Introduction the Stylish Redmi 10 Prime
The Redmi 10 Prime is the latest offering from Xiaomi in the budget segment. The smartphone was launched in India on September 3, 2021, and is the successor to the Redmi 9 Prime. The Redmi 10 Prime boasts of some impressive features such as a 90Hz Full HD+ display, a MediaTek Helio G88 processor, a 50MP quad-camera setup, and a massive 6000mAh battery. But is it worth buying? Let’s find out in this review.
Design and Display
The Redmi 10 Prime follows the ‘Evol’ design language that Xiaomi introduced with the Redmi Note 10 series. The smartphone has a plastic body with a glossy finish that attracts fingerprints easily. The back panel has a gradient pattern that reflects light in different angles. The camera module houses four cameras and protrudes slightly from the back. The smartphone is available in three color options: Astral White, Bifrost Blue, and Phantom Black.
The front of the smartphone has a 6.5-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. The display has a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera in the center and noticeable bezels around it. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and supports adaptive sync technology that adjusts the refresh rate according to the content.
The display quality of the Redmi 10 Prime is decent for its price range. The colors are vibrant, the brightness is adequate, and the viewing angles are good. The 90Hz refresh rate makes the UI smooth and responsive, but it also consumes more battery power. The display also has a reading mode and a dark mode for eye comfort.
The Redmi 10 Prime has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button on the right side. The fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate, and also doubles as a face unlock feature. The left side of the smartphone has a SIM tray that supports two nano-SIM cards and a dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion. The top of the smartphone has a 3.5mm headphone jack, an IR blaster, and a speaker grille. The bottom of the smartphone has a USB Type-C port, a microphone, and another speaker grille. The Redmi 10 Prime has stereo speakers that produce loud and clear sound.
Performance and Battery
The Redmi 10 Prime is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 processor, which is an octa-core chipset with two Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 2GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The processor is paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM depending on the variant you choose. The smartphone also has eMMC 5.1 storage of either 64GB or 128GB depending on the variant you choose.
The performance of the Redmi 10 Prime is satisfactory for its price range. The smartphone can handle day-to-day tasks such as browsing, social media, messaging, and streaming without any lag or stutter. The smartphone can also run casual games such as Candy Crush, Subway Surfers, and Temple Run smoothly. However, when it comes to heavy games such as PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and Asphalt 9, the smartphone struggles to maintain consistent frame rates and graphics quality. You may have to lower the graphics settings and resolution to get a playable experience.
The Redmi 10 Prime runs on MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11 out of the box. MIUI is a custom skin that offers a lot of features and customization options, but also comes with some bloatware and ads that may annoy some users. You can disable some of the unwanted apps and notifications from the settings menu, but not all of them. MIUI also has some useful features such as second space, dual apps, app lock, game turbo, floating window, and gesture navigation.
The battery life of the Redmi 10 Prime is one of its main highlights. The smartphone packs a massive 6000mAh battery that can easily last for more than a day with moderate usage. Even with heavy usage involving gaming, streaming, and camera usage, the smartphone can last for more than half a day. The smartphone also supports reverse wired charging that allows you to charge other devices using a USB cable.
The downside of having such a big battery is that it takes a long time to charge it fully. The Redmi 10 Prime comes with an 18W fast charger in the box, but it still takes more than two hours to charge the battery from zero to 100 percent. Some competitors in this price range offer faster charging speeds that can save you some time.
Camera
The Redmi 10 Prime has a quad-camera setup at the back that consists of a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth camera. The primary camera has an f/1.8 aperture and uses pixel binning technology to combine four pixels into one for better low-light performance. The ultra-wide-angle camera has an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view. The macro camera has an f/2.4 aperture and can capture close-up shots of objects from a distance of 4cm. The depth camera has an f/2.4 aperture and helps in creating a bokeh effect for portrait shots.
The camera performance of the Redmi 10 Prime is average for its price range. The primary camera can capture decent photos in daylight with good details, colors, and dynamic range. However, in low-light situations, the photos lose sharpness, detail, and clarity, and show a lot of noise and grain. The night mode can improve the brightness and contrast of the photos, but not by much.
The ultra-wide-angle camera can capture more of the scene in a single frame, but the photos have distorted edges, lower resolution, and weaker colors than the primary camera. The macro camera can capture some interesting details of small objects, but the photos lack focus and detail. The depth camera can create a nice background blur for portrait shots, but the edge detection is not very accurate.
Verdict
The Redmi 10 Prime is a budget smartphone that offers some impressive features such as a 90Hz Full HD+ display, a MediaTek Helio G88 processor, a 50MP quad-camera setup, and a massive 6000mAh battery. However, it also has some drawbacks such as average camera performance, slow charging speed, and bloatware-filled software. If you are looking for a smartphone that can offer you a smooth display experience, a long battery life, and decent performance for casual usage, then you can consider the Redmi 10 Prime. However, if you are looking for a smartphone that can offer you better cameras, faster charging speeds, and cleaner software experience, then you may want to look at some other options in this price range such as
