The just-launched Redmi Note 7 Pro has some big shoes to fill. Its own. Ever since Xiaomi let its Redmi Note 3 loose into the Indian budget phone market, the company has had a runaway success on its hands. So much of a success, that each subsequent generation of the Redmi Note has had to walk a tightrope to live up to expectations set by the previous gen, offering better features but keeping the price steady.

Today the market has become crowded with value-for-money smartphones, trying to ape the Xiaomi formula of offering solid performance and features at surprisingly low prices. Samsung, Asus, Realme and many others have been tripping over themselves to show they can do the same. Quite obviously, Xiaomi had to do something with its next Redmi to be able to stay a step ahead. And it’s probably done just that with the Redmi Note 7 Pro.

Sizzling colours in glass

Leaving behind a design that was getting a bit matronly, Xiaomi has given the Note 7 Pro a nice face-lift. Or back-lift, if you will. Two of the three colour variants available wear an attractive gradient. The Nebula Red is a red-pink-purple progression that looks young and vibrant and is instantly the favourite of many who’ve seen it. The Neptune Blue, my own favourite, is a blue-purple, and looks seductive, getting better with the tinted back cover provided, whereupon it becomes a deep grape colour. However, I’m stuck with the Space Black which is just, well, black, but preferred by many, I’m told. But colour is not all the Note 7 Pro has in store. The back is also made of glass with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. That’s a prerogative of more expensive phones, but Xiaomi just changed the rules on that. Needless to say it looks quite glitzy and premium, as much functional as fashion accessory. The device is a bit slippery, of course, but use A case for when you’re not sitting around just admiring your phone. It’s easily grippable and comfortable to hold. It’s not very light, but if you want that 4,000mAh battery, you’ll have to make your peace with the weight. The battery performs beautifully, if not more so.

There’s plenty to admire on the front of the Note 7 Pro as well. First, we have a vibrant, 6.3-inch bright 1080 x 2340 pixels. LTPS screen that’s really rather nice. Xiaomi has found a new shape for the notch. It’s rounded it enough to call it a ‘dot notch’. It’s that all right but because I’m not used to it, I tend to notice the dot rather a lot. You can hide the notch with a black bar from Settings, and the display will look a bit more symmetrical since there’s a thicker border at the bottom, if you like. There’s no in-display fingerprint sensor, but it’s to be found in its usual place on the back of the phone where most people have become accustomed to feeling for it.

Despite maximising the screen space, Xiaomi has managed to keep the headphone jack, the IR blaster, and a notification light at the bottom. The phone isn’t waterproof but it does have a coating that makes it resistant to small splashes.

Another winning feature on the Note 7 Pro is the processor it runs on: the Snapdragon 675, crafted by Qualcomm specifically for gaming power, AI tasks on-device, and quick camera performance, and thought to be better than the Snapdragon 765, also meant for mid-range phones. Performance is quite lag-free and nowhere in the region of what once used to be the domain of budget phones. Everything is quite fast and snappy. The phone has 4GB or 6GB of RAM with 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage, depending on what you opt for.

There are still new phones that run on the older Android 8.1 but this phone is humming along smoothly on Android 9 Pie. On top of that, it uses Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 interface, which some love and others hate. It’s a feature-packed customisation that can sometimes feel annoyingly busy and intrusive but other times has useful tricks that others have quickly imitated.

To get a different look on the home screens, you’ll need to get a launcher downloaded from the Play Store which is when you can get an app drawer, if you’re used to that. Given the dense interface though, the performance is still good, including multitasking and gaming.

Big annoyance

By far the most annoying thing on this phone is the bombardment of ads that pop out at you in a multitude of places. It’s on your wallpaper, if you choose Xiaomi’s pack, it’s there when you use some feature such as cleaning up your phone of junk files, it’s even there when you download some app of your choice from the Play Store, prompting you to install something else.

The ads may be one way the phone’s price is kept down, but for someone who can’t be bothered fiddling with settings all the time, this is going to be a huge serious frustration.

But then you many want to put up with annoyances because you get a pretty good camera for the price.

Camera surprise

You wouldn’t have thought to see a 48 megapixel camera on a phone that costs less than ₹15,000. But here it is. The protruding camera assembly flattens out when you use a case — so that’s another good reason to do so. The Note 7 Pro has the excellent Sony IMX586 sensor on board. Xiaomi uses the pixel-binning technology popular now to combine pixels into larger ones allowing for more detail to be packed in. By default, the 48MP camera shoots at 12MP, which is the best, specially if not out in very good light. If you need the full 48MP file — and that won’t be too many people — use the Pro mode, select 48MP and take your shot. The dual camera does very well with details and colour in good light. The Portrait mode is made possible with the second 5MP camera and does an OK job — acceptable.

This device has a Night mode similar to the one on the Pixel 3, OnePlus 6T and other phones. While it doesn’t manage the magic of the Google phone which captures what the human eye cannot see, it does light up the scene without just filling it with artificial looking brightness. It retains details, though it over-sharpens them somewhat. The selfie camera is particularly good for a budget phone and doesn’t overdo anything. The video is pretty good as well, that too without OIS.

Overall, Xiaomi has packed in enough on this phone to make it difficult to complain.

Price: ₹13,999

Pros: Classy and glassy; modernised design; negligible notch; impressive new processor; great display; camera matches up to those on more expensive devices; moved to USB-C; great battery life; good performance

Cons: Too many tough-to-shut-off ads; too many pre-installed apps

comment COMMENT NOW