Redmi has been on a roll lately, they have been releasing phone after phone for the K20 series and the Note 8 series. Everyone is really excited about their every release these days and they have recently just dropped in another budget winner which is the Redmi 8, this one is for me another great performer without really hurting your pocket.
Redmi 8 Specs Sheet
- 6.22 inches, IPS LCD display @ 1520 x 720 pixels, 270ppi, 19:9 Ratio
- 81.8% Screen to Body Ratio
- 2.0 Ghz Qualcomm SDM439 Snapdragon 439 (12 nm) Octa-core (2×1.95 GHz Cortex-A53 & 6×1.45 GHz Cortex A53)
- Adreno 505 GPU 650Mhz
- 3GB / 4GB RAM
- 32GB/64GB Internal storage
- Expandable via microSD, up to 512GB
- 12MP 1.4μm Rear Camera, f/1.8, 1/2.55″, Dual Pixel PDAF, AI
- 2MP Secondary Rear Camera, depth sensor
- 8MP front-facing camera, 1080p, AI, HDR, Face Unlock, f/2.0, 1.12µm Aperture
- Dual-SIM (Sim 1 Nano + Sim 2 Nano + SD Card), P2i nano hydrophobic coating
- 4G LTE, 4G+
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth 4.2
- GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, QZSS
- Fingerprint scanner, IR Blaster
- USB-C Port
- 5000 mAh battery, 18W Fast Charge
- Android 9 on MIUI 10.3
- 156.5mm x 75.4mm x 9.4mm
- 190 grams
- Available in Blue, Green, Grey
Unboxing
The box is very clean and colorful
Design
The Redmi 8 has revamped its design, after releasing a semi so-so Redmi 7, Redmi has came up with a better design, actually you can compare this with the Redmi Note 8 Pro, with a shinny back design, the phone doesnt look cheap at all. You can possibly mistake it as the Redmi Note 8 Pro if you didnt take a good look at the camera sensor count. The curved edges is quite nice and I believe this phone should be one nice buy be it a main phone or a backup unit for your daily use.
Redmi Logo under the FP Sensor, Dual Camera setup
Snapdragon 439
Finally getting back to earth after a surprising SD 632 showing on the Redmi 7 (probably the only bright side of that unit). Redmi Series are always using SD 4++ and it continues to get back on track for this unit. We did quite some performance test on this unit and for daily multitasking its pretty much easy on the phone. Tho sometimes during heavy usage, there are some time it will bug down a bit and a little, but it will resume after a couple of seconds. Gaming is quite good playing Mobile Legends and it was quite a breeze proceeding with the game after 2 hours of playing already. We did try some Call of Duty and its quite a bit bearable but not the best you can play for that game.
AnTuTu gave this unit a 95558 points rating which is a little behind the 103830 points rating from that of the Redmi 7.
Connectivity
The Redmi 8 supports 10 different LTE bands, it’s easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings but once your do the second sim will be running on GSM connectivity only. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data. We have experienced no problem surfing using LTE or 3G in our home country in the Philippines as well as dual standby mode is working seamlessly. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, and GLONASS are all present and working pretty good. We also have a smooth navigation using Google Maps as it is pretty much accurate in pointing our current location.
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Audio and Video
- MP4
- M4V
- MKV
- AAC
- MP3
Support H.264 (Baseline / Main / High Profile), MPEG4 (simple profile / ASP) video formats,
Support PCM, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, AMR-NB, WB, FLAC, APE audio formats.
Camera
One of the main highlight for every smartphone release is its camera, people will ask whats the improvement on the camera. Everyone loves to take photos, especially selfies. The front camera is sports a Omnivision 8856 Sensor while at the back, its a surprising Sony IMX 486 and a Omnivision 02a10.
Sample Shots
Sample Selfie
Sample Video
Battery Performance
We were able to achieve a good battery rating for this unit since, we lasted a day on normal usage without hitting the charging port or power bank. PC Mark Battery Stress Test gave it a rating of 21 hours and 2 minutes which is a big big jump over the Redmi 7’s 16 Hours and 49 Minutes rating! We charged the phone from 19% to 95% using the stock Charger, it took us 2 hour and 35 minutes to get the job done.
More Benchmarks
Conclusion
The Redmi 8 has outclassed the Redmi 7 in many aspect, this phone has probably bring back the Redmi series to be a contender as the budget king. True to its words, at the price range that it offers, I can say that the camera and the battery life are 2 key winning point of this phone as its really worth considering for its jaw dropping price. I highly recommend this phone for those who wants a good performing phone at a budget or even as a good backup 2nd unit.