Xiaomi Redmi K30 review

MIUI 11 and Android 10

Xiaomi Redmi K30 is the first smartphone to boot Android 10 with MIUI 11 out of the box. The new MIUI launcher introduced a cleaner interface, an improved always-on screen, expanded Dark mode, smart notification sounds based on Mother Nature, and a better document editor.

Unlike the Redmi K20, which had the Poco launcher pre-installed, the Redmi K30 features no such thing. We guess the split between Xiaomi and Poco has something to do with that.

For starters let's mention that the Redmi K30 lacks support for Always-on display, probably because it has switched from OLED to LCD panel since the K20.

You can unlock the screen via the blazing-fast and always-on fingerprint scanner that's mounted on just below the power key on the right side of the K30. You can also set up face unlock in addition to it - it's equally fast as the K30 wakes up the moment you pick it up. Note that the face unlock option may not be available in all regions and is far less secure than fingerprint unlock.

The Redmi K30 may lack an OLED screen, but it still supports the new Dark mode - it will switch all system colors from white to black, and this way, you can save some battery juice. With MIUI 11 it has been improved, and now more apps support Dark mode, and the icons and their colors have been redesigned to suit it better.

Dark mode

MIUI 11 supports nature alarm and notifications, which sound different depending on the time of the day. Nature sounds have been tailored for alarms and notifications and are far less stressful through the day.

Nature-inspired notifications

There is no app drawer in MIUI, so all your apps are just sitting there on your homescreen, but you can still add them to folders. Of course, you can always install a third-party launcher if you miss the app drawer.

Here are the default home screens on Redmi K30. There's a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. There is an App Vault pane, the leftmost one. It contains different cards with relevant information - recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar events, the weather, and favorites, among others. You can configure what shows up here, or you can disable this altogether.

MIUI 11 has refined looks with less clutter, and you easily spot the Xiaomi efforts towards minimalistic design in the new Settings app.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Homescreen • Tools • App Vault • Settings

The task switcher has not changed. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.

Notifications • Toggles • Recents • Split Screen

Themes are supported on the Xiaomi Redmi K30, but the app appears only when the phone is set to a supported region, say India.

Themes

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.

MIUI also offers proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. FM radio app is available, too.

MIUI 11 also introduced a new document viewing app, which supports all popular formats and makes it easier to view docs on your phone no matter what app they came out from. It makes for a seamless experience.

There is also a new Notes app that now supports Tasks.

MIUI 11 brings an improved Health app, too.

Security app • Security app • Gallery • Music • File Manager • FM radio

In some markets, the pre-installed applications by Xiaomi will show ads, which is how Xiaomi is compensating for the relatively low prices of its devices. We're reviewing a version of the Redmi K30 with a so-called Global ROM, and we still saw ads within some of the system apps and processes, as well as various unwanted notifications from Chinese ad services lurking underneath MIUI. Still, they are not a major nuisance, and we've heard other regional MIUI revisions have it worse.

Performance and benchmarks

The Xiaomi Redmi K30 employs the Snapdragon 730G chip - one of the most powerful upper-midrange platforms from Qualcomm. Hardware-wise, the Snapdragon 730G is pretty much identical to its vanilla sibling we saw on the Redmi K20.

The CPUs of both 730 and 730G are identical - octa-core processors with two Kryo 470 Gold (Cortex-A76) cores clocked at 2.2 GHz, and six Kryo 470 Silver (Cortex-A55) ones, working at 1.8 GHz. They are all built on an 8nm LPP node and hence pretty power-efficient.

Both chips also have the same Adreno 618 DSP. But the one on the 730G is clocked 75 MHz higher and sits at 575 MHz. This is the only difference between the two chips and so is the only thing different between the hardware of Redmi K20 and Redmi K30.

Finally, depending on the storage option you choose, the Redmi K30 will be with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

The Snapdragon 730G may have just two high-performance A76-derived cores, but those were enough to put a great fight. The single-core scores are great, too.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  7008
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  6999
• Realme X2
  6926
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5620
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  5566
• Nokia 7.2
  5440
• Honor 9X
  5345

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2558
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Realme X2
  2508
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2472
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Honor 9X
  1559
• Nokia 7.2
  1534
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  1519
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1489

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X2
  1750
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  1703
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  1692
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  1622
• Nokia 7.2
  1398
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1288

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  548
• Realme X2
  545
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  542
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  493
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  349
• Nokia 7.2
  332

The Adreno 618 GPU sounds beyond promising on paper and should be more than adequate to handle all 1080p content. The GPU inside the K30's S730G SoC is clocked higher than the one inside the regular S730 (K20/Mi 9T), and you can spot the difference in the scores.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Realme X2
  24
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  14
• Nokia 7.2
  13
• Honor 9X
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13
• Realme X2
  13
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  8.7
• Nokia 7.2
  8.1
• Honor 9X
  6.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5.9

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2467
• Realme X2
  2402
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2363
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2182
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  2082
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1425
• Nokia 7.2
  1333

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2447
• Realme X2
  2263
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2244
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2035
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1989
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  1502
• Nokia 7.2
  1277

If we are to trust AnTuTu, the Redmi K30 is ahead of every other midranger and on par with the Redmi Note 8 Pro.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  224759
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  218200
• Realme X2
  215578
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  211915
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  152075
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  141077
• Honor 9X
  140362
• Nokia 7.2
  139495

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  279355
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  272229
• Realme X2
  257443
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  257146
• Honor 9X
  187528
• Samsung Galaxy M30s
  180321
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  167395
• Nokia 7.2
  164484

It's quite apparent that the Redmi K30 performance is on par with the Redmi K20 most of the times, and only the GPU tests can reveal a small graphics advantage. The higher clock speed of the Adreno 618 does make a small difference in theoretical performance, but we doubt anyone would notice it in real life.

Then again, the Snapdragon 730G is one very potent chip, and we are there are games that would be able to exceed 60fps and make use of the 120Hz display. But those are probably a handful at best and our testing confirmed our doubts. Even games like Alto's Odyssey can't go north of 60fps. We tried a dozen of 120FPS-enabled games and the only one that was able to go beyond 60fps was Dead Trigger 2 - it hovered around 85fps.

Still, for a mid-ranger, we'd say the Xiaomi Redmi K30 is over-equipped, and any user will be happy with it performance-wise.