The mid-range smartphone scene in the country is getting interesting by the day, more-so with the official launch of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Series earlier in the month. These devices pack quite a number of impressive features that offer a good user experience and value for money. Under this series, there are two models in the Kenyan market – Redmi Note 10 and Redmi Note 10 Pro.
The first thing that struck me before I delved into the specs is the colours the phones come in. I am a lover of beautiful, unique gadgets and the soft colours immediately struck a chord. I could totally see myself opting for the Gradient Bronze, with the Pebble White as a close alternative. There is also an Onyx Black version for those who prefer a darker phone.
Colour aside, The Redmi Note 10 and Note 10 Pro bring a host of new upgrades and features that a lot of users will fall in love with.
Cameras
Apart from communication which is the core business of a phone, cameras are the one area that mobile phone users are most keen on. After all, phone photography is now mainstream, and nobody wants to be the one taking grainy photos. This is not lost on phone manufacturers and cameras are getting more advanced at each launch. One almost feels like they will soon get us to professional photography!
The Redmi Note 10 has a 48MP quad-camera, supported by a 2MP macro camera, 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP depth sensor. The selfie camera is 13MP. The Note 10 Pro rear camera comes in at 108MP quad, with support from a 5MP macro, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP depth sensor. The front camera is a 16MP punch hole for those crystal-clear selfies. Punch hole simply means that the camera is a small circle inside the screen, so that there is no pop up or protruding notch.
Battery
The Redmi Note 10 is powered by a 5000mAh battery and the charging system is a fast 33W that uses Type-C cable and port. The Note 10 Pro has a 5020mAh battery, slightly bigger and also supported by 33W fast Type-C charging. This sizes of battery are an assurance that users will rarely run out of charge. And even if they do or almost do, a 33W fast charger is no joke.
Storage
The two variants have different configurations for storage, and hence different prices based on the same. With whichever variant and budget however, you can be assured of a phone that will allow you to multitask without lag, and it will likely not run out of space for your photos, videos, movies and series. Gamers too will be pleased with the phones since these specs are guaranteed to support the complexity and fast speeds of gaming. Storage for both phones is expandable via microSD.
Have a look at this table for a clear picture of the memory and prices.
Redmi Note 10 Pro
- 6GB RAM/64GB storage: Ksh 27,499
- 6GB RAM/128GB storage: Ksh 29,999
- 8GB RAM/128GB storage: Ksh 31,899
Redmi Note 10
- 4GB RAM/64GB storage: Ksh 19, 499
- 4GB RAM/128GB storage: Ksh 21,499
- 6GB RAM/128GB storage: Ksh 23,499/-
Other features
The Redmi Note 10 and Note 10 Pro have a lot of other features. The Note 10 Pro for example comes in with a 6.67” AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This is quite a leap since most smartphones here have a top refresh rate of 90Hz. It has a Snapdragon 732G processor.
The Note 10 on the other hand has a 6.43″ AMOLED display and a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 678 processor. It comes with Android 11 and MIUI 12 pre-installed.
The Redmi Note 10 comes with an infrared blaster, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometrics, a headphone jack, stereo speakers and an IP53 rating.
There is a lot of good things going on with these phones and we will be writing a comprehensive review once we get to interact with them. For now, from the specs, they already look modern and powerful.
