Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro long-term review

Introduction

A 108 MP camera on a Redmi Note? How about a 120 Hz AMOLED screen? Sure, why not, Xiaomi said, and thus the Redmi Note 10 Pro was born. That's an obvious oversimplification (and there's a "hold my beer" joke in there somewhere that we don't dare make), but we'd be remiss not to mention this phone's two main differentiating features right from the get-go.

Otherwise, it's a package of small improvements compared to its direct predecessor, the Redmi Note 9 Pro, which are all welcome of course, but the camera bump (pun definitely intended) serves two purposes. First, people like big numbers on spec sheets, and this one is, at least for the time being, as big as it gets. Second, the sheer fact that such a big main sensor was put in this device is probably also intended to signify that Redmi is finally taking camera image quality more seriously than before. That's a welcome development in our book.

There are other mid-rangers with 108 MP cameras around, and in fact, the first-ever phone to have such a sensor (although not the same one) was the Mi Note 10, which is also a mid-ranger. So it's not so much a tale of "this is the first-ever mid-ranger to include such a camera", or "108 MP cameras have now made their way down to the mid-range", but the focus should be on how much more mainstream the Redmi Note line is compared to anything else.

Over the past few years it's been the primary driver of sales for Redmi (and Xiaomi overall), so whenever a big change happens here, it's significant because it means any such new feature is going to be used by a ton of people. That's also the case for the 120 Hz AMOLED screen, and this one was previously a staple of the high-end realm, and it's now finally arriving on more affordable devices like this one.

The Redmi Note 10 Pro seems, at least on paper, to be a worthy successor to the Redmi Note 9 Pro which we long-term reviewed last year, and we were anxious to see how the experience of using it would differ. If you're curious too, then buckle in and join us for the next few pages as we explore what it was like to live with this device day-in, day-out for an extended period of time.