Xiaomi has officially launched the Redmi 10 Prime in India as its budget smartphone in the Redmi number series. The Redmi 10 Prime is the successor to the Redmi 9 Prime that launched last year in August, but it's more than a regular upgrade, at least on paper. The Redmi 9 series was one of the best-selling phones in the budget segment in India since its launch and now with the Redmi 10 Prime, Xiaomi wants to rejig the status quo and redefine the ideal budget smartphone for 2021.
We have spent a day with the Redmi 10 Prime and while that isn’t enough to actually review the phone, we thought why not give you our initial thoughts about this latest budget phone on the block.
The Redmi 10 Prime is priced starting at Rs 12,499 in India for the base variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and Rs 14,499 for the 6GB + 128GB storage option.
It goes on its first sale from September 7 across Mi India official website, Amazon India and in retail stores.
The Redmi 10 Prime has a plastic build but it doesn’t feel cheap in the hand. Quite the opposite, in fact, the Redmi 10 Prime has a large and extended camera module that makes it seem like a premium phone. The camera array is positioned vertically and houses four cameras and an LED flash unit. The phone has got a curved back design that isn’t too slippery and neither is it too clunky.
It measures 9.5 mm in thickness and weighs 192 grams which aren’t too bad for a budget phone. One of the major reasons behind that heft is also because Xiaomi has re-engineered the global Redmi 10 and fitted a larger 6,000mAh battery in the Prime. The Redmi 10 Prime is being offered in three colours: Astral White, Phantom Black and Bifrost Blue which has a glossy-reflective finish and is a fingerprint and smudge magnet.
We also get dual speakers on the Redmi 10 Prime positioned on the top and at the bottom along with two microphones, an IR blaster and a 3.5mm audio jack. The power button also doubles up as a fingerprint reader which is quick to unlock the phone.
The Redmi 10 Prime has a large 6.5-inch Full HD+ (2400×1080 pixels) resolution display that supports upto a 90Hz refresh rate. The screen has a punch-hole cutout in the top centre for the selfie camera. It has minimal bezels on three sides with a slightly noticeable bottom bezel. The display is also topped with a layer of Gorilla Glass 3 for added protection against regular wear and tear.
The Redmi 10 Prime has an adaptive refresh rate feature that automatically switches between frame rates based on the content being played on the phone. So when the phone is just lying around the display switches to a 45Hz refresh rate while streaming videos take it up to 60Hz. When scrolling or gaming on the Redmi 10 Prime, the display maximizes the refresh rate to 90Hz for an overall smooth experience.
The Redmi 10 Prime is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88 chip which is said to be 30% more powerful than the Helio G85 and brings several upgrades to display, cameras along with the Hyper Engine 2.0 which helps in gaming and dynamic resource allocation.
It is paired with 4GB/6GB LPDDR4x RAM and upto 128GB storage options to choose from. There is a dedicated microSD card slot as well which supports upto 512GB cards. It runs on the latest MIUI 12.5 which is based on Android 11.
In our brief use, we are yet to face any issues that might bring down the performance of the Redmi 10 Prime. Having said that, we will be running extensive tests on the phone for our full review so do check it out for detailed performance analysis.
The Redmi 10 Prime has a large 6,000mAh battery to boot which also supports 18W fast charging and 9W reverse charging. Even with a larger battery capacity, the Redmi 10 Prime weighs 6 grams lighter than the Redmi 9 Prime, which by the way, has a 5,020mAh battery.
Xiaomi has equipped the Redmi 10 Prime with a 50MP primary camera with f/1.8 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with 120-degree field-of-view, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there is an 8MP selfie camera housed within the notch cutout.
The rear cameras can record in 1080p at 30FPS and slow-motion recording in 720p at upto 120FPS.
The primary camera on the Redmi 10 Prime is perhaps one of its biggest highlights and we will be testing it out extensively for our full review. Some of the initial pictures that we took from the phone came out pretty detailed but the colours from the ultra-wide camera look somewhat oversaturated. That being said, we will still need to test the cameras to form a solid opinion about the Redmi 10 Prime.