The Redmi lineup is now a sub-brand of Xiaomi, and the first device to be unveiled under the “new” branding is the Redmi Note 7. Featuring a 48MP primary camera sensor and affordable price tags, the new Note 7 is a mighty interesting mid-ranger.
Let’s start with the Redmi Note 7’s impressive 48MP camera. Paired with a 5MP sensor – it’s responsible for capturing depth information – the 48MP primary shooter can do pixel binning to improve low light camera performance. Supposedly, this allows the Note 7 to capture the equivalent of a 12MP image with 1.6-micron pixels.
This sounds good in theory, of course, and if implemented well on the Note 7, it will dramatically improve the phone’s low light camera performance. But until we test out the Note 7’s camera for ourselves, we’ll reserve judgment.
Not surprisingly, the Note 7’s camera is also integrated with a number of AI features. Not only can it do “handheld night photography” – the same feature found on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 – the camera also supports AI scene detection, AI beautify, and AI portraits. On the front, the phone has a 13MP selfie camera.
Okay, so that’s the Redmi Note 7’s camera, which sounds very promising on paper. Next, we have the phone’s pretty sleek-looking design. The subtle gradient finish on the back panel looks great, the small notch at the top of the display isn’t very intrusive, and the bottom bezel is reasonably small as well.
On top of that, Sporting 2.5D glass panels on the front and back, we reckon the Note 7 will feel pretty premium in the hand too. Despite its affordable price tag, this phone also comes with a USB Type-C port – very impressive.
As for the Redmi Note 7’s display, it’s a 6.3-inch 19.5:9 Full HD+ panel protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Thanks to the display’s 1080p resolution, the phone’s generous 4,000mAh battery should be able to return good battery life.
Powering the Redmi Note 7 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset; a very capable upper mid-range SoC. If you’re wondering if you can play mobile games effectively with this phone, worry not: you should be able to get playable frame rate on popular titles like PUBG Mobile with this phone.
Other specifications of the Redmi Note 7 include up to 6GB of RAM, two choices of internal storage (32GB or 64GB), a 3.5mm headphone jack, and even an IR blaster. Interestingly, the Note 7 comes with an 18-month warranty in China as well – this is touted as a first in the Chinese market.
The Redmi Note 7 is a well-equipped mid-range smartphone with a sleek design, and its camera performance is very, very promising. The best part is, none of these are the Note 7’s most appealing aspect; in our opinion, of course.
What makes the Note 7 such a compelling smartphone is its sheer value for money. In China, the base model with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM is offered at merely 999 Chinese yuan. That’s only about RM600, which is ridiculously affordable given the Note 7’s feature set.
If you want more RAM and storage capacity, the 64GB models with 4GB and 6GB of RAM retail at 1,199 yuan (approximately RM725) and 1,399 yuan (around RM845) respectively. Still very affordable price tags.
However, at the time of writing, the Redmi Note 7 is only available in China. It remains to be seen if the mid-ranger will be available anywhere else, especially after the re-positioning of the Redmi brand in Xiaomi’s portfolio. Hopefully, the Note 7 will be sold outside of China in the very near future; according to our sources, there’s a good chance the phone will be made available in Malaysia sometime in February 2019.
Given its competitive pricing and attractive set of features, we’re confident the Redmi Note 7 will be one of the best – if not the best – mid-range smartphones in markets where it is available.