Xiaomi Redmi K30 review

Design

What can we say about the Redmi K30? It's a glass phone like any other, but if we are to describe it easy - think of a Redmi Note 8 Pro mixed with an essence of Huawei Mate 30 Pro, and the Galaxy S10+'s punch-hole.

Galaxy S10+ (top), Mate 30 Pro (left), Redmi K30 (middle), Redmi Note 8 Pro (right)

The phone has dual Gorilla Glass 5 panels - one flat and one curved. Then there is the plastic frame, half brushed - half polished, sprayed with whatever color you've chosen to buy.

A large 6.67" IPS LCD screen takes most of the front and leaves quite thin bezels if we are not counting the more obvious chin, that is. The screen edges are curved, as on every other modern smartphone. But the long punch-hole is not that common - we first saw it on the Galaxy S10+ (right?), but it's obviously spreading. And we are not quite sure if this is the best design as the space around this large hole is entirely wasted. It's like having a notch in the corner, but somehow - uglier.

The LCD nature of the screen is making the punch hole look even worse as the panel accounts for uneven backlighting, and it shows its worst behavior around the selfie hole. You will notice obvious shadows around this eyesore when displaying brighter content and it's downright annoying.

But here is the real kicker - the two cameras have separate punch holes, and there are actual pixels in-between which are set to show black. But Xiaomi chose not to use them, as opposed to some earlier leaks of the Redmi K30 and instead, made the whole thing look like a singular cutout. Our only guess is that it looked bad with the LCD's uneven backlighting, so Xiaomi eventually settled for this solution.

Having said all those things, the 6.67" large screen still looks quite good, it even supports HDR10 and has more than enough pixels to look sharp. But the real treat is its 120Hz refresh rate, which will make you forget any shortcomings whatsoever in a MiB flash fashion. Really. We forgot them already.

Redmi K30 next to the Redmi Note 8 Pro

Not having an AMOLED screen means the fingerprint scanner can't be placed under the display. Xiaomi decided not to put it on the back as it was on the Note 8 Pro, either. Instead, the reader is mounted on the right side of the frame, and it doubles as a power/lock key. It's always on, lightning-fast, and unlocks even before you've managed to click that key. Nice!

Other interesting bits around the Redmi K30 are the audio jack, and the speaker at the bottom, the hybrid SIM/microSD tray on the left side, and the very thin and pretty invisible earpiece etched within the screen enclosure above the large panel at the front.

The rear Gorilla Glass is also of the fifth generation but this time around it is curved towards the longer sides. We have the so-called Deep Sea Blue version, which looks quite mesmerizing with the slow transition from blue to somewhat purple-ish in Aurora-styled fashion.

The camera is the obvious stop on the back and Xiaomi wanted everyone to notice it. And this is where this beautiful circle accent comes to help, and it looks a lot like what we saw on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro.

Anyway, inside the circle, which has this cool ultrawide-angle effect, by the way, sits one big camera hump that houses all the cameras. Starting top to bottom first is the 2MP macro snapper, second is the 8MP ultrawide shooter, followed by the 2MP depth sensor, and the bottom one is the 64MP primary.

There is also a dual-LED flash that's flush with the back just below the camera setup.

The Redmi K30 is a large smartphone, nobody can deny that. And it is slippery for sure with all this glass around. It's still sleek enough for pockets, and if you opt for the supplied silicone case, you will avoid all that slippery insecurity.

Redmi K30 and Redmi K20 (Mi 9T)

The K30 is also quite pretty and matches the build and looks of most flagships, which we'll call a win. Some water resistance would have been much appreciated, but it's not without nothing either - the Redmi K30 has P2i nano-coating, which will help it survive the occassional splash or two.