Xiaomi may be pushing for a greater share in the premium market with the Mi smartphones, a lot of its success in India can be credited to the Redmi devices, most notably the Redmi Note series. The company had introduced three Redmi Note 10 smartphones earlier this year in March Redmi Note 10, Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max covering different price points between Rs 12,000 and Rs 22,000.
Somehow, it has found enough space in between to add a fourth smartphone to the line-up Redmi Note 10S. It is priced at Rs 14,999 for the base variant, Rs 500 more than the top variant of the Redmi Note 10 and Rs 2,000 less than the base variant of the Redmi Note 10 Pro. The tight positioning is what goes against the Redmi Note 10S, which otherwise, makes for a good value for money smartphone.
For the said price, you get MediaTek Helio G85 processor, 64-megapixel main camera and is also the first Xiaomi smartphone to come with MIUI 12.5, among other features. Is that enough? Should you spend on the Redmi Note 10S? Time to find out.
Redmi Note 10S review: Design
The Redmi Note 10S carries the same Evol design language we saw on the earlier Redmi Note 10 line-up. The phone is more compact than the Pro models and that’s something I instantly liked. It has the same plastic back as the Redmi Note 10. The smartphone is sleek, compact, comfortable to hold and catches fingerprint smudges but, doesn’t show them easily. There is a triple rear camera module in the top-left corner and Redmi branding at the bottom.
There is no doubt that the Redmi Note 10S is a good-looking smartphone. However, you need to consider the fact that the Redmi Note 10 Pro comes with a better looking and more premium glass back for just Rs 2,000 extra. In fact, the price difference between the top end variant of the Redmi Note 10S and base variant of the Redmi Note 10 Pro is just Rs 1,000. And, that’s not the only upgrade you get. We will talk about others later in the review.
Coming to the other design elements, Xiaomi has used a side mounted fingerprint scanner on top of the power button. The right side houses both the volume controls and power buttons. The type-C USB charging port, speaker and 3.5mm headphone jack are at the bottom. The second speaker and IR blaster are on the top.
The smartphone is good for single hand use and will be liked by those who prefer compact form factors. It weighs just 178 grams which further adds to the ease of usage. Xiaomi has used a side-mounted fingerprint scanner which is easily reachable as well. The phone has a dual-SIM tray with a dedicated microSD card slot which means that the storage can be expanded.
The Redmi Note 10S comes in three colour options – Deep Sea Blue, Shadow Black, and Frost White. I got the blue colour variant for review and it looks good. But again, the Mystic Bronze variant Xiaomi had for the Redmi Note 10 Pro looks far better.
Redmi Note 10S review: Display
Xiaomi took a big leap earlier this year when it equipped all the Redmi Note 10 series smartphones with AMOLED displays and the Note 10S has been given a similar treatment. It comes with a 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 60Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The display supports HDR 10+ and comes with a peak brightness of 1100 nits.
On paper, the Note 10 Pro has superior specifications again. It comes 120Hz refresh rate, higher peak brightness of 1200 nits and a tinnier hole punch cut out to house the selfie shooter.
The Redmi Note 10S still has a pretty good display. The colours look good on screen, the touch response rate is satisfactory and even the bezels have been kept quite thin. There is also support for WideVine L1 certification, so you will be able to stream high quality content on OTT platforms.
Redmi Note 10S review: Camera
Xiaomi has differentiated the Redmi Note 10S from the Redmi Note 10 by using a better 64-megapixel main camera. By doing so, it has taken this smartphone closer to the Redmi Note 10 Pro which comes with the same lens. Overall, the Redmi Note 10S comes with a quad rear camera setup which consists of a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Up front, the Redmi Note 10S features a 13-megapixel selfie shooter.
The camera app is the usual that you get on Xiaomi phones. It has different modes including Photo, Video, Portrait and Pro modes. The other options include Night Mode and 64MP.
The main camera does a good job for the price. The images come out well, have good sharpness and the colours are also true. You can see in the image samples that the main camera also adds blur to the background. However, the bokeh effect is more aggressive on the portrait mode.
The images clicked using the portrait mode are equally impressive, but colour accuracy goes for a toss. As you can see in the samples, the portrait shots are more saturated than the normal images, and it’s up to you to decide if it’s good or bad. Personally, I prefer natural colour tones.
The lowlight shots taken from close up are well lit and sharp. The dynamic range is poor though and if there is no external light source, images in night are below average.
The images taken from the ultra-wide angle sensor has good dynamic range and retains a lot of details. However, you can clearly see a lot of noise once you zoom into these images. But, that’s the case with most affordable smartphones. The macro lens takes more time to focus than on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max we had reviewed earlier but manages to deliver decent images eventually.
The selfie shooter disappoints. The images from the front camera are passable but over saturate colours. You can see in the image samples that my t-shirt is almost burnt in the day selfies. The lowlight selfies are bright but lack sharpness.
The Redmi Note 10S can shoot 1080p videos in 30 and 60fps, and 4K footage in 30fps as well. The video quality is good but the stabilisation could have been better.
Redmi Note 10S quick review: Performance
One thing that totally separates the Redmi Note 10S from other Redmi Note 10 series smartphones is its chipset. The smartphone comes with MediaTek’s Helio G95 SoC. This was MediaTek’s 2020 chip for affordable smartphones. It is a decent chip that handles your daily tasks with ease. You don’t face much issue while swiping through apps, browsing the internet or watching YouTube videos.
I did notice that apps usually take that extra second to load. The gaming performance wasn’t also that great. Call of Duty Mobile ran well on low graphics pre-set but struggled beyond that. It could feel few lags while running Asphalt 9 as well. So, if you are looking for a phone for gaming, I think you will be served better by the Redmi Note 10 Pro or Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.
The phone comes in two configurations 6GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage priced at Rs 14,999 and 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage priced at Rs 15,999.
Redmi Note 10S quick review: Software
The Redmi Note 10S is our first look at MIUI 12.5 in India. The new software brings a lot of updates including the ability to remove pre-installed apps from the phone. I got the option to remove Mi Store and Mi Credit, but not Mi Pay or Get Apps. Xiaomi has told India Today Tech that there are total nine apps that can’t be removed. The number has been brought down from over 20 apps. A welcome move.
A new update has also been added on the camera where you can now open a tray that shows different options with animated icons. The volume controller has been also been changed and the new one is kind of good. I now have two new icons under the volume bar first to put the phone on silent while second to put notifications and calls on silent. I hope smartphone manufacturers start giving out option to put just notifications on silent.
There is no doubt that the MIUI 12.5 feels more refined than the previous versions. It’s still far from you giving you an Oxygen OS-like experience but, is surely a step in the right direction.
Redmi Note 10S quick review: Battery
Redmi Note 10S packs a big enough 5000mAh pack and comes with a 33W fast charger inside the box. The battery is good enough to last for a day and the charger also juices it up quite quickly.
Redmi Note 10S quick review: Final Verdict
Rahul Dravid would have been the greatest Indian batsman, if Sachin Tendulkar didn’t exist. Valtteri Bottas would have won a F1 title, if Lewis Hamilton wasn’t a Mercedes driver. Similarly, the Redmi Note 10S would have been an obvious choice around the Rs 15,000 mark, if the Redmi Note 10 Pro wasn’t launched. For only a few extra bucks, Xiaomi’s Pro smartphone offers a glass back, a more reliable processor, a 120Hz panel, same camera system and a more premium feel.
This makes me wonder if the Redmi Note 10S is a good smartphone that probably wasn’t needed! Anyway, if you can push your budget by Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000, you should definitely go for the Redmi Note 10 Pro. Else, the Redmi Note 10S isn’t a bad option either.
