Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro Review

Performance

Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is the first smartphone based on the MediaTek Helio G90T (MT6785T) chipset, announced at the end of July this year. This is the most powerful MediaTek solution to date for mobile devices and the G in the name suggests it is targeted at gaming. Built on the 12nm TSCM process, this system-on-chip features an octa-core CPU and a quad-core GPU. The CPU consists of 2x 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 cores and 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores. The graphics department is managed by a 4-core ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 GPU clocked at 800MHz. In addition, there are 2x MediaTek APUs up to 750MHz for advanced AI. The model has two RAM variants - 6GB and 8GB. The RAM is dual-channel, LPDDR4X, clocked at 2133 MHz. There are two storage versions as well - 64GB and 128GB. The storage is of the UFS 2.1 type and can be expanded. We are reviewing a 128GB unit. Of those 128GB, 115 are available to the user.

In addition to the powerful system-on-chip, Xiaomi has also added various software features that boost the gaming experience. For starters, this is the MediaTek HyperEngine Game Technology. It intelligently predicts Wi-Fi & LTE concurrency triggers in just 13 ms, boosts response speed between smartphone and the cell tower, connects to two Wi-Fi bands or routers simultaneously to decrease latency. It also delivers 60% shorter GPU rendering-to-display latency pipeline, high-end image quality, intelligent, dynamic management of CPU, GPU and memory, enhanced power efficiency. There's a liquid cooling system as well to make sure long hours of system stability under heavy loads. Just like other Xiaomi smartphone, the Redmi Note 8 Pro arrives with a system-level optimization with the Mi Turbo - the underlying optimization technology of the system which also protects it against ageing. It offers defragmentation for I/O performance optimization and application startup speed optimization. For gamers, Xiaomi has also included the Game Turbo 2.0 acceleration which mobilizes resources to bring improved gaming experience. Game Turbo supports perceived complex game scenarios, intelligently schedules system resources, customizes touch parameters during gaming, and supports custom game display enhancements. More specifically, these features include support for shooting game 4D touch, display CPU usage, GPU occupancy, FPS control, one-click switching network card, information screen floating, game performance enhancement, optimized touch response, custom edge suppression range, turning off automatic brightness, three-finger screen capture, eye protection mode, etc.

Our review unit scored 225,587 points in AnTuTu 7.2.3, which is quite an impressive result. It places the Helio G90T above the Kirin 970 and below the Exynos 9 9810 which is at the core of the Samsung Galaxy S9 series. Most of the benchmark tests could not be run on the device. These include GFXBench, Geekbench 4, 3DMark Sling Shot and Ice Storm. The PCMark Work 2.0 test result is currently the best one we've received - it surpasses the results from smartphones based on Snapdragon 855. The PCMark Storage result is comparable to the ones from systems with UFS 3.0 storage - 13195 points, which is quite impressive. The Androbench results from the sequential read and write are higher than the usual ones for a UFS 2.1 type of built-in memory.