Redmi Note 8 Pro

Technical specifications

I bought this phone in December 2019. I am currently changing to a newer model, but only because my banking application will stop working (and system updates are somewhat unpredictable). The Mi Video update ruins slow-motion recordings. The software, compared to its predecessor (Redmi Note 2), has several things that seem to be outdated. The notification LED is effective, the phone is charged from a computer, the battery lasts the whole day without any problems with 4-5 hours of continuous use. You cannot delete the Facebook application ? It can be disabled. Pros: almost indestructible, great camera, 64 MP, super battery and a clear screen.

I have had this phone since 2021. The biggest downside was the advertisements, but I uninstalled the updates for the system browser, Video, and something else (while still not allowing their updates) – now I have peace of mind. I use other applications anyway. For me, the large size is also a bit of a disadvantage, although it can certainly be an advantage. Other than that, it has only advantages. It is fast, has a lot of memory, the call quality is very good, there are no problems with signal, and none with transmission speed either. It fell many times, and I only have one small scratch on the display (I am against films, glass, and similar protections). It is a pity that they no longer make such phones. Therefore, after repeatedly reading opinions about the quality of newer Redmi models, my next phone will be different. Also because of the advertisements, although I managed to deal with them somehow. And the transition is slowly approaching because the battery is becoming increasingly weak :( Although I still charge it approximately every second day. After 5 years!

I have owned it for 5 years and today, with some regret, I conclude that it is time to change it for something newer. For this reason, I have become very sentimental and decided to share my opinion. In short: the smartphone is wonderful. I want to clearly emphasize that it is definitely the most reliable equipment I have dealt with so far. For 5 years it worked very smoothly and never failed me once. When choosing a smartphone, I usually aimed for the middle price range, so in the past I often encountered situations where the phone I bought started to slow down after a few months of use. In the case of the Redmi Note 8 Pro, absolutely nothing of the sort took place. Additionally, protected only by a protective case from Spigen (no films, glass protectors, etc.), it regularly fell onto various hard surfaces and still looks practically like new. Unfortunately, I think its time has come in the last few days. In the past week, the screen started to malfunction slightly, while today, for no apparent reason, the phone fell into a reboot loop to fastboot. Well, perhaps it was one fall too many. I am not even angry, seriously. After a moment, I managed to restore it to working order, but it was a signal for me to change. Temporarily, I am switching to something smaller and I am convinced that I will still make use of the Redmi. I see potential in it as a mobile station for penetration testing at work, so perhaps it will have an interesting retirement.

In the description at the very end, it is noted that there is no currency converter. However, the currency converter is located in the calculator tabs, and the calculator itself is found by default in the " Tools" folder. Other than that, the phone is one of the best I have owned. There are advertisements in system applications, which can be disabled, but only in each application settings individually. System applications have protections against so called illegal files; for instance, I record a television program on a USB storage device, and after connecting the device with the recordings to the phone via a USB OTG cable, the system applications automatically delete the recorded files. It is also not possible to play videos if the application does not recognize the copyrights, which is certainly a positive feature and an advantage. However, after some time, the protection in the video player disappears. Additionally, the system applications are very well developed. Of course, the lack of cooperation with Google is noticeable in " Mi" applications when the applications expect such cooperation, for example in the file manager. These are the details where the problem lies. Overall, I evaluate this phone very well after two years of use.

Phone purchased after the premiere (late 2019) and I firmly state that this model turned out very well for them and for approx. 1100 PLN it was a very successful purchase. The only downsides that occurred there or began to appear over time were:
- a speaker that does not always play sound correctly (it made crackling sounds)
- the Bluetooth module randomly disconnected from the headphones
- ads in system applications, because it is a Redmi :/
- the fingerprint reader worked inconsistently
And that is basically it, the rest worked flawlessly :) Unfortunately, today on 11.02.2025 the battery ceased to function and without a charger the phone is not really able to work; it is a pity, but all in all the phone is almost 6 years old and if it were not for the battery, it would still work. I believe the phone is/was great for the price and I would buy something similar now. But I will skip Xiaomi, because I hear from friends who bought new phones from them that they are no longer as reliable as they used to be and malfunctions are more frequent. However, I will remember this model very well.

What can be said about this smartphone after 2 years? At the very beginning, it was simply very poor because the software was not well-made. The phone constantly lost LTE, and the speaker and microphone kept creating feedback, which caused unpleasant noises and crackling during calls. On speakerphone, it is unacceptable. There was a time when this stopped, but the problem persists to this day, so if someone uses the speakerphone a lot, they should not buy this smartphone! The smartphone is also absolutely not suitable for elderly people. I happened to use the GPS a lot; while driving it was okay, but on a bike or on foot, it was much worse. The pluses I can mention are that the smartphone survived many falls and a lot of rain, of course in a case :), but it was also splashed more than once, so generally it is still working today, but the problems it caused at the very beginning discouraged me from the Xiaomi/Redmi brand.

In theory, in terms of internal components, it is fine (perhaps except for the MediaTek processor). In practice (six months of use), the phone heats up, and during moderately demanding games, it generates so much heat that one could warm up soup. The fingerprint reader is as sensitive as the senses of old neighborhood gossips. Usually, there is also a file access block, and despite giving consent and granting permissions, nothing can be done and .... The camera is mediocre, but it takes some photos. I almost forgot about the screen, where a part of an application has burned in. When the screen is lit, I have a clear application loading bar on the side of the screen. Until now, I respected Xiaomi for relatively decent products in terms of price-to-quality ratio, but this is already the second consecutive phone from this company where something undesirable burns into the screen and it heats up like a radiator.

I sold realme 8 and bought note 8 pro :-) although it is an older model, it is much better in several respects. Above all, the camera is significantly better, it takes nice natural photos instead of artificial, over-processed fairytale bushes (ah, that fairytale green in realme). The speaker has depth and sounds pleasant. Call quality, especially on speakerphone, is very good thanks to the better speaker, the screen, despite being an IPS, renders natural colors as in reality, which is especially important when taking and editing photos on the phone.
Wi-Fi range is much larger, the fingerprint reader is perfect, although it is on the back, you can get used to it. system and application performance is noticeably faster, perhaps thanks to the MIUI 12 overlay. The screen is super sensitive to touch, a double click wakes it up every time and without delays, which was not so obvious in realme 8.

The worst phone I have ever had; it works normally for 4-6 months and then the trouble begins. The phone freezes during calls (the screen does not want to turn on) and additionally, it constantly increases the volume by itself. One cannot watch anything like a normal person anymore because it suddenly plays at maximum volume. Sometimes it also types words twice, for example, if I type "Jolanta", the phone writes "JolaJolanta" or "JolantaJolanta". Now the volume on my phone is constantly increasing, and believe me, it is annoying when the panel keeps flashing that the volume is at maximum even though you are not touching anything. Furthermore, when I want to lower the volume, TalkBack turns on and the volume buttons freeze, so I cannot turn it off. This is the fifth time I have become very angry with this phone. If you intend to buy a phone, it is certainly not this one.

I have had the phone for over 2.5 years and what can I say? Namely, that after this time it still runs smoothly, there are no system freezes or delays, or rather they occur so sporadically that they are almost unnoticeable, and after such a long period of use, that is an achievement. I am currently looking for something new, not because the phone is bad, but because it no longer has updates and support. It is a pity that manufacturers stop updating such exceptional products despite having released them. Unfortunately, there is currently stagnation in the smartphone market and, to be honest, there is nothing noteworthy that does not also cost a very large amount of money. Therefore, I believe that the Redmi Note 8 Pro was ahead of its time and, even though it was released almost 4 years ago, it still has parameters that put newly released phones to shame.