CAMERA- SMART
XIAOMI’S REDMI NOTE SERIES has featured mid-budget smartphones which combine looks and performance. And the saga continues as the Note 6 Pro – released just 10 months after the launch of Note 5 Pro – hits the market with minor design tweaks, a notch display and an improved camera.
At a time when manufacturers like Honor and RealMe are experimenting with reflective design patterns on the rear, the Note 6 Pro continues to have an aluminium body with a brushed metal finish. A 6.26-inch full-screen display (with notch) dominates the front and slightly curved sides at the rear make the phone ergonomic to hold. The bright, rounded display with 2,280x1,080p resolution seems to sit well on the top of the body and is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. Interestingly, the body and the components come with P2i hydrophobic nanocoating, which, the company claims, makes it splash-resistant. But the liquid damage has not been covered under the one-year warranty. The Infrared Blaster, along with the Mi Remote app, has been retained so that it can act as a multidevice remote.
The phone supports full-screen gestures, but the feature is not turned on by default. When activated, it replaces the navigation buttons at the bottom. Swiping up from the bottom of the display loads the home screen; swiping up and pausing shows recent apps, and swiping in from the left/right edge takes you to the previous screen.
This camera beast comes with a dual camera set-up both at front and rear. The 12 MP+5 MP system at the back captures the light better while the AI scene detection for identifying up to 32 scenes can detect human face, text and more. The images captured feature natural colours and details. Plus, there is a new set of image-editing options for bokeh images – one can adjust background blur level, add studio lighting on faces and adjust background light trails. After adjusting the light trail, I was able to save the image as a three-second video. The 20 MP+ 2 MP front camera set-up captured great selfies.
The phone runs on Mi Global UI 10 built on Android 8.1.0 and successfully handled daily usage, including e-mailing, gaming, photography, Web browsing, video streaming, social networking and calling. The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC (the same is sported by Note 5 Pro), and my review unit had 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of onboard storage with support for expandable memory. The 4,000 mAh battery lasted close to 48 hours on a single charge.