Redmi K20 Pro: An Impressive Budget Flagship With Some Compromises

When it comes to flagship killers, the balance between performance and pricing is very critical. Sure, buyers want to get the best features to keep up with expensive flagships from brands like Apple and Samsung, but they don't want to spend that much either. It becomes really challenging for smartphone makers to strike this balance. However, perfection is an illusion, a myth and there are always some compromises that they have to make to deliver a phone at competitive pricing, or so we think?

Xiaomi recently shook the Indian market with the unveiling of its Redmi K20 and K20 Pro smartphones, with the latter loaded with flagship-grade hardware and specs to beat other flagship killers to a pulp. We got out hands on the device and this is what we liked and what we disliked about Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro.

What I liked about Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro

Display

Definitely one of the strongest features of this smartphone. The Redmi K20 Pro sports a 6.3-inch bezel-less AMOLED FHD+ display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and 403ppi. It has to be by far one of the most vibrant displays that I have come across. The colours are punchy, bright and the viewing angles are pretty good too.

The display is completely bezel-less and notch-less with a 91.9 percent screen to body ratio, delivering an immersive viewing experience. There is a slight chin at the bottom section of the display, but its kind-of discreet and you can easily hide it out while while using dark mode. The display also gets HDR support and DCI-P3 colour gamut for a vibrant viewing experience. Inclusion of HDR definitely enhances the overall experience.

Design

The Redmi K20 Pro is one good looker. We got out hands on the Carbon Black. And it looks slick. The device is also available in Flame Red and Glacier Blue colour variants. While other smartphone makers have adopted the gradient colour back (which is quite overdone in my opinion) the flame pattern on the K20 and K20 Pro changes its colour when a light shines on it, which looks even more spectacular.

The Carbon Black variant doesn't have that shiny shebang like the red and blue colour variants, (and while it's still glossy and smudge-prone) it still looks quite cool nonetheless. The accented red power button with red accent colour goes in tandem with the red ring on the rear camera module. Also, the edges get a gun-metal finish which adds to the discreet aesthetics of the device.

Using the common glass-sandwich approach with its design and a 6.3-inch notch-less screen, the device isn't the most convenient to use single-handedly. However, Xiaomi has managed to reduce the weight of the device, that makes a hell of a difference.

Another design cue that adds to the device's aesthetics is the pop-up front camera. Sure, it isn't a new thing to see a pop-up camera on a smartphone, heck, even budget Oppo and Realme phones have pop-up cameras, but what's cool is that the camera unit is fitted with an LED unit that glows whenever the camera pops up. What's more is that this LED lighting is also used as a notification LED with a small ring-like cutout on top, which come really handy to see the charging status of the phone without the need to turn the screen on.

With everything Xiaomi is packing with the Redmi K20 Pro, it is packing another great feature that's getting extinct day by day- The headphone jack. Moreover, it has managed to pack in a high-quality DAC to drive quality audio to your HiFi headphones, and it doesn't disappoint.

Performance

Here's where things really get interesting. When it comes to hardware, Redmi K20 Pro is loaded to the teeth. We're talking Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 octa-core processor with 6GB/8GB RAM variants. We got our hands on the 8GB variant and multitasking was undoubtedly fluid and snappy. The phone performs without any stutters or glitches, just like a flagship should. The phone really kept its cool while gaming with no drops in performance and keeping thermals in check.

In terms of battery performance, the device's 4000mAh battery lasted a day with ease with 30-40 percent left to spare at the end of the day. If you could get a little more careful with your usage, you can push the phone's battery to a day and a half, even two days. One thing to look out for is charging speeds. Sure, the device supports 27W fast charging, it only ships with an 18W charger. The 27W fast charger is sold separately online and offline for Rs 999. We would have loved for Xiaomi to pack it in the box, but then again, they were trying to cut costs wherever they could, so it kinda makes sense.

What didn't make sense was the fact that while charging the device using the 27W fast charger, the device got really hot. While it is natural for a device to get hot while charging, this definitely didn't feel okay.

What I disliked about the Redmi K20 Pro

Camera

Xiaomi has loaded the Redmi K20 Pro with a triple camera sensor at the back with a 48-megapixel (Sony IMX586) primary camera at f/1.8, with support for PDAF as well as Laser AF. The second camera is an 8-megapixel sensor at f/2.4 and 2x optical zoom. The third is a 124-degree ultra-wide camera with a 13-megapixel sensor at f/2.4. For selfies, you get a pop-up 20-megapixel shooter. It however lacks Optical Image Stabilisation or OIS and uses an Electronic stabilisation instead.

While the camera is fairly-loaded, we noticed that the camera software was responsible for a lot of over-sharpening. Moreover, the low-light performance was okay at best, as there was a considerable detail loss with a good amount of noise to make things worse.

When capturing ultra-wide shots, the lens-distortion correction didn't do a good enough job. The camera on the Redmi K20 Pro did shoot well during daylight with the colors popping well.

The camera shoots good photos, but when compared to something like the OnePlus 7 or the Asus Zenfone 6z, it really felt inferior. Don't get me wrong, the camera is a good shooter, and software updates could make it better with time, but as of now it isn't the best in class.

The selfie camera, on the other hand, managed to deliver crispy selfies. Moreover, it was wide enough to accommodate group-selfies with ease too.

Haptic Feedback

One place where Redmi has skimped is with the vibration motor on the device. It lacks the haptic engine that is commonly seen on devices like OnePlus 7 Pro, Galaxy S series among other devices, and ships with a regular vibration motor.

Sure, there is a massive price difference between those devices and the Redmi K20 Pro, but including it in the phone would have made a hell of a difference.

No Stereo Speakers

With such a beautiful display, a stereo speaker setup like the one seen on the OnePlus 7 would have been truly amazing. Sadly, the device gets a single speaker unit at the bottom. And even that's not very impressive. On high volume, the speaker distorts and doesn't sound the clearest.

Cluttered UI

Redmi K20 Pro is using Xiaomi's MIUI on top of Android Pie. MIUI isn't the cleanest looking UI, in my opinion. It takes a while to get used to. MIUI has some neat software features, including the screen back gesture (as seen on iPhone) where you can swipe from the corner of the display to go back. But if you're coming from stock Android, you're definitely going to be bombarded with a good amount of bloatware and pre-loaded apps this phone comes from. It's going to take you a while to uninstall them if you wish to.

Conclusion

Does the Redmi K20 Pro provide a flagship-grade experience without any compromises? Most certainly not. However, is it worth going for? Absolutely! it's true that Redmi K20 misses out on a few key features that we would have loved to see in this device. But we're forgetting that Xiaomi is able to pack this device starting at a price tag of Rs 27,999 (for the 6GB/128GB variant). The device which we got was the maxed out 8GB/256GB variant, and it just costs Rs 30,999, lower than the competition.

Sure, the camera could have been better, and yes, the stereo speakers would have made this phone a much better media consumption device, but what it manages to deliver at this price point, is commendable, to say the least. Even with the flaws it possesses it is strong enough to take the competition down. So even though it is a flagship killer with some compromises, with the price tag it's coming at, you can surely live with them, if you choose to.