In November, we met with Redmi Note 8T and the world’s first 108MP camera phone known as Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 (Mi CC9 Pro). The company has launched the redmi Note 10 as a flagship device while the redmi Note 8T arrives as a mid-range mobile phone. It is available in Starscape Blue, Moonlight White, and Moonshadow Grey color options. It offers two RAM and three ROM variants – 3GB/32GB, 4GB/64GB, and 4GB/128GB. The price of the base model is $200, while the 4GB/64GB version costs $220, and you can purchase a 4GB/128GB variant for $270.
Design and Body material
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T uses two flat Gorilla Glass 5 pieces on both panels and the frame made with plastic. There is a very thin earpiece grille just above the water-drop notch, on the back panel, it has a fingerprint scanner, and a vertically shaped quad-camera setup at the top left the corner. A single LED flash on the right side of the camera setup. Dimensionally, it measures 161.1 x 75.4 x 8.6 mm and weighs 200 grams, making it 2mm taller and 10g heavier than the Redmi Note 8. The handset has a power button and volume rockers on the right side while you’ll get SIM tray at the left bezel.
Display
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T features a large 6.3 inches IPS LCD with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels at a 409 PPI density. The screen of the Note 8T is coated with Corning Gorilla 5, but unfortunately, it seems this company ships without a screen protector as opposed to other Xiaomi models. In our display test, the phone gets 1500:1 contrast ratio, and the maximum brightness varied between 430 and 460 nits. It can light up as high as 600 nits in bright ambient light. You can choose the color saturation (default, warm, cool), and we measured an average deltaE of 6.3 with the default preset.
Battery life
The Redmi Note 8T has a 4,000 mAh battery that supports Qualcomm’s 18W fast charge and thanks to the Note 8T ships with a proper 18W charger. Along with the 18W charger, you can charge a 45% battery only in 30 minutes. The Redmi Note 8T has a 108h excellent Endurance rating and gives us around 14:29h videos payback, up to 28h 3G talk time, and 14:50h web browsing.
Software
The Redmi Note 8T runs MIUI 10 based on the top of Android 9 Pie, and it offers Adreno 610 GPU. We can unlock the screen via the snappy rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Besides, you can also add face in the “Face Unlock” term to unlock the phone screen. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has a dark mode, and it switches all system colors from white to black and also saves some battery juice. Bear in mind, many apps haven’t supported the dark mode, but the majorities do. In the MUI 10, there is no App drawer, so all apps are sitting on the home screen, but you can also install a third-party launcher if you miss the app drawer. The default home screen of Redmi Note 8T has a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. It also offers a security app – it scans your device for malware, manages your blacklist, manages or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM.
Along with Security App, it can control the permissions of your installed apps allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps. The Redmi Note 8T has major apps like – Gallery, Music, Video Player, and FM radio. The file manager app offers – Videos, Pictures Music, as well as documents toggles.
Performance and benchmarks
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has Snapdragon 665 Chipset that represents a minor upgrade over the Redmi Note 7’s Snapdragon 660 SoC. The 665 Chipset has constructed on a more efficient 11nm Octa-core processor, and the phone supports Adreno 610 GPU. Unfortunately, the Adreno 610 GPU isn’t powerful than the Adreno 512 that was using the old 660 modem. Moreover, the Snapdragon 665 has a new DSP and a new ISP for 48MP camera support as well. Now, let’s start some benchmarks.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T gets 5620 scores.
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T gets 1519 scores.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (on-screen)
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T gets 11 scores.
3DMark SSE 3.1 unlimited
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T gets 1128 scores.
AnTuTu scores
Rear camera setup
This year Xiaomi has skipped the triple camera within the Redmi family and jumped to quad-camera setups, and the Redmi Note 8T has offered vertically shaped-quad camera setup. In the quad-camera setup, the phone has a Samsung’s 48MP ISOCELL Bright GM2 primary sensor. The 48MP immersive sensor has an f/1.8 aperture and 0.8µm pixels. The ultra-wide sensor has an f/2.2 aperture and 119-degree FOV, and there is automatic distortion correction applied when necessary. There is a 2MP macro sensor that can shot as close as up to 4cm, and the last 2MP sensor adds depth effects in the images. In the camera app, the phone has a short video, Video, Photo, 48M, Portrait, Night, and panorama options, and when you click on the upper right corner of the screen, you’ll get “hamburger menu.” In terms of image quality, the primary camera has saved default 12MP images with original color accuracy, and plenty of details and the noise levels are quite low. Although there is a 48MP mode for capturing 48MP photos, it can’t provide real 48MP pictures. The 8MP ultra-wide sensor also captures beautiful images with the right level of detail, but the Dynamic range is somewhat limited.
Along with the HDR feature, the primary sensor provides better images in the night condition, but an ultra-wide sensor can’t offer a great response. We have received beautiful images with natural skin tones at blur background in Portrait mode. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T records 4k videos at 30fps, FHD videos at 30/60fps and slow-motion videos at 120fps.
Front camera
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T has a 13MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture on the front panel for taking selfies and live video recording. It offers three beautification enhancement options – skin smoothing, eye enlargement, and face slimming. Selfies from Redmi Note 8T are excellent with sufficient detail and Dynamic range. Along with the HDR feature, we capture beautiful selfies with natural skin tones. The 13MP front sensor can record FHD videos at 30fps, and portrait pictures are also good.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Both front and rear panel are protected with Gorilla Glass 5
Great battery life
Large display with FHD+ resolution
48MP quad-camera setup
Cons
It can’t offer better performance in the gaming experience
The performance is low then Redmi Note 7
There is no option for record 4K videos at 60fps
Verdict
The Redmi Note 8T has many exciting features like – 4,000 mAh battery, 48MP quad-camera setup, SDM 665 chipset, and both-side glass protection at a reasonable price. You’ll spend only $200 for purchase Redmi Note 8T’s base model – 3GB + 32GB, but we strongly recommend spending some extra $20 and getting the 4GB+ 64GB model. As per your choice, if you haven’t much need for RAM and ROM and you want to save some money, then you can buy the 3GB + 32GB model as well.
Alternatives
The Realme 5 Pro is the best competitor of Redmi Note 8T because the Realme 5 Pro has SDM 712 Chipset, 4,035 mAh battery with 20W fast charging, and the 4GB + 64GB Realme 5 Pro variant costs only $190. It also has a 48MP quad-camera setup and 16MP selfie sensor (while Note 8T has a 13MP selfie sensor). On the other hand, you can also buy Samsung Galaxy A30s with Super AMOLED display, under-display fingerprint, and 4,000 mAh battery, but it has a triple camera setup, and you’ll need to spend more $20 to buy 4GB + 64GB variant of Galaxy A30s as well, but both Realme 5Pro and Samsung A30s don’t have glass back.