Redmi K20 Pro Review: Unleash the Demon King Inside!

Finally the Redmi K20 Pro has reviealed itself after subjected to several rumors that it will probably be named as the Redmi X and so on and so forth on the rumor mills. Now being the first ever flagship killer by Redmi, expectations were high on this unit and I am here to share to you the full review that I can make out of my 8GB/256GB Fiery Red Variant of the Redmi K20 Pro. So hang on tight and I will surely take you all for a spin on this so called flagship killer that will Knock Out any challenger that gets into its way.  

Tech Specs of Redmi K20 Pro:

• ·      Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 Octa-core processor 7nm (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 485)
• ·      Adreno 640 GPU
• ·      6GB/8GB of RAM LPDDR4x 2133Mhz
• ·      6.39-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, (~86.1% screen-to-body ratio)
• ·      1080 x 2340 pixels FHD+ (~403 ppi pixel density), 60,000:1 contrast ratio, 19.5:9 Ratio, NTSC 103.8%
• ·      High color saturation, 430nit, Corning Gorilla 5
• ·      Glass Back Battery Cover Edge to Edge Round Edge
• ·      Black, Fiery Red, Glacier Blue
• ·      64GB / 128GB of storage / 256GB of storage
• ·      48 MP, f/1.75, FOV 79.4, 1/2″ Light Sensing Area, 0.8µm, 6P, SONY IMX 586
•        8 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto) 1/4″, 1.12µm, Laser/PDAF, 2x optical zoom, 10x Digital Zoom, 5P, Omnivision 8856
•        13 MP, f/2.4, (ultrawide), 1/3″, 1.12µm, Samsung S5K3L6
• ·      20 MP front camera, f/2.2, 0.8µm, 3D Beauty, Portrait Mode, Front HDR, Saphire Glass Cover Pop Up Motorized
• ·      7th Generation On Screen Finger print scanner
• ·      Dual SIM (nano sim size)
• ·      3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls
• ·      LTE FDD: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8 LTE TDD: B34/B38/B39/B40/B41
• ·      Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, DUAL Band GPS Phone, A-GPS, NFC
• ·      4000mAh battery, Quick Charge 3.0 Supported, 27 Watts Fast Charging (18W Charger Included)
• ·      2×2 MIMO Technology to support MU-MIMO
• ·      Sensors: Ultrasonic distance sensor, Ambient Light sensor, Gyro, Vibration Motor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Electronic
•        Compass, Camera Laser Sensor
• ·      3.5mm Audio Jack High-Res Audio
• ·      Android Pie 9, MIUI 10.3
• ·      USB-C port, UFS 2.1
• ·      156.77 mm x 74.3 mm x 8.8 mm
• ·      191 Grams

Video Unboxing

Design

The Redmi K20 Pro  is exactly the same as the one being used by the Mi 9T and when we interchanged the case provided, it fits seamlessly, which proves that the phone itself is exactly the same, its just that the Redmi K20 Pro will only be sold in China and India. Now we see that the screen is a 6.39″ Super Amoled and it totally blows my mind away when watching UHD 4K movies. The glass back is curved to the edge which makes holding the phone enjoyable, and both front and back are protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 similar to the Redmi Note 7, I wonder if I can smash watermelons with this one, just that it might rock the world of the pop up camera’s mechanism. This puts the Redmi into another league as they released their first ever phone sporting the latest flagship SoC by Qualcomm.

Unboxing

Video Review

Behold the Carbon Black Version

The Glacier Blue Version

Display and Audio

We were expecting a lot from the display side as we discovered that its sporting a Samsung AMOLED, take note that this is the very first Redmi phone to ever have the Amoled display. The Full HD display did blew me away with its awesome rendering of photos and videos, and probably one thing that is not good with AMOLED is the burn in problems like those on the Samsung Galaxy Flagship Series that we have heard about. We watched several movies and I can say its pretty crisp and detailed especially playing 4K quality movies. The sound was excellent and its not enhanced by hi-fi audio support, I would like to give a special mention to the louspeaker it was really really loud! Even it is not stereo sounds, but it really blew me away when it said WELCOME TO MOBILE LEGENDS. Bluetooth connectivity of headset is also no problem on this unit upon transfering files from Mi 9T, Mi Drop was also seamless. Playing games like PUBG was not a problem and we were able to put it to the highest settings, just dont forget to access the Mi Game Turbo Mode inside the security app.

Please watch this under UHS 4K setting as I render the goodness of the display of Redmi K20 Pro.

Audio Format supported by the Redmi K20 Pro

1217 Xmax 0.4mm large amplitude super linear speaker 
Smart PA 10V Boost boost large volume external release 
0.9cc large sound cavity design 
3.5mm headphone jack | HiFi sound quality | Hi-Res Audio certification
MP4 | M4V | MKV | XVID | WAV | AAC | MP3 | AMR | FLAC | APE

Video Format Supported by the Redmi K20 Pro

– HEVC, H.264, MPEG4, VC-1, VP8, VP9 and other video formats

Snapdragon 855

The very first every Redmi phone to ever sport the flagship SoC of Qualcomm is the Redmi K20 Pro, the Snapdragon 855 SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.84Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the Adreno 640, and of course a generous serving of 6GB or 8GB of RAM, it will give you the best flagship like experience up to date. Not mentioning that it can run even the most graphics hungry games like PUBG and NBA 2K19, not to mention Mobile Legends. We ran several stress test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any slowdown on the opening of any apps in the Redmi K20 Pro , multitasking was a breeze. I can only say that this will give the Mi 9 a great competition for sure.

Antutu rewarded it with a 366,516 which is almost at par with the Mi 9 Flagship.

MIUI 10

Support MI TurboSupport defragmentation I/O performance optimization | Support application startup speed optimization Simulation 18 months use, reduce aging carbton 25%*

Support for Game Turbo 2.0

Support for perceived game complex scenes, intelligent scheduling system resources | Support custom game touch parameters 丨 support custom game display enhancement; ‘

gun battle game 4D shock | game toolbox supports display CPU, GPU occupancy and FPS; support one-click switch network card Other functions*; 

support game performance enhancement, optimize touch response, support custom edge suppression range | support to turn off automatic brightness, three-finger screen capture, eye protection mode.

Screen display

Color AOD display | Dark mode

Connectivity

The Redmi K20 Pro supports 10 different LTE bands and B20 is missing in this midrange which is by far the most popularly demanded band. It’s pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings, and it also supports Dual 4G mode as well. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. 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 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present to support Mi Pay, Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Transfering data from older phones using Mi Mover was also a breeze as well. It also has Dual GPS to give you a more accurate location while using the maps for traveling.

Supported LTE Bands:

Wireless Network
WLAN Protocol: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 
WLAN Frequency: 2.4G WiFi | 5G WiFi 
supports MU-MIMO, supports WiFi Direct, WiFi Display 
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology, Qualcomm TrueWireless TM Stereo Plus 
supports AAC/LDAC/ aptX/aptX-HD/aptX-adaptive

Camera:

The Redmi K20 Pro is have one of the better cameras in the market right now, of course not better than that of the Mi 9 Flagship I believe. I was impressed by the camera shots that I took, even on low lights its still a performer, the only downside I saw was the EIS not being able to perform well and is quite shaky when using to take sample videos, one alternative was to use the Funsnap Capture 2 Gimbal, just perfect!

Sample Photos

Sample Selfies

Sample Videos

Redmi K20 Pro Battery and Benchmark:

The Redmi K20 Pro supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 3.0 and up to 27W of speed. We charged the Redmi K20 Pro and it took in 12V 0.95 Amperes based on our testing using the 27W charger from the Mi 9 and cable. We charged the phone from 15% to 100% in just 53 minutes and it was quite good for a 4000mAh capacity phone. We recorded a 12 hour 37 minutes endurance test Redmi K20 Pro 8/256GB version under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it’s really a good sign for the said smartphone, and based on my daily usage for several days, it was a bit fast in draining on above average usage but this is quite expected from the SD 855 as it is more power hungry compared to the SD 730 series which are very much power efficient.

Hidden Safety Feature of Redmi K20 Pro

More Benchmarks

Verdict

The Redmi K20 Pro is simply the best flagship killer phone in the market now, true to its word from Redmi CEO Lu Weibing, he said that Redmi will strive hard to keep price low but specs high. This is the result of their well kept promise and now the Redmi K20 Pro will take over the Pocophone F1 as this series will not longer be continued as per our sources. This is the first SD 8xx series by Redmi and moving forward, it will be quite hard for Xiaomi to handle so many branding under one company. The Redmi K20 Pro will surely rock the smartphone market in the coming few months.