Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro hands-on review

Introduction

While the Mi series may be the flagship series of Xiaomi's product line, it's the Redmi series that's the company's bread and butter. And within the Redmi series, it's the Redmi Note series that has everyone's attention as it encapsulates Xiaomi's ethos of offering more bang for your buck.

Continuing the tradition this year is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, the flagship within the company's Redmi lineup. Like the previous phones in the series, the Redmi Note 7 Pro pushes the budget smartphone category further than it has ever been, cramming in as many flagship features as it possibly can without breaking the bank.

The crown jewel this year is the presence of the Sony IMX 586, a 48MP behemoth that is found in nearly every flagship Android smartphone this year but Xiaomi was one of the first few companies to implement it, that too in a budget phone.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro specs

• Body: Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, polycarbonate frame
• Display: 6.3-inch, 2340x1080 IPS LCD, 409 PPI
• Rear camera: 48MP f1.79 PDAF primary, 5MP secondary, 4K30 video
• Front camera: 13MP f2.0, 1080p30 video
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, 2.0GHz octa-core CPU, 845MHz Adreno 612 GPU
• Memory: 4/6GB LPDDR3 RAM, 64/128GB eMMC 5.1 storage
• Connectivity: Hybrid dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB-C 2.0
• Battery: 4000mAh, Quick Charge 4.0 support

The rest of the kit isn't bad either. You have a polycarbonate and glass body with a teardrop notch display, a Snapdragon 675 chipset with 4GB or 6GB RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage and a big 4000mAh battery.

When you remind yourself all of this is in what is still essentially a budget smartphone, it seems very impressive indeed. Of course, running on top of all this is Xiaomi's MIUI 10 based on Android 9 Pie, which, for now at least, is the latest version of Android available.

After having spent a fair deal of time with the device, these are our overall impressions.