Xiaomi Redmi Pro review: Peripheral vision

As we briefly mentioned in the beginning, the Xiaomi Redmi Pro is available in three flavors - Standard, High, and Exclusive editions. We're reviewing the Standard edition, which packs a MediaTek Helio X20 chip.

The Helio X20 is comprised of a tri-cluster processor: a couple of Cortex-A72 (2.1GHz), a quad-core Cortex-A53 (2.0GHz) and a low-power, quad-core Cortex-A53 (1.4GHz). The sheer number of cores sounds impressive but the GPU - a Mali-T880 MP 4 GPU - is hardly a match for that.

The difference between the Helio X20 and Helio X25 is in the clock speed of the CPU and GPU. Here's the configuration in the High and Exclusive versions: a couple of Cortex-A72 (2.5GHz), quad-core Cortex-A53 (2.0GHz) and a low-power, quad-core Cortex-A53 (1.4GHz). The GPU works at 900MHz.

Let's kick things off with the impressive CPU setup and see how it fares against the competition. In terms of single-core performance, the Cortex-A72 isn't too far off compared to the Kryo CPU in the OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon 820). In any case, it manages to beat the Cortex-A57 in the Exynos version of the Galaxy Note5.

When it comes to multi-core performance, the deca-core CPU is a one step in front of the Galaxy Note5, but just can't match the raw performance of the Snapdragon 820 setup in the OnePlus 3.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 8
  5447
• OnePlus 3
  4045
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  3885
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3754
• Huawei nova plus
  3100

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor 8
  1720
• OnePlus 3
  1719
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  1551
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  1332
• Huawei nova plus
  843

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which takes into account storage performance, RAM and GPU prowess. The Redmi Pro comes with a quad-core Mali-T880 MP4 clocked at 780MHz. As a reference, the Helio X25 comes with the same GPU, but clocked at 850MHz, whereas it's running at 900MHz inside the Huawei P9.

As a result, the GPU implementation has a lot of untapped potential which will never be realized in the Redmi Pro. But even at its highest clock speed, it's still far behind this year's flagships and doesn't even compare favorably to most mid-range smartphones with Adreno GPUs.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  141764
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  116217
• Meizu Pro 6
  99195
• Huawei Honor 8
  94892
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  81615
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  77442
• Huawei nova plus
  64680
• HTC One A9
  60324
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  49094

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  46
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  41
• LG G Flex2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• Huawei Honor 8
  18
• Meizu Pro 6
  18
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Huawei nova plus
  9.9
• HTC One A9
  6.4
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5.8
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  45
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  38
• LG G Flex2
  22
• Huawei Honor 8
  19
• Meizu Pro 6
  18
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Huawei nova plus
  10
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  9.5
• HTC One A9
  6.7
• Motorola Moto X Play
  6.1
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  5.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  31
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Meizu Pro 6
  11
• Huawei Honor 8
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  7.2
• Huawei nova plus
  6.2
• HTC One A9
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia X Performance
  31
• OnePlus 3
  30
• Meizu Pro 6
  11
• Huawei Honor 8
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  6.7
• Huawei nova plus
  6.6
• HTC One A9
  4
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.2

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  17
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4
• Huawei Honor 8
  6.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  5.4
• Huawei nova plus
  3.4

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  18
• Huawei Honor 8
  6.9
• Meizu Pro 6
  6.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  5.4
• Huawei nova plus
  3.7

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  32715
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  28450
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  26281
• LG G Flex2
  19360
• Huawei Honor 8
  16592
• Meizu Pro 6
  15209
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  12190
• Huawei nova plus
  10524
• HTC One A9
  6617
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  5383
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5032
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  4915

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  36475
• Huawei Honor 8
  28832
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  23846
• Meizu Pro 6
  23774
• Huawei nova plus
  21352
• HTC One A9
  12250
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  11199

The other compound test - the BaseMark OS II 2.0 - ranks the Redmi Pro below the LG G Flex2 and the Galaxy Note5. The benchmark gauges not only CPU, GPU and UX, but also memory and browser performance, so the final scores bodes well for day-to-day performance.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  2365
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  2179
• Huawei Honor 8
  2099
• Meizu Pro 6
  1919
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  1880
• LG G Flex2
  1726
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  1696
• Huawei nova plus
  1215
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  1007
• HTC One A9
  944
• Asus Zenfone Selfie ZD551KL
  883
• Motorola Moto X Play
  809

You can't say Xiaomi hasn't tried to deliver a performance worthy of the phone's Pro moniker with this 10-core beast of a processor. However, it's far from the best you can get these days in terms of raw performance. Additionally, the GPU underperforms compared to the competition.

But objectively, there's nothing faster in this price range, except the two Redmi Pro variants with a Helio X25 chipset and other rivals that come with it, like the Meizu Pro 6.

Synthetic benchmarks are one thing, but day-to-day performance is another. We didn't experience any hiccups during our time with the Redmi Pro and games ran smoothly. Mind you, some of the heavier AAA titles experienced some hiccups here and there.