➤ Redmi Note 7, the review 🎮

With Note 7, Xiaomi has decided to give the Redmi line greater strength by making it a brand in itself, therefore separate from the parent company when it comes to marketing. A choice that underlines the desire to differentiate the product lines and which at the same time makes clear the trust that the Chinese company has in this new smartphone. With the review by Redmi Note 7 let's deepen a smartphone particularly awaited by the western public, which had already anticipated its technical characteristics on the occasion of the Asian launch. Now that it is finally available with official distribution also in Spain, and after a couple of weeks of testing, we can confirm what is the label that now everyone seems to have associated with this product: best buy.

Technical quality and price

The main feature of Redmi Note 7 it can be summarized in one concept: quality / price. Yes, because Xiaomi's newcomer is practically one mid-range smartphone sold at a low-end price: the price list speaks of € 179,90 for the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage memory model, then moving on to € 199,99 for the 4GB / 64GB model. These are figures that only a few years ago would have allowed us to bring home only truly modest devices from the point of view of specifications, but which in this historical moment instead allow you to buy a product capable of giving satisfaction from practically every point of view. The processor is a 660 GHz Snapdragon 2,2 octa core with Adreno 512 GPU: a combination already "tested" and seen in other smartphones (for example the excellent Xiaomi Mi A2) and which guarantees more than good performance, with high speed and responsiveness at the controls.

In our tests dedicated to the Redmi Note 7 we saw only very rare hesitations due, however, more likely to MIUI (version 10.2.3.0) not yet perfectly optimized on this terminal, but absolutely nothing serious and that in any case will probably be solved with future updates. Xiaomi's customization is already widely known, and although there are several pre-installed apps that need to be cleaned up, the user experience remains fairly minimal. Perhaps it is an unattractive launcher on an aesthetic level, and for this reason it seems that the MIUI 11 will bring with it a profound renewal in this sense. The onboard operating system is Android 9.0 Pie with security patch of January 5th; Second Space and gestures are supported in place of the classic 3 system keys, a decidedly preferable solution from our point of view. The storage capacity is expandable for both models via Micro-SD card, even if the installation of the latter precludes the use of a second SIM, thus forcing you to choose one or the other.

Design and screen

Even from the point of view of build quality, Redmi Note 7 does not lend itself to any criticism that may suggest being in front of a cheap smartphone: the design it is certainly not original, on the contrary, but the quality of the materials and assembly is of a high level. The 186 grams may not make it a featherweight, but the good distribution along the whole body makes it undoubtedly grip well. Redmi Note 7 has a large one in the front display IPS LCD da 6.3" with a resolution of 1.080 x 2.340 pixels and an aspect ratio in 19.5: 9, all housed under a Gorilla Glass 5. It is a more than good panel, with a discreet color balance and excellent readability in any light condition.

The top offers a notch drop type, therefore very small in size and which disturbs very little or nothing, stealing a minimum portion of the screen; it contains the front camera 13 Megapixel camera, quite enough to allow good quality selfies. As usual when it comes to the notch, the "problem" in Android is the inconsistency of the optimization of applications, with only some of them able to adapt to the best by making the most of the available space. The bezels around the screen are instead quite small, although asymmetrical since there is much more space at the bottom than the other three sides. Interesting is the presence of the classic audio jack and the USB Type-C charging connector, still far from widespread in this price range.

The back, also obviously in glass, extends seamlessly except for the fingerprint sensor - very fast and accurate - and for the dual-camera with flash. The main photographic system is therefore composed of a 48 Megapixel sensor with an aperture of ƒ / 1.8 together with a secondary one of 5 ƒ / 2.4 for the depth and therefore the bokeh effect. In reality, the 48 megapixels, an absolutely very high and almost science-fiction value for this price range, have been the subject of great discussion on the net, including doubts about the actual capacity of the sensor and the possibilities of the Snapdragon 660 to support it. Furthermore, 48 Megapixel photos can only be taken in Pro mode (although they are ultimately interpolated), limiting those in normal mode to 12 Megapixels. In practice, all this discourse does not reduce the overall positive judgment: the photo taken with the Redmi Note 7 they are in fact generally detailed and with faithful colors, and above all in good lighting conditions they guarantee a quality that is certainly not low-end. In low light things are less impressive, but still those who use the smartphone without great photographic ambitions will find very little to complain about. THE video they are finally discreet, albeit slightly sinking in definition and cannot count on top-of-the-range stabilization. The maximum resolution in this case is 1080p at 60fps. It is worth mentioning that it is possible to install the Google Camera without any difficulty and without root: those who know the quality of Google's photographic software know well how much this can bring real benefits, and in fact even on Note 7 with this solution a substantial improvement is obtained. from every point of view.

How are you going to play?

As for gaming, for the most part games with medium / high graphic complexity the Redmi Note 7 manages to manage everything without major problems. Obviously, no miracles can be expected from the Snapdragon 660, which is why, for example, Asphalt 9 suffers a little in the frame rate and cannot present itself at the maximum of its graphic effects. Keeping in mind that we are talking about a smartphone that costs less than € 200, it remains something truly remarkable. The modality "Turbo video games", specifically created to ensure that smartphone resources are used to promote an ideal gaming experience: this allows you to optimize performance and reduce the display of notifications during matches. Finally, theautonomy guaranteed by the battery is really excellent, thanks to the 4000 mAh and the support of fast charging: in practice this means that reaching two days of average use is absolutely not a utopia, while even with intense use there is never the risk of not arriving in the evening.

Comment

Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Although the competition in the medium and medium-low range of Android smartphones is now nothing short of fierce, with an impressive amount of devices baked especially by Chinese manufacturers, Redmi Note 7 manages to soar thanks to a series of decidedly remarkable features combined with a price sales that cannot be defined as anything less than sensational. Difficult, if not impossible, to find better under € 200 nowadays.