hardware is amazing and can handle any apps but the software and its ability to run other apps smoothly is a big weakness. There are also a plethora of weird MIUI bugs that come up once in a while, which I am yet to see the full extent of anyways. With such a software one needs to do at least one restart every day to keep everything working in a proper manner.
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