This is the Redmi 6 – yet another budget phone from Xiaomi. The device costs about $150 but as usual to Xiaomi, it offers quite a lot of value for the price. Stay tuned to the full Xiaomi Redmi 6 review.
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UNBOXING
The phone ships with all the usual stuff, no extras included.
DESIGN
In terms of design, the Redmi 6 looks very similar to other Xiaomi phones. The build quality is great but I’m a bit disappointed that the phone is made entirely of plastic. We have a 5.45” 18:9 display that I found to be pretty good overall but I wish it was brighter for outdoor use. Also, I wish it had 1080p resolution.
Just above the display, we have a 5MP selfie camera and LED notification light.
On the back, there is a dual camera system and a fast and reliable fingerprint scanner.
There is also a face unlock feature that works quite well but I always prefer using a fingerprint reader.
Other features you need to know: the phone has a hybrid dual-SIM card slot, a headset jack that provides good sound quality, the phone uses a micro USB port for charging and finally, the loudspeaker is pretty good for a budget device.
HARDWARE
The Xiaomi Redmi 6 ships with the Helio P22 chipset, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. There is also a more expensive model with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM.
The overall gaming performance is pretty good. Games like Asphalt Xtreme, Shadow Fight 3 run fine, with just a few skipped frames. If you plan to play games like Pubg, you should expect to see a bit of stutter and minor lag.
USER INTERFACE
My Redmi 6 runs on the MIUI 9.6 that is based on Android 8.1. Unfortunately, I have the Chinese model, meaning the phone comes with some bloatware apps and without Google Services. A good thing is that it takes just a few minutes to install Google Services and you can remove most of the apps.
If you have used a Xiaomi phone before, you will feel right at home. The device has plenty of features and customization options. Usually, the phone is quite fast but you may see a bit of stutter from time to time. I can’t really complain about that but more expensive Xiaomi phones like the Redmi Note 5 feel faster.
IMAGE QUALITY
The overall image quality is pretty good. You can definitely take some nice pictures with this phone. There is an auto-HDR mode which is great but I found some of the pictures to look a bit cartoonish. Portrait mode takes pretty nice looking pictures too with just minimal artifacts.
There is also a selfie portrait mode that takes nice pictures for social media. I think that portrait selfies look much better than the regular ones.
Night image quality, however, does not really impress.
1080p video could look better. I tested the camera with the EIS feature on and that led to a lot of noise and jello effect in the video.
1080p selfie video looks pretty good overall and the sound recording quality is decent.
High-resolution camera samples
CONNECTIVITY
Connectivity department is where the Xiaomi Redmi 6 is very good. Call quality and signal reception are great, it takes just a few seconds for the GPS to find the location and other connectivity options work fine.
There is plenty of sensors on-board but there is no gyroscope which is a shame.
BATTERY LIFE
Most of the Xiaomi phones are known for great battery life and the Redmi 6 is no exception.
My record screen-on time was 10 hours. However, if you use the phone more intensively, you should expect to get about 7 hours of SOT.
It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the phone with the supplied charger.
CONCLUSIONS
The Redmi 6 is yet another good budget phone by Xiaomi.
The only complaints I have is that the phone is made of plastic, so it feels a bit cheap in comparison to other budget Xiaomi phones that are made of metal.
Also, I wish the device used a 1080p display and the screen was brighter. In addition, there is no gyroscope sensor which is a shame to Xiaomi. Other than that, you get a phone with good cameras, pretty good overall performance and solid battery life.
Overall, the Redmi 6 may not be the only budget option out there but it is definitely a solid cheap phone for the price, despite a few flaws.
