46 MAY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE387
GIVENXIAOMIMANAGEDtomake the £99
Redmi 7A (Shopper383) look like ahigh-end
handset, it should be no surprise that the
Redmi Note8T–which is more expensive,but
still within budget territory –also appears
much more premium than it actually is.
It’s quiteheftyinthe hand, weighing in at
200g, but then it is packing 6.3in of screen,
which does agoodjob of minimising the bezel
all the wayaround. The sides are curved
around the edges, contrasting with the flat
back, where you’ll find not just afingerprint
reader,but afour-lens camera array.
It’s not the most practical of designs,
as the camera sensors jut outwards and
prevent the Note8Tfrom sitting completely
flat, but it looks nice enough. Expandable
microSD storage,NFC and aheadphone jack
are included too, although there aren’t any
genuinely luxury extras such as wireless
charging or waterproofing.
HEAVY HITTER
The 6.3in screen is an IPS panel with a
resolution of 2,340x1,080, plenty sharp
enough forthe price.It’s agoodperformer
too, covering 95.7% of the sRGB gamut
without oversaturation, and hitting ahigh
contrast ratio of 1,571:1.Wealso measured a
peak brightness of 482cd/m^2 ,enough to deal
with the glare of direct sunlight.
In terms of internals, the Redmi Note8Tis
amid-ranger to its core,which is pretty
impressive given its sub-£200 price.Inour
test model, 4GB of RAM backed up the
2GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 665
processor; 3GB versions
are also available.
That Snapdragon is the
same chipset we’ve
recently seen in the
Motorola MotoG8Plus
(Shopper385), which
sells for£60 more.
Performance was
subsequently almost
identical, with the Note
8T’s Geekbench 4scores
(1,507 in the single-core
test and 5,600 in the
multitasking test)
jostling with those of
the Motorola handset.
They’re also notably
much higher than those
of such budget rivals as
XIAOMI RedmiNote8T
★★★★★
£170•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
There’s no need toask what the catch is with this
excellent budget smartphone; there isn’t one
ANDROID9.0SMARTPHONE
the Nokia 5.1and
MotoG7Power
(Shopper376); it even
trades blows with the
much more expensive
Google Pixel 3a
(Shopper378), which
scored slightly higher
on single-core power
but is alittle less
effective at
multitasking.
That said, the
Pixel 3a pulls ahead
significantly on
gaming performance;
the Note8Taveraged
17fps in the GFXBench
Manhattan onscreen
test, and 19fps in the offscreentest. Again,
these results beat the Nokia 5.1, but you
won’t get much higher frames-per-second
than Motorola’s cheap phones.
Still, in day-to-dayuse,the Note8Tis
perfectly capable.That’s even despitethe
sheer amount of bloatware included via
Xiaomi’s MIUI skin: be prepared to delete
alot of pre-installed apps if you want a
cleaner Android experience.
In better news, the Note8Tlasted for
ahealthy 14h 53m in our battery test.
Although this doesn’t put it anywhere near
the MotoG7Power on endurance,it’s a
respectable result, and one that, yet again,
gives the Pixel 3a arun forits money.
HOTQUAD
Another pleasant
surprise is the camera.
It’s not every dayyou see
afour-lens arrangement
on asub-£200
smartphone,but here
you get a48-megapixel
main sensor,an
8-megapixel ultrawide
lens, a2-megapixel
depthsensor for
bokeh-effect shots and a
2-megapixel macro lens
forextreme close-ups.
This final lens is very
good indeed; you can
capture loads of detail,
and macro lenses are still
quiterare features to
find on any handset.
We’d saythat the
Pixel 3a’s single-lens
camera beats the Note
8T’s main sensor for
general photoduties,
but even so,the latter
is worthy of praise as
well. It toocan pick up
fine details, even when
zoomed in and with
sub-optimal outdoor
lighting, and is about
on equal terms with
the more expensive
MotoG8Plus on
overall image quality.
In trickyindoor
low-light conditions,
things are markedly
worse,albeit farfrom disastrous. While colour
reproduction is pretty good, the Note8Thas
atendency to blur the edges of objects, but
this is nothing the MotoG8Plus doesn’t do
as well. If anything, Motorola’s phone also
introduces atouch more visual noise.
BETTER RED
As forvideo,the Redmi Note8Tiscapable of
recording 720p,1080p and 4K footage at 30fps,
with the option to increase that to 60fps for
the 1080p setting. Foraphone of this price,
the footageispretty good –maybe slightly
lacking in detail, but with electronic image
stabilisation at 1080p/30fps video is certainly
usable,which is the main thing. Many budget
handsets fall at this hurdle outright.
And that kind of sums up the Redmi Note
8T.It’s no flagship beater,but it’s farbetter
than it has any right to be with plenty of
change from £200. It has the same grunt as
the MotoG8Plus, narrowly beats it on
camera performance and sells for£60 less.
What’s not to like?
AlanMartin
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 88 forperformancedetails
PROCESSOROcta-core2GHzQualcomm Snapdragon 665•
SCREEN SIZE6.3in•SCREEN RESOLUTION2,340x1,080•
REAR CAMERAS48 megapixels, 8megapixels,2megapixels,2
megapixels•STORAGE64GB•WIRELESS DATA4G•NFC
Yes•DIMENSIONS161x75x8.6mm•WEIGHT200g•
OPERATING SYSTEMAndroid 9.0•WARRANTYOneyear
RTB•DETAILSwww.mi.com•PART CODERedmiNote8T
SPECIFICATIONS
14h 53m
