Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T review

Display

The Redmi Note 8T packs a large 6.3" IPS LCD display with a droplet-shaped notch at the top to make room for the selfie camera. The resolution is extended 1080p - 2,340 x 1,080 pixels - making for a 409ppi density.

The screen on the 8T is protected with a Gorilla Glass 5 on top of it, but it seems this Redmi ships without a screen protector as opposed to other Xiaomi models.

Xiaomi promises 1500:1 contrast ratio for the Note 8T screen and our measurements show it is possible. The maximum brightness varied between 430 and 460 nits, while the black levels were between 0.250 and 0.330 in sequential measurements. After a restart we began getting more consistent readings and that's what you are seeing in the table below.

The screen can be brighter though if you leave it on Automatic Brightness - it can light up as high as 600 nits in bright ambient light.

Xiaomi offers three different Contrast settings for the 8T's display. With the Automatic contrast set to on, the screen output seems to be tuned for accuracy in the sRGB color space, and we measured an average deltaE of 6.3. Only in this mode, you can choose the color saturation (default, warm, cool) and the Delta E of 6.3 was measured with the Default preset. Choosing warm will diminish the noticeable blue tint but won't improve the overall accuracy by much.

The Standard Contrast setting has superb accuracy within the sRGB color space, and we recorded an average deltaE of 0.7 for color accuracy.

Finally, the Increased Contrast makes the colors pop at the expense of reproduction accuracy.

Battery life

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T, just like all Notes to come before it, is powered by a 4,000mAh Li-ion battery. It supports Qualcomm's 18W Quick Charge and the 8T ships with a proper 18W charger. It fills about 45% of the entirely depleted battery in 30 mins.

The Redmi Note 8T aced our battery life test and also matched the Redmi Note 8's results. The 8T, running on MIUI 10, posted a top-notch endurance rating of 108 hours and impressive scores across the board. The screen-on times are excellent, while the standby performance was on par with the Redmi Note 8 and a great one at that.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Speaker loudness

The Redmi Note 8T has no special treatment for its loudspeaker. It's a single piece, bottom-firing, and tuned mostly for louder mid-tones.

The speaker on the 8T posted an excellent mark in our test, though the output quality is not impressive. It lacks in the high tones and you can tell that when listening to music.

Audio quality

Moving on to the audio output quality via the jack, we are hardly shocked to find out that the Redmi Note 8T is an exact replica of the Redmi Note 8. It did splendidly when connected to an active external amplifier, reproducing our test track perfectly and at high volume.

Sadly when we plugged in our standard headphones stereo separation suffered badly and a fair amount of intermodulation distortion crept in, while frequency response got slightly shaky, making the overall performance mediocre. Loudness dropped a bit too, but remained nicely high.

Redmi Note 8T frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.