Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro review: remake without question

• Equipment
• Appearance
• Screen
• Performance
• Camera
• Autonomy
• Characteristics
• Conclusion

One of the most anticipated new products from Xiaomi in 2022 was the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro smartphone, which belongs to the mid-price category and has decent performance characteristics.
The sixth version of the mobile phone replaces the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, which became a real hit earlier this year. In our review of Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, we suggest finding out what features the new product has and what it is capable of.

Clueless cutout

The screen has become even larger, the diagonal has increased from 5.99 inches to 6.26 inches. Okay, now even more, but what else? An elongated screen with a cutout at the top is just fashionable, no practical use. Now there is less space for notifications and you have to move the curtain down more often to check the news. It’s not that it’s really annoying, but why this “unibrow” if everything was fine in Redmi Note 5 without it.

However, the “bangs” can be disabled in the settings if they are so annoying.

I have no questions about the quality of the screen, you won’t find frankly bad displays anymore, but a normal IPS display in every Xiaomi is already more expensive than ten thousand rubles. Bright, rich, with adequate colors, especially if you turn off the setting in the menu that independently changes color rendition by analyzing the lighting. It often makes mistakes, and I didn’t like how this function works; it’s more pleasant to use without it.

Display quality is excellent

Compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi Note 6 Pro screen has grown to 6.21 inches (the previous model has 5.99″) and, as already noted, a fashionable “bang” has appeared. As a result, the manufacturer managed to increase the aspect ratio to 19:9, and the screen now occupies 86% of the entire front surface. To protect the display from scratches and cracks, it is covered with tempered 2.5D Gorilla Glass.

The resolution remains the same - 2280x1080 pixels, pixel density is 403 ppi. Thanks to this, graininess does not appear in the image, and there are also no problems with color rendering quality. However, it is worth considering that when you change the viewing angle, the screen will still dim a little.

Calm design

Xiaomi didn’t reinvent the wheel, so the Redmi Note 6 Pro turned out to be an almost complete copy of the Redmi Note 5. In my opinion, they could have tried and worked on the body. For example, remove the small plastic inserts at the top and bottom, making an all-metal shell. But this is already from the category of “wants”, in general the smartphone is pleasant, even if not original.

I chose the phone in blue, a very beautiful option, but if you want a classic, then there is one in black for you. Not so elegant, but not flashy.

I also want to draw your attention to a somewhat specific design: pay attention to how the black frame with the screen combines with the “base”. A small transition is formed, a kind of step.

Or look at how the two front cameras are designed: both modules are shifted to the right, but why not place them on the left and right for symmetry? Not very beautiful, not very aesthetically pleasing, but, as they say, it doesn’t affect the work, so let’s move on.

⇡#Display

The main advantage of the Fonepad Note 6, what makes it worth buying, is its six-inch screen, made using Super IPS+ technology. At first, second and third glance, the display is very good. Watching movies on it is a pleasure. And the size is right, and the color rendering (by eye!) is absolutely fine. The viewing angles are also good: the picture is not distorted, no matter which side you look at the screen from. The device responds very quickly to touches; the multi-touch layer supports up to ten simultaneous clicks and accurately recognizes gestures. The percentage of erroneous clicks during operation was almost completely reduced to nothing.

ASUS Fonepad Note 6 FHD - AnTuTu MultiTouch Test results

The display resolution of the Fonepad Note 6 FHD, as you might guess from the name, is Full HD (1080×1920 pixels). For a smart phone, as we have already said, this is not a luxury, but a necessity - lower resolutions with such a diagonal make the picture grainy. The pixel density is high - more than 367 dots per inch. It is impossible even for those with eagle vision to see individual dots, but reading from the screen of the Fonepad Note 6 is a real pleasure.

The display has a large reserve of brightness. The maximum luminosity of the white field is high - about 400 cd/m2. Thanks to the high brightness and quite effective polarizing filter, you can use the device in direct sunlight. In the dark, the display does not hurt the eyes: the minimum brightness is about 30 cd/m2. Oleophobic coating allows you to quickly remove fingerprints on the screen using improvised means. In general, the display is made with the right amount of humanism.

The black field luminosity is average (in this case, less is better): 0.41 nits. This is a little more than the norm for IPS, so you can find some fault with the black depth at maximum brightness. However, only the most fastidious users can do this. The display contrast is very high - about 975:1!

Test image for measuring contrast

Such a result could be attributed to automatic brightness adjustment depending on the image displayed on the screen, but in this case we used a picture filled with half white and half black, so the result can be trusted. Gamma curves were measured using a similar method.

The color temperature of shades of gray is stable - around 7500 K. Not bad, although it does not reach the ideal value of 6500 K. As a result, the picture looks a little “colder” than it should, but this is almost imperceptible - the modern human eye is more accustomed to “cool” artificial lighting than to “warm” sunlight. Especially in Russia - the weather does not please us with clear skies and sunshine very often.

ASUS Fonepad Note 6 FHD - Splendid settings

You can adjust color temperature and brightness using the Splendid application, standard for ASUS gadgets, but there is no need for this. As our tests have shown, the screen is initially configured very well.

We were able to identify flaws in color rendition only with the help of a special device - a colorimeter. Both the gamma curves of color components and the grayscale curve are somewhat raised in the middle and upper parts. In theory, this means that the primary colors - blue, green and red - are slightly overexposed. This will be critical only for those who work with color - for “ordinary people” the picture looks, as we have already said, quite natural. The color gamut is only a fraction narrower than sRGB.

ASUS Fonepad Note 6 FHD - smartphone screen color gamut (black triangle) compared to sRGB color space (white triangle)

Software and shell

My phone arrived with MIUI 10, this is the latest version of the Xiaomi system. What's good about her? Lots of settings, lots of themes, handy tips and lots of settings. You can control it with the three familiar Android buttons at the bottom of the screen, or you can enable gestures as you like. Which is more convenient? I like the buttons, but if you want to hide them, then hide them, complete freedom of action.

Active advertising inside Xiaomi applications is somewhat annoying, but annoying banners can be removed if you go to the settings of each program and then disable recommendations. If you wish, you can go further, root your smartphone and remove ads after some manipulations, but this is beyond the scope of our review.

There is also such a useful thing as a light indicator, it is very good that this small but necessary function was retained in the phone. You can't really see it in the photo, but it's there!

Equipment

Everything here is standard for the brand’s available products; Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro is in a regular box with a branded red lid. I was pleased that the manufacturer took care of an accessory to protect the case; it is simple, but nevertheless there is no need to buy anything additional. Previously, the Chinese deprived their inexpensive devices in this regard.

So, the following package comes with the phone:

1. power supply 5V/2A;
2. silicone bumper case;
3. microUSB cable;
4. paper

In the left hand there is a case. Comes included.

Charging and operating time

Xiaomi's logic is very difficult to understand at times. Okay, the Redmi Note 5 had micro-USB, so why not add the more modern USB Type-C to the Redmi Note 6 Pro? But the figurines, here is also an old micro-USB. At the same time, Xiaomi Mi A2 with Type-C has been on sale for a long time.

Another strange thing is the lack of a fast charging unit included in the package. It takes 2.5 hours to fully charge with a standard power supply. But if you take a more powerful block, then life gets better. For example, I use Anker multiport chargers, and when using such a unit with support for Quick Charge 3, the entire process takes a little more than 1.5 hours.

We charge all smartphones at once and quickly!

Alexander Pobyvanets

2 August 2018

I had no complaints about the operating time of the Redmi Note 5, and there are no questions about the Redmi Note 6 Pro either. A 4000 mAh battery is a guarantee that there will always be enough charge for a day, and then as it goes. With games, for example, it takes about 5–5.5 hours of work, quite adequate numbers, although not record-breaking. If you watch a video on YouTube via Wi-Fi, only 8-10% is spent in an hour, which is also not much.

Everything is very individual, it only lasts me a couple of days, and if you read user reviews, some even get five days without recharging.

Kit contents

Taking into account the fact that the device belongs to the middle price category, standard red cardboard packaging was chosen for packaging. On the front surface, as usual, only the name of the device is printed, and on the back there is brief information about the product.

Inside, the user will find the usual set: instructions and warranty card in Chinese, an adapter, a USB-microUSB cable, a special paper clip. As a bonus, the manufacturer added a silicone case to the package.

About the filling

They didn’t change anything: the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro has the same Snapdragon 636 as the Note 5. An excellent option for a mid-class phone: good performance, the battery doesn’t melt before your eyes, what else do you need to be happy? Of course, memory. You can choose between 3/32 and 4/64 GB.

I would buy the second option with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, there is never a lot of memory, and the free one fills up quite quickly.

Not long ago we wrote about the competitors of Redmi Note 5. In principle, the same can be said about Redmi Note 6 Pro. This is the most interesting offer in the class for the money. It runs all games with excellent graphics; in PUBG we always get 30 FPS without lags or freezes.

The built-in IR port seems to be an archaic thing, but at the same time, it can be used to control household appliances. A specific example: I have a Philips TV. It turns on normally with the remote control, but turning it off is a whole quest, because the remote control reacts every once in a while: you wave it in front of the box like a magic wand, trying to turn off the TV. But through a smartphone, everything works the first time, so that’s a concrete benefit for you. Although I feel like the TV will have to be upgraded.

Unfortunately, there is no NFC, as is customary with Xiaomi.

You can install two SIM cards at once, but you cannot add microSD to them at the same time; you will have to sacrifice the second SIM if there is such a need. Therefore, it is better not to be greedy, but to buy an option with 64 GB of internal memory, it is more practical.

⇡#Performance

The gadget runs on the Intel Atom Z2580 chip, which has recently become quite popular - apparently because Intel has finally revised the prices for Atom Z2xxx series processors. The chip includes two x86 cores operating at 2 GHz. It is noteworthy that, thanks to HyperThreading technology, the system “thinks” that there are not two, but four cores. The chip is manufactured using a 32 nm process technology. Computing power has two gigabytes of RAM. The volume of the built-in storage is 16 or 32 GB, depending on the selected configuration. Which, however, is not important, since Fonepad 6 has support for MicroSD memory cards.

The device copes very well with everyday multimedia tasks and web surfing. An important role is played by the perfectly optimized “light” shell from ASUS. The gadget displays operating system animations without lag and quickly switches between open applications. A standard web browser can easily handle pages stuffed with scripts of varying complexity.

The main drawback of the chosen platform is the weak PowerVR SGX544 MP2 (dual-core) graphics controller. Although in this case the graphics core operates at its maximum frequency of 533 MHz, the performance is still low. Because of this, the device cannot be recommended to gamers - the level of frames per second in “complex” games and tests was in the range of 15-25 FPS. Even in the simple Basemark 2 Taiji, the device did not approach the 60 frames per second limit, unlike its competitors.

The device easily plays movies in HD format and copes with casual arcade games and not too resource-intensive programs. Applications in which the main load falls on the graphics subsystem are beginning to think about it. The reason for all the troubles is the high resolution of the screen, which, like air, needs something more powerful. However, we should not forget that we are talking about a relatively inexpensive device, and something faster would certainly increase the final cost of the gadget.

Decent camera

As with the Note 5, the camera module noticeably protrudes from the body. Some people are annoyed by this, others, like me, don’t care at all. Well, it sticks out and sticks out, if you carry the phone in a case, you won’t notice it at all.

I won’t list the cameras; bare numbers won’t tell you anything. A snowy and gloomy December in Moscow is not the best time for a photo shoot: during the day everything is gloomy, in the evenings the lights come on and it gets warmer. But we are not testing a top-end camera, but a middle-class smartphone without optical stabilization. Therefore, in the evenings, the photos come out in one, you have to turn off HDR or hold the phone tenaciously so that your hand does not shake.

By the way, Xiaomi works out its price. And if you want a cooler camera, then throw in some money and buy the top-end Mi 8.

The front camera was surprising in that it is not alone; there are also two modules for games with a “portrait” mode, when the phone blurs the background, highlighting the face.

Frame

Xiaomi engineers decided to make the RN8 Pro case from high-quality aluminum: a metal frame and a back panel. On the rear panel there is a camera unit and a fingerprint scanner. This placement is standard for phones of this class. The logo of the manufacturing company Xiaomi is also located there.

The front panel is occupied by a display framed by small frames at the top and bottom. Just above the screen there is a front camera with a set of sensors. And even higher is the speaker slot.

All other components are located in the usual places: at the ends, on the side faces. You won't have to get used to controlling your smartphone.

The table below shows the dimensions, weight, water protection and colors of the smartphone case.

Price issue

If you buy a phone on official networks, you can find it in Moscow for 17,990 rubles. Buying “gray” in Moscow, using offers on Yandex.Market, you can meet 12,000 rubles.

What to buy instead of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5?

Alexander Pobyvanets

December 21, 2018

This time I will remove our traditional section about alternatives; everything has already been described in the article dedicated to Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. There is no point in listing the devices again, just read the text.

Owners of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 are not interested in the model, because essentially everything is the same. And if you choose between Note 5 and Note 6 Pro, then buy the phone that suits you more in terms of price, they are the same.

Same design, same cameras, same performance, same battery life. Either Xiaomi has completely run out of ideas, or they decided that such a temporary update is enough, and then Redmi Note 7 is just around the corner.

Would I buy myself a Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro? You know, no, the device “didn’t log in,” as they say. I would look towards Xiaomi Mi A2, I liked it better. Yes, it is a little more expensive, but it has a practical USB Type-C, a neater design, and overall the phone gives the impression of a more cohesive thing.

Autonomy

The mobile device is equipped with an energy-intensive 4,000 mAh battery, which allows you to use the product without the need to recharge for a long time. In the production of new items, the manufacturer uses proprietary energy saving technologies. The user will not have to worry about the need to recharge the device during the day.

According to the manufacturer, the battery charge will be enough:

• approximately 10 hours of video viewing;
• for 6 hours of active continuous play;
• for 19 hours of talk time without the need to recharge;
• for 34 hours while listening to music.

The original charger is included. In half an hour, the smartphone charges 20%; charging to 100% will take 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Characteristics

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636;
• Memory: 3/32 or 4/64 GB;
• MicroSD slot: yes, up to 256 GB;
• Screen: 6.25 inches, 1080 × 2280, 19:9;
• Battery: 4000 mAh, micro-USB;
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, IRDA, LTE FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/28; LTE TDD: B38/40, dual SIM;
• Main camera: 12+5 megapixels, f/1.9, autofocus;
• Front camera: 20+2 megapixels;
• 3.5 mm jack: yes;
• Weight: 182 g;
• Dimensions: 157.9 x 76.4 x 8.26 mm.

We would like to thank the friendliest gadget store Biggeek.ru for providing us with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro smartphone for testing.

⇡#Software

The smartphone runs on the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system, the shell of which has been slightly modified by the manufacturer. We are talking about the standard ASUS launcher, which is known to many for its wood wallpaper. The main significant change in the system is integration with the touch stylus, which we talked about earlier. Otherwise, it's good old Android, only beautiful.

ASUS Fonepad Note 6 FHD - standard applications menu

In addition to all the standard applications of the system, the smartsheet comes pre-installed with social networking clients, text and office file viewers, the SuperNote note service and a to-do planner, a backup application and a dictionary. In general, there are a lot of useful utilities out of the box. As usual, the user can download everything necessary from the Play Market.

Performance testing

The new product received the same processor as the Redmi 5 Plus model, which means that even before any comparisons and tests are carried out, we can say that the performance of the device will be at approximately the same level. In AnTuTu 7.0.4, the smartphone scores almost 79 thousand points. This is a typical result for devices based on this chipset. We tested the new product in combat conditions: we played World of Tanks and PUBG. In the first case, we set the graphics settings to maximum and saw an average of 30-40 fps, and in the second, it quickly became clear that we could only play comfortably on medium settings.

Screen

The lion's share of the front panel is allocated for the display. To be precise, it takes up 79.5 percent of the front of the phone. A non-standard aspect ratio of 19:9 due to the presence of upper “ears” separated by a unibrow. The corners of the screen are stylishly rounded, as is common with flagships. The IPS matrix has a size of 5.84 inches and an excellent resolution of 2280 × 1080 pixels. The screen shows a very clear image due to the pixel density of 432 ppi. Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro does not suffer from a lack of brightness; an indicator of 500 nits will be enough to read data from the screen on a sunny day. The contrast level is 1500:1. Overall, the display leaves a pleasant impression; you can consume content from it with pleasure.