Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro REVIEW In-Depth: Should You Upgrade?

As you know, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 was one of the most successful smartphones for the Chinese manufacturer. It has main interesting features and good specifications, such as very decent camera, excellent display, good performance and long battery life. Of course, the low price is one of the main reasons why Redmi Note 5 was so popular.

Not surprising that we had very high expectations from Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro. Finally, we got it, and here is full review, unboxing and tests. Is it really good upgrade from Redmi Note 5? Let’s find out.

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Unboxing

The package doesn’t differ from many other Xiaomi smartphones. Inside the box, in addition to the smartphone, you can find user manual, SIM needle, silicone case, USB cable and power adapter. In general, everything is standard.

Design

The design of Redmi Note 6 Pro is typical for Redmi series in 2018. However, the notch above the display makes it similar to Xiaomi Mi 8. The notch hides dual front camera, earpiece, as well as light and proximity sensors.

The backside of the smartphone is unremarkable. There is dual main camera and fingerprint scanner.

By the way, as you already noticed, we have a blue version, and it looks very beautiful. Also you can choose from black, red, pink gold color options.

The top edge has 3.5 mm headphone jack, infrared port (IR) and microphone.

On the right side, there is a volume rocker and a power key, while on the left – hybrid slot for dual SIM and microSD memory card.

On the bottom you can see a microUSB port, a multimedia speaker and a main microphone. By the way, the microUSB port is shameful for 2018. It means that new Xiaomi smartphone does not support fast charging. Very sad.

Display

The smartphone has 6.26-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9. Despite its budget, there are no complaints about the quality of the display. It provides bright, saturated colors, without blockages in warm or cold shades. Everything is in order with a margin of brightness: the image remains quite readable in bright day sun, and at the same time it does not burn eyes at night.

As in other Xiaomi smartphones, if you wish, you can customize the color temperature for yourself. There is a special option in settings menu.

Of course, one of the most notable and major changes in Redmi Note 6 Pro is a notch above the display. It occupies the most space of the top panel, so there is almost no space for notifications and icons.

If you are notch hater, then you can hide in via settings menu. However, you should note that IPS panel has not so deep black color as AMOLED, so in any case you will see the difference between notch area and display.

Connectivity

We have a global version, and it supports almost all LTE frequencies, including B28. We did not have any problems with signal reception quality. As for the wireless technologies, the smartphone has dual-bang Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 version.

Sound

The built-in speaker in Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is average, both in volume and quality. It strongly lacks detail. When the sound is closer to the maximum volume, the sound turns into a mess.

The speaker location is not the best, because it is quite easy to close it with the hand in horizontal position, for example, when you play games.

The sound in the headphones is quite pleasant. The maximum volume is enough even for very noisy places. In addition, the smartphone has an equalizer setting, and you can choose from various headphones.

Hardware and performance

Redmi Note 6 Pro is powered by the same chipset as its predecessor – Snapdragon 636 with Adreno 509 graphics. It is very strange. We have a version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but also you can get 4GB+64GB version. Both of them support microSD memory cards up to 256GB.

Snapdragon 636 is not the newest processor, but it works very well even in 2018. The user interface is fast and smooth. We didn’t have any errors, slowdowns, brakes and other issues.

We played some heavy games, such as PUBG Mobile, Lineage 2: Revolution and Metal Madness. They ran very well. Of course, we chose low graphics settings. After about half an hour of gaming, the smartphone becomes a little warm, but not hot. Also, there were no serious FPS drawdowns.

Operating system

Our smartphone runs on Android 8.1 Oreo and MIUI 9.6.8 Stable. As we already said, this is global version, so we have Multilanguage support and Google services. In general, MIUI interface looks the same on budget and flagship smartphones. We really like MIUI, because it is stable and energy-efficient user interface. In addition, it has many useful settings and apps. However, we do not recommend launching more than five apps at the same time.

Face unlock

Although Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is a budget smartphone, and it has face unlock function. It works very well, and we are very surprise of it. Yes, today many budget phones have face unlock, but it works very slow and inaccurate. Redmi Note 6 Pro face unlock not much different from the flagship smartphone.

The most interesting thing is that Xiaomi phone recognizes a person not only in full face, but also in profile. You cannot even look at the camera. The main thing is that the eyes are open and in the view field of front camera.

The face unlock works in low light conditions, but little slower. Moreover, the smartphone can recognize the face in complete darkness, but you should put the light wallpaper on the lock screen and set the display backlight brightness to at least 10%.

Cameras

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 was almost perfect camera smartphone in its price category. So, we are especially interested in the camera of Redmi Note 6 Pro.

Our hero comes with dual rear and front cameras. There is 12MP + 5MP sensors on the back, while on the front – 20MP + 2MP sensors. One of the main feature of Redmi Note 6 Pro camera is AI scenes. The smartphone automatically scenes, for example, trees, sky, building, etc., and uses the best settings to get high-quality photos. Below you can see real sample photos and videos.

In general, we are satisfied with the camera, especially in daytime. The photos are bright and detail. If you are using AI mode, then the shots have more saturated colors.

Find original photos and videos by this link.

The front camera is very impressive on this smartphone. It also has two sensors, so you can use depth effect and portrait mode for selfies. In addition, there is AI camera and beauty mode.

The video recording is great on Redmi Note 6 Pro. The smartphone shoots video in Full HD 1080p at 30fps. The camera settings menu has image stabilization function. If it is enabled, the footage is very smooth.

Battery Life

New smartphone received the same battery as last year’s Redmi Note 5. It has a capacity of 4000mAh, so the battery life is identical to its predecessor. The battery test shows that smartphone works about 6.5 hours, but in practice, you can expect about two days of battery life with average usage.

However, the main problem of Redmi Note 6 Pro is microUSB port. The smartphone does not support fast charging, so the full battery charge takes about two and a half hours.

Conclusion

So, we can already say that Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is not so popular as Redmi Note 5 the last year. There are some reasons for that: 1) Xiaomi released too many budget smartphones in 2018, and they look very similar to each other, both appearance and specifications; 2) Redmi Note 6 Pro has almost the same specifications, as Redmi Note 5.

The main updates in new smartphone is the notch above the display, face unlock and improved cameras. The performance, software, display and battery are remained the same. Therefore, if you already have Redmi Note 5, then you do not have sense to buy Redmi Note 6 Pro. However, our hero is still one of the best smartphones on the budget market in 2018. It will be very hard to find something similar with the same cameras, large battery, good performance and stable software.