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00:00This is the new Redmi Note 10 Pro from Xiaomi and while we are only a few months into the year so far at least
00:07I think this is the best budget phone you can buy. Hey guys, I'm TomatechChap, and this will sell you back just
00:14$279 when it launches in early April and for that you're getting a 120 Hertz AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 732 G, a big
00:245020 milliamp hour battery, quad camera setup with a
00:27108 megapixel main lens, dual SIM, micro SD, dual speakers, even a headphone jack and an IR blaster.
00:35So this is pretty jam-packed with what you'd need, but of course being a well mid-range phone
00:40we are missing a few bells and whistles that you get from higher-end flagships such as there's no 5G or Wi-Fi 6,
00:46it has Gorilla Glass 5 rather than the latest Victus, fairly basic IP53 splash resistance,
00:52although that's better than nothing, and the Snapdragon 732 G, while more than capable, is of course still a mid-range chip.
01:02So yeah, there's always room for improvement, but keeping that price tag of
01:06£270 in mind, I don't think there's a better phone out there for that kind of money.
01:10Now it does kind of feel like Xiaomi releases a new phone every five minutes,
01:15it's kind of hard to keep up to be honest,
01:16but the Redmi Note series has always been a highlight. And now we have the Note 10 Pro.
01:20This is actually quite a big upgrade over last year's Note 9 Pro.
01:24LCD becomes AMOLED, 60 Hertz becomes 120, the Snapdragon 720G is now the 732G, and the 64 megapixel is now
01:34108. And considering it's launching at the same price, that's not bad at all.
01:39And I also think it looks a lot more expensive than other phones at this price point. For example,
01:44the POCO X3 is one of its closest rivals, but I much prefer this more subtle styling.
01:50So I do like the look of it, if I can get that to focus in, but firstly you can see it does pick
01:55up the odd smudge or fingerprint, and also this onyx grey color. Well, it's not the most exciting really.
02:01I think I'd rather go for the glacier blue or the gradient bronze
02:05colors of this. So on the front we're getting Gorilla Glass 5,
02:08with a plastic frame on the outside and a curved glass back. On the right side,
02:13we're getting a fingerprint reader built into the power button.
02:16You also have the option for face unlocking,
02:18but I still find this much more reliable than, say, a cheap optical in-screen reader.
02:23And it's just one press to power and unlock it. As the YouTuber cliche goes,
02:28it does feel good in the hand, but one of the highlights of the Note 10 Pro is this 6.67 inch
02:34screen. It is full HD+, but unlike the Note 9 Pro, it's 120 Hertz and also AMOLED.
02:40So we're getting much richer and inkier colors,
02:43thanks to the higher contrast ratios, along with much better viewing angles. And actually, diving deeper,
02:48it turns out we're getting the same Samsung-made AMOLED panel that's used on the S21 and the Xiaomi Mi 11.
02:54So this is a very good screen. I must admit though, when I first unboxed and started testing this,
02:59I didn't have the spec sheet with me,
03:01so it was a pleasant surprise when I went exploring in the display settings to see this 120 Hertz option.
03:07Although it doesn't appear we're getting any kind of adaptive or auto mode with the refresh rate,
03:11so unlike higher-end phones that can dynamically adjust the refresh rate to save battery, here you pick 60 or 120.
03:18It makes such a big difference though, especially combined with the 240 Hertz touch sampling.
03:23So whether you're gaming or just swiping around the menus and home screens, because I know MIUI isn't everyone's favorite Android skin,
03:30but at 120 Hertz, it's much smoother and more responsive.
03:33I really don't mind it and there's tons of options for customization,
03:37but I think my only criticism would be that we're still getting lots of bloatware and pre-installed apps.
03:43So there's actually three versions of this. The entry-level spec gets you 6 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage.
03:48The mid-tier one, the one that I've got here, also has 6 gigs of RAM but 128 storage.
03:53And then there's a top spec one which gets you 8 gigs of RAM, but also 128 storage.
03:58But don't forget we do have that microSD card support, so you can expand the storage on any of them.
04:02So you could probably get away with going for the cheapest one.
04:05Now just a quick mention of the battery, and it's actually the same
04:095020 mAh battery as the Note 9 Pro, albeit with ever so slightly faster 33 watt charging.
04:15Now I've only had a few days with the Note 10 Pro, so I will need a bit more time to fully test the battery.
04:20But so far I'm finding I have about 30% of my battery left by 11 p.m.
04:25Of course, the jump up to 120 Hertz will have an impact on battery in the order of around 10%.
04:31But then again, we are getting a more efficient AMOLED screen along with a full HD resolution and a good sized battery.
04:37So the Note 10 Pro will easily get you through a full day and then some.
04:42Okay, camera time and the 2020 trend of just chucking in macro and depth sensors to pad out the marketing
04:49so we can say it's got a quad camera setup is still going on. But to my surprise, they're actually pretty good.
04:55I don't usually start off camera tests playing with a macro lens because, well, they're usually terrible.
05:01But these 5 megapixel f2.4 photos from the so-called tele macro lens are actually surprisingly good.
05:08Plus in these couple of portrait mode shots, you can see the edge detection and also that natural looking bokeh behind me.
05:14It all looks quite good and it's presumably helped by that depth sensor. A good start then.
05:19But I think a proper telephoto lens would have been nice to see. We're only getting a digital zoom here.
05:23But the main and the ultrawide lenses are the most important and so far I like what I'm seeing.
05:29So the main lens, 108 megapixels, although the 9 into 1 pixel binning means we're actually ending up with 12 megapixel photos
05:36unless you switch to the full high resolution mode.
05:39And importantly, not only is this a higher resolution than the Note 9 Pro, but we're also getting a new and crucially bigger sensor.
05:46It's still not quite as good as the sensor used in the flagship Mi 11 or upcoming Mi 11 Pro, but that's to be expected given the price.
05:54And with the F1.9 aperture, photos are bright, we're getting good dynamic range and close-up shots offer a really nice depth of field.
06:01Swiping over to the more tab and you'll see a whole bunch of different modes, including night mode,
06:06which I'd actually edit and put on the main carousel for quicker access.
06:09Xiaomi are calling it Night Mode 2.0, which uses, and I quote, advanced RAW multi-frame algorithms.
06:17So essentially multiple RAW photos combined into one to give us brighter and sharper low-light shots.
06:25Around the front, we're getting a 16 megapixel camera, although again, that's pixel binned down to 4 megapixels with an F2.45 aperture.
06:34But photos, portraits and even night mode selfies on the Note 10 Pro, overall quality is very impressive.
06:40Cute or creepy? What do you think?
06:43So I'm shooting this at 4K 30. I'm also using the microphones to, well, record my voice.
06:49This is a little behind the scenes of my surprisingly small living room and desk office setup.
06:55I try to cram in all my filming in this little space.
06:58But this is being shot at 4K 30 and if I start walking, you can really feel that judder.
07:04It's not the smoothest at 4K, although in good light, quality is actually really nice and also the focusing is pretty fast.
07:11Let's go from the flower to that British dog thing in the background, whatever that is.
07:17So let's switch to Tainty P to see if the stabilization is any better.
07:22Okay, same again, now shooting at Tainty P and even just looking at the screen as I'm filming this, it looks a whole lot smoother than the 4K.
07:29So I think most of the time, you're probably going to want to stick with Tainty P if you are walking or moving around.
07:35So let's switch things around and now we're shooting this from the front facing selfie camera.
07:40It tops out at Tainty P. There's no 4K selfie video option, unfortunately.
07:45Let's go over to my desk where I'm transferring some files for actually editing this video.
07:49I've just shot some B-roll. I'm using Premiere Pro.
07:52This is my desk setup, which is a crazy mess behind the scenes at the moment.
07:58But yeah, what do you think of the video? Also the microphones?
08:01Let me know in the comments below. Back to work.
08:05So Xiaomi's camera tech has, well, come a long way in the last couple of years.
08:09Of course, this still won't compete with your Galaxy S21s or your iPhone 12s.
08:13But for the price, it's very impressive.
08:16And the other nice thing is that not only are we getting a better camera than before,
08:19but actually viewing your photos and videos back on this AMOLED screen is an even better experience.
08:24Downsides? Well, phones like the Poco X3 are very similar and actually about £50 cheaper,
08:30although you are missing out on that AMOLED screen.
08:33Also, while the 732G chip is slightly faster than last year, it's not a big upgrade and it still doesn't support 5G.
08:40So it would have been good to see something like the newer 750G, which came out late last year.
08:45And it's also a shame we don't have a proper telephoto camera lens.
08:48But I think other than that, there's not a whole lot to complain about.
08:52So I think you can probably tell by now that, yeah, I really like this phone.
08:56It does remain to be seen how the competition will stack up in this $300 price range,
09:01because this is actually one of the first good budget phones to come out in 2021 so far.
09:06But with some really significant upgrades over last year's model,
09:09a fantastic screen, a solid camera, and also the same competitive price,
09:13this is the budget phone to beat so far.
09:16But what do you reckon? Would you be tempted to buy the Note 10 Pro?
09:19Or are you maybe going to hold out and see what other mid-range and affordable phones are coming out?
09:24Let me know what you think in the comments below.
09:25And if you do want to check this out, I will leave links in the description below.
09:29And hopefully you enjoyed this video.
09:31And if you do want to see more from me, tap that subscribe button, ding that bell, all those annoying things.
09:35And I will catch you next time right here on the Tech Chat.
09:38Cheers for watching.