Redmi 8A Review | NDTV Gadgets360.com

There is no doubt that the Redmi series from Xiaomi is very popular in India. This series catered only to the low end of the market when it was introduced, but has now expanded wide enough to encompass high-end devices at aggressive prices. While it now includes phones like the Redmi K20 Pro (Review), it still caters to budget-conscious buyers as well.

Dubbed the “smart desh ka smartphone” the Redmi 7A (Review) had a lot of expectations to shoulder when it was launched three months ago at its rather low Rs. 5,999 price point. Surprisingly, Xiaomi has brought out an update to this smartphone a mere three months after its launch, and has aptly called this new model the Redmi 8A. The new Redmi 8A sports a USB Type-C port and packs in a big 5,000mAh battery. Will these impressive specs translate to a high-quality usage experience? We put the new Redmi 8A through its paces to find out.

 

Redmi 8A design

One glance at the Redmi 8A and it is hard to believe that this is such an affordable smartphone. Xiaomi has done a good job of designing this device, which is priced below Rs. 7,000. The front of the Redmi 8A has a big 6.22-inch display with a waterdrop notch at the top. This is much bigger than the 5.45-inch display on the Redmi 7A. Xiaomi has pushed the earpiece towards the frame of the device. The Redmi 8A has noticeable bezels on all sides. The chin is quite thick and Xiaomi has put a Redmi logo here.

The Redmi 8A is well-built and has a wave design on the back panel

 

Xiaomi has curved the sides of the Redmi 8A, which makes it comfortable to hold. The power and volume buttons are to the right and are easy to reach. Xiaomi has positioned the SIM tray on the left which is otherwise bare. The top and bottom of the phone are flat and you can see a secondary microphone at the top. At the bottom, the Redmi 8A sports a USB Type-C port, which is great to see on a smartphone in this price bracket. The 3.5mm headphone jack, the primary microphone, and the loudspeaker are also on the bottom.

The back of the Redmi 8A only has a single camera with an LED flash. There is no fingerprint sensor on this device, something we can potentially excuse given its price.

Redmi 8A specifications and software

Xiaomi has opted for an HD+ display with a resolution of 720×1440 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. The Redmi 8A sports the same Snapdragon 439 SoC as the Redmi 7A. This is an octa-core processor with eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz. The smartphone is available in two variants; one with 2GB of RAM with 32GB of storage priced at Rs. 6,499, and the other with 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage priced at Rs. 6,999. We had the base variant in for this review.

Xiaomi has slowly been bumping up the battery capacities of phones in this series. The Redmi 6A (Review) shipped with a 3,000mAh unit, and now the Redmi 8A packs in a significantly bigger 5,000mAh battery. The Redmi 8A also supports 18W fast charging, but Xiaomi ships only a 10W charger in the…