Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T Review
Fast Facts
Height: 161.15mm
Width: 75.4mm
Thickness: 8.6mm
Weight: 199.8g
Operating System: MIUI 11 based on Android 9
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 610 graphics processor
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB of internal storage. Can be expanded with a microSD card.
Battery: 4000mAh
Supports 18W Fast Charge
What’s in the box?
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T contains all of the items that you’d expect to find – the phone itself, a USB-C cable, and an 18W fast charger.
Design
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T certainly looks and feels the part. The review unit I had came in the beautiful moonlight white variant. When the light catches it, it’s a thing of beauty.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has, perhaps surprisingly for its price, Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and rear.
You’ll also find a 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC, USB-C port, Dual SIM support, a MicroSD card slot, and an infrared sensor.
The only thing that cheapened the phone was the shiny metal casing that runs around the edge of the device. The metal was also a scratch magnet, and within a couple of hours, I noticed small scratches all over the phone.
Display and Sound
In terms of screen real estate, you get a 6.3-inch IPS FHD+ resolution display, with an 88.3% high screen-to-body ratio. There’s a teardrop notch which houses a 13MP selfie cam. Pictures and videos look vibrant, and text is clear.
As for the sound, at full volume, this phone is very loud. Talking of sound, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has an ingenious function. Using sound waves, it cleans the speakers. I’m not sure if I’ll ever need to use it, but it’s neat nevertheless.
Camera
It beggars belief that a phone costing £159, comes with five cameras. You get four on the back, enclosed in a slightly protruding housing, consisting of a 48MP ultra-high-resolution primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth camera. On the front, hidden in the teardrop notch, is a 13MP selfie camera.
As you can see from the photos below, the results are brilliant. I was genuinely surprised at the quality of the images.
Battery
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has a 4,000mAh battery. At the risk of repeating myself, this is excellent for a phone at this price point. I used the phone as my primary device for a couple of days, and when using the device moderately, it easily lasted a whole day and even some of the next. When it comes to charging, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T includes an 18W fast charger. I was able to charge my phone from flat to full in around an hour and a half.
OS
The OS is a called MIUI 11 and is Xiaomi’s flavour of Android 9. It is simple to use, and it has recently been updated with the option of an App drawer, a feature that was missing from the phone when it was first released. There’s also a reasonably decent dark mode to be found, and you can customise to your heart’s content using various themes.
A couple of issues I had were that the auto-rotate was super sensitive. You only have to rotate the device ever so slightly for the rotation to trigger. This did get a little frustrating. Another issue I had was that the auto-brightness wasn’t always particularly reactive to surrounding light.
The final problem I had, and probably the most annoying, was the inclusion of adverts. To me, this is unacceptable. There are ways to turn them off, but you shouldn’t have to.
Performance
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 and 4GB RAM. Therefore, it isn’t the fastest phone in the world. However, it is more than fast enough. It handled multitasking efficiently, and I was able to play all games, including power-hungry titles like Call of Duty on medium graphics setting, and Forza Street.
There’s a Game Turbo mode available which allows you focus on gaming. It also gives you some stats, for example, the CPU usage, and FPS counter.
Conclusion
For the price, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T offers incredible value for money. It’s pretty quick, includes an NFC sensor, has a fingerprint unlock sensor, not forgetting the excellent 48MP Quad Camera. This is the ideal phone for someone looking for lots of high-end features, at a low-end price.
You can see me talking about this phone and some other Xiaomi products in the video below.
Rapid Reviews Rating
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