Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G Case, Wood Grain Leather Case with Card Holder and Window, Magnetic Flip Cover for Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G

Product Information

You only have to look at the shared nomenclature of these three handsets to see why this might be. 5G modems are some of the most power-hungry components to be found in any modern smartphone.

Typically with such cheap phones, the best you can hope for is either a 120Hz refresh rate (like the Poco X3 NFC) or a vibrant OLED panel (like the Realme 8). The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G has neither. We have to confess that familiarity has bred a certain level of contentment with MIUI. It’s a highly customizable UI, with the potential for a neat split notification pane and a fully fleshed out themes store. As it is, this more functional system is hardly the snappiest way to gain entry to your phone. But it’s reliable enough all the same.The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G runs on a MediaTek MT6833 Dimensity 700 5G, which is the exact same 7nm chip used by one of its closest rivals, the Realme 8 5G. The 2MP macro sensor is truly terrible, to the point where a whole series of what we thought would be usable examples of flower close-ups turned out to be nothing of the sort. The camera completely failed to pin their subjects, yielding a blurry, noisy smudge of colors. While it’s not what you’d call a mainstream component, the Dimensity 700 is perfectly capable of running day-to-day applications reasonably well. It’s quite capable in CPU-heavy tasks, as a Geekbench 5 multicore score of 1,677 goes to illustrate - though that falls a little short of the Realme 8 5G’s 1,765. The provision of an 18W charger here isn’t the most generous around. The Poco X3 NFC gives you a 33W charger in the box. It’s equal to the Realme 8 5G’s provision, however, and is better than the 10W Oppo A54 5G charger. When it comes to storage, a choice of either 64GB or 128GB is pretty much par for the course with such affordable phones these days. There’s also a microSD card slot, so you can expand that provision.

Optional extras that, practically speaking, are useless to many right now (we’re looking at you 5G) are missing from Xiaomi’s latest Redmi phone. Instead, it’s got a best-in-class screen and camera, excellent battery life with fast charging, not to mention standout design for the price.Even nice-to-haves, like the selfie camera and 4K video recording, perform very well at the phone’s price, instantly making it our favourite affordable camera phone. The Note 10 Pro also starts with 64GB storage, and has an SD slot, so tonnes of potential space for photos and videos, or you can pay extra for the 128GB version. Why oh why... The best camera in the world can’t detract from the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s adverts. Yep. Ads for third-party apps pop up when you install a new app. They’re pretty gross, but you can turn them off. Nevertheless, to get away with such an eye-sore, the Note 10 Pro would have to be the best phone money can buy at its price, which, as you’ve probably gathered by now, it is. So, should I buy it? Like with the Realme 8 5G, PUBG Mobile defaults to HD and high frame rate settings, which is a couple of notches above the minimum. Jumping into a game of the trusty old Battle Royale, everything moves reasonably smoothly - though you won’t get the benefit of stereo sound through the Redmi’s mono speaker.