Redmi Note 6 Pro Review

In India, Xiaomi is considered to be the leading smartphone manufacturers. The company had forayed into the country back in 2014 and now has settled in the sweet spot in the industry. The reason is its vast variety of models released every year in under mid-range and the cost-effective segment. One of the popular devices Xiaomi had introduced in the country is the ‘Redmi Note’ series, back in 2014.

The Redmi Note 4G launched then14 was surprisingly the first phone to be priced under Rs 10,000 in the country. From there, the Redmi Note series has come a long way, and Xiaomi had started introducing two-Note devices line-up. Early this year Xiaomi had unveiled its Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro series into the smartphone industry under the mid-range category. The noticeable elements on the device were the dual cameras, powerful processor and the bigger displays.

Well, it looks like Xiaomi hasn’t done yet, the company had introduced its successor to the Note 5 Pro – the Redmi Note 6 Pro. While the new mid-range phone was already released a couple of months ago in the company’s home country, it had unveiled the device in our country this month. To begin with, it comes with a new notched display and a bigger screen, and with improved camera performance. Let’s look into what it has to offer –

Design, Display and Build

The design language of the Redmi Note 6 Pro is notably similar to what we have seen on the earlier released Note 5 Pro. However, holding it is much comfortable now, and it isn’t as slippery as the predecessor – thanks to its ergonomic design. That said, the fingerprint sensors, the dual cameras on the back and all the buttons and headphone placements are quite similar to the Note 5 Pro.

Albeit the same footprint of the Note 5 Pro, the company had managed to toss in a larger 6.26-inch 19:9 display on the Note 6 Pro – thanks to the ‘notch’ display. The FHD+ display brings in an improved 2280×1080 resolution with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. You can feel the improved bright display at first glance of the phone, which is also huge with reduced bezels and a screen-to-body-ratio of 81.1%.

The screen is big enough to scroll and read more content at a single glance and binge-watching on YouTube is bliss on the Redmi Note 6 Pro. The colors on the display pop-up more and the screen looks more vibrant when compared to its predecessor. The 2.5D curved glass protects the new rounded cornered display along with Corning Gorilla Glass protection.Coming to the notch, well, we are so used to the notched display phones this year, it isn’t noticeable on the Redmi Note 6 Pro either. It packs in dual cameras on the front too and a speaker grille unlike, the Note 5 Pro, which only had a single front-facing camera.

On the whole, with the Redmi Note 6 Pro, Xiaomi did manage to get a better-looking phone retaining the same footprint of the predecessor. The phone is well-built and feels durable and sturdy in hand and is also light-weighted. As for the water resistance on the device, Xiaomi had come up with a new P2i hydrophobic nano-coating applied on the surface of the Note 6 Pro that tends to offer better water resistance and protection. And No, it isn’t the same level of protection provided as an IP certified phones.

Quad Cameras

Unlike the Note 5 Pro, the new Redmi Note 6 Pro comes with a quad-camera setup, which is the first phone to have it from Xiaomi. It comprises of dual camera setups on the front and the rear. To begin with the dual cameras on the back, it features a 12MP primary sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. These are AI dual cameras and come with a large 1.4µm pixel size and an aperture of f/1.9. These cameras are coupled with dual LED flash and dual PDAF and also feature an Electronic Image Stabilisation for video recording as well.

While both the lens are indeed lifted from the predecessor, the aperture and dual pixels get improvements. Well, this is noticeable with the pictures captured with the dual cameras. The image quality is improved and is surely good especially when captured in broad daylight. The sharpness on the images is on point. The colors are realistic with finer contrast details.

The Note 6 Pro cameras are backed with significant AI features such as AI Scene Detection, AI Portrait 2.0 and AI Dynamic Bokeh effects as well. The AI scene detection is quite helpful, and the cameras portray the colors accordingly with the scene, which makes the images look better with realistic colors. AI Portrait does a decent job in detecting the edges and portraits taken appeared to be quite good. Adding to that, the Redmi Note 6 Pro’s MIUI 10 has brought some useful features with the portrait images taken. These features include, the studio lighting effects, which have a various number of options to play with and the other feature added is adjusting the blur on the portraits captured and also with the help of AI Dynamic Bokeh effects you can tweak the background of the pictures captured along with specific light trail effects, which is nice if you like playing with the images taken.

As for the front cameras, as stated earlier, the device comes with dual cameras, where the primary lens is a 20MP sensor paired with a 2MP secondary depth sensor. The AI features apply to the front cameras as well. The images look much better with the AI support, and same goes with the portraits as well. The edge detection is perfect, and bokeh effects appear good with the pictures taken. However, the images look a tad bit softer rather than natural. Apart from that, the front cameras do well in capturing photos and should be enough for all those Instagram enthusiasts out there.

Performance

The Redmi Note 6 Pro packs in the same Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636 chipset that was featured in the earlier released Note 5 Pro. The chipset is built on an octa-core processor comprising four ARM Cortes A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores. This SoC was a successor to the SD 630 chipset. Further, the SoC is paired with Qualcomm’s Adreno 509 GPU. Followed by 4GB+64GB storage or 6GB/64GB storage options. Similar to the Note 5 Pro, the successor also works effortlessly in handling everyday tasks. Although the chipset is catered to mid-range device, it certainly does offer flagship performance. However, in handling resource intensive games, you are welcomed with medium level performance, which is natural considering the mid-range chipset. On the software front, you are greeted with the new MIUI 10 on the Redmi Note 6 Pro. It ships with Android 8.1.0 out-of-the-box. There are some noticeable design overhauls on the MIUI 10, be it the quick settings or the new multitasking panel. There are quite a few gestures that take advantage of the bigger display on the Note 6 Pro. The updated MIUI 10 on top of this large display makes it more colorful and feels pretty fast than the standard MIUI 9, which we have seen earlier on the Note 5 Pro.

Additionally, on the MIUI 10, you can see the new volume bar adjustments and updated weather, calendar and clock apps as well. If you are an old MIUI user, you can experience several UI changes on the MIUI 10. Paired with octa-core processor and updated MIUI 10 makes the Redmi Note 6 Pro handle your regular mundane tasks pretty easily.As for the authentication is concerned you have the standard fingerprint sensor on the back, which is proven to be as fast as the predecessor and additionally, the Face Unlock also works surprisingly fast as well. On the connectivity front, the Redmi Note 6 Pro includes 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and an IR Blaster as well.

Battery

And, the same goes for the battery as well. The Note 6 Pro lifts the massive 4000mAh battery from its predecessor, which is already proved to have extensive battery life. However, the larger screen on the Redmi Note 6 Pro affects the battery life though that isn’t bad. It supports the Quick Charge 3.o, however, the company only provides 10W charger in the box. That said, the large battery lasts a day quite comfortably and the standby time appears to be increased, which is noticeable. The downside would be the Micro USB charging, yes, no USB Type-C here. We would have appreciated if it had the universal Type-C as it is becoming a norm in this price segment just like the notch displays and dual cameras.

Verdict

If you are a Redmi Note user already and have been using Redmi Note phones released before the Redmi Note 5, then surely its a worthy upgrade to the Redmi Note 6 Pro. Primarily in this price segment, there are minimal options of this powerful SD 636 processor that is worth considering the Realme 2 Pro, for instance. However, if you are currently a Redmi Note 5 Pro user, despite the display and camera there wouldn’t be much of a difference in performance.

As stated, the Redmi Note 6 Pro comes in two variants –

• 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage is priced at Rs 13,999
• 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage is priced at Rs 15,999

To sum it up, the Redmi Note 6 Pro checks all the boxes for an essential smartphone, especially in this price segment. It has all the necessary elements that include – a bigger notch display, big screen with minimal bezels, a massive battery, a powerful mid-range processor and an improved camera performance from its predecessor. Henceforth, we would recommend you to consider the Redmi Note 6 Pro since it’s the perfect vital option in this mid-range price segment. The Note 6 Pro features in Black, Rose Gold, Blue, and Red color variants.

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