Redmi 10 Prime review



Redmi phones usually have what it takes to be the value champ, offering a fairly balanced set of features for their price point. But they can't all be hits. Every once in a while, there comes a Xiaomi phone that breaks that flow and fails to live up to expectations. The new Redmi 10 Prime is one of those. It manages to nail certain aspects better than any other phone in its category but falls flat in most others — its pricing doesn’t make the situation any better.
 

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Brand: Redmi
  • Storage: 64/128GB, expandable
  • CPU: MediaTek Helio G88
  • Memory: 4/6GB
  • Operating System: MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11
  • Battery: 6,000mAh, 18W fast charging
  • Ports: USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Display (Size, Resolution): 6.5" LCD, 2400 x 1080 (20:9), 90Hz, Gorilla Glass 3
  • Camera (Front): 8MP, f/2.0
  • Cameras (Rear): 50MP, f.1.8, HDR (main); 8MP, f/2.2, 120° FoV (ultra-wide); 2MP (macro); 2MP (depth)
  • Price: ₹12,499 (~$170)/₹14,499 (~$200)
  • Connectivity: 4G LTE (dual SIM), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1
  • Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers, splash resistance, IR blaster
  • Dimensions: 162 x 75.6 x 9.6 mm, 192g
  • Colors: Black, blue, white

Design, hardware, what’s in the box

The Redmi 10 Prime borrows a lot of its design elements from its siblings, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It has a nice heft that gives it a solid feel even though its back and frame are made of plastic. However, there’s a buffer plastic layer between the frame and the top glass, which does help better cushion the display during drops but doesn't look as elegant as 2.5D glass melting into the frame. I also found that the frame has noticeable seams on all four corners. It may not be a big deal, especially when you have a cover on, but it makes the Redmi 10 Prime look like what it is: a cheap phone.



Cheap though it may be, Xiaomi got the display right, especially for the price. You get a 90Hz LCD with an adaptive refresh rate, which basically means that it can dial down to 45Hz when you’re looking at static content. For an LCD, it’s got some decent color and brightness. When it comes to outdoor usage, the display may appear a bit dull, though it remains usable. What troubled me was its erratic auto-brightness, which often darkens the screen when the light source is right behind the phone.

Since I quite liked the side-mounted fingerprint reader on the Redmi Note 10, I was hoping the 10 Prime would be in the same league. Unfortunately, its fingerprint implementation turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments for me. The scanner failed to recognize my fingers almost a third of the time, and I had to frustratingly resort to punching in the PIN every time that happened.

Software, performance, and battery

Redmi has gone for a MediaTek Helio G88 processor, which launched in July specifically for budget phones like the 10 Prime. The phone performed well at running all kinds of regular apps on my daily use, and I even got high-quality graphics settings on many games I tried. Sure, the gaming experience wasn’t flawless, but it was still enjoyable. And while some older MediaTek chips in this range have been prone to heating issues, I’m happy to report that it isn’t the case here, and the Redmi 10 Prime handles stress without throttling noticeably.

Even though the processor did its job well, I still faced a myriad of performance issues, for which the poorly optimized MIUI version is to blame. For instance, switching between apps isn’t smooth, even by the standards of cheap phones. There’s a bug in which the app icons don’t appear in the first go when you search in the menu. And it doesn’t get any better when it comes to RAM management. The phone couldn’t even hold three basic apps like Google Keep and TickTick in memory, even though more than half of its 6GB capacity was unused. We can only guess how worse it would be for the lower-tier 4GB RAM model. Speaking of software goof-ups, the phone’s screen-on timer often wouldn’t budge after a point, forcing me to manually log the screen-on time for the sake of this review

You also have to keep in mind that post-launch price rises are becoming a trend with Xiaomi phones, particularly at the lower end. We cannot rule out that the 10 Prime, which is already a bad value, could get even worse. We have seen that happen to the Redmi Note 10, which started out at the same price as the 10 Prime, but now you’ll have to shell out a couple of thousand more for it. But the fact is that you’d be better off with the far more capable Note 10, even with its revised prices, than going for the 10 Prime.
Buy it if…
Excellent battery life is all that matters to you.
Don’t buy it if…
You don’t mind spending more on a better overall phone.
You plan to take any photos, ever.