Test Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro: our complete review – Smartphones

Introduction

After a very successful Redmi Note 5, Xiaomi comes back with a new product slightly overhauled, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro. On the menu: notch, new camera, double front sensor and refinements. Did he seduce us? Answer in our test.

Technical sheet

Model	Oppo Find X
Version of the OS	Android 8.1
Interface	ColorOS
Screen size	6.4 inches
Definition	2340 x 1080 pixels
Pixel density	401 dpi
SoC	Snapdragon 845 to 2.8GHz
Processor (CPU)	ARMv8
Graphics Chip (GPU)	Adreno 630
RAM memory	8GB
Internal memory (flash)	256 GB
MicroSD	No
Camera (backpack)	1:16 Megapixel Sensor, Sensor 2: 20 Megapixel
Camera (front)	25 Megapixels
Video recording	4K
Wireless	Yes
Bluetooth	5.0 + A2DP + LE
networks	EDGE, LTE, HSPA, GSM
Supported bands	2100 MHz (B1), 800 MHz (B20), 1800 MHz (B3), 2600 MHz (B7), 700 MHz (B28)
SIM	2x nano SIM
NFC	No
Ports (Inputs / Outputs)	USB Type-C
Geolocation	Yes
Drums	3400 mAh
Dimensions	156.7 x 74.2 x 9.6 mm
Weight	186 grams
Colors	Red Blue
Price	999 €
	Product sheet                                                     | Test

Test done with a smartphone provided by our partner Gearbest.

Design

Well, it will be hard not to repeat everything that has already been said in the test Redmi Note 5, as the Redmi Note 6 Pro looks like it. From behind, we find the same protruding camera, arranged as on the iPhone, with a fingerprint reader in the center and legal listings at the bottom.

With both smartphones under the eyes there is still a change in the shape of plastic strips at the top and bottom that frame the metal back on the Redmi Note 6 Pro.

It is up front that the Chinese brand has made the most change. The 5.99-inch 18: 9 screen was changed to a 6.26-inch 19: 9 screen with a notch. The manufacturer has once again succumbed to this temptation to reduce a little more margins all around the screen. As such, the chin (the area under the screen) is also thinner than on the Redmi Note 5.

For the rest, everything is the same, the port jack is still there, and unfortunately we find the micro-USB port, under the smartphone. We would like USB Type-C to be generalized, even on this price range.

Screen

As we have already established, the screen is one of the main differences between the Redmi Note 5 and the Redmi Note 6 Pro. The latter now uses a 6.26-inch LCD IPS panel with a 19: 9 aspect ratio, a 1080 x 2280 pixel resolution and a notch.

To the naked eye, nothing to complain about the display of the smartphone. Xiaomi has a very good command of its supply chain and the brand is able to offer good screens throughout its range. Here we have a screen that seems well contrasted, bright enough and displaying beautiful colors. I have never encountered any difficulties to read the screen, even in full sun.

A pbadage under our colorimetric probe confirms that we are dealing with a very bright and contrasted LCD screen with 440 cd / m² and 1399: 1. It should be noted however that these results are slightly lower compared to the 456 cd / m² and 1682: 1 obtained on the Redmi Note 5. The screen of the Redmi Note 6 is also even colder, at 8400K on average. Fortunately, MIUI offers options to adjust all this to the convenience of the user. The sRGB spectrum is here totally exceeded by the screen.

A late MIUI

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro runs Android 8.1 Oreo with the MIUI interface in version 9.6.6.0. The security patches installed at the time of writing the test, in October 2018, are the ones for the month of July. If you've read the Redmi Note 5 or Xiaomi Mi 8 test, you will not learn anything new here.

We find the interface of the Chinese brand, based on an application launcher without drawer like what is done on iOS, a menu of notifications and quick settings reworked and, above all, a menu of complex parameters and clutter. One can once again note the abundance of additional features like the gestures of the full screen mode (which also proposes to hide the notch), the cloned applications, the settings of authorizations and management of the battery for each application, or still the engine of themes enough pushed. A quick tour on the DRM Info application shows that Widevine L1 is not supported, it will be content with Widevine L3 and therefore say goodbye to HD content on some platforms.

Difficult not to regret the installation of MIUI 9 on this generation, while Redmi Note 5 already has an update to MIUI 10 which brings many new and a beautiful redesign of the interface. In the end, at the time this test is written, the Redmi Note 5 has a software lead on the Redmi Note 6, incomprehensible.

performances

The Redmi Note 6 Pro features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage for the model we tested. There are other variants with more RAM and more storage. Xiaomi did not change its platform one iota between the two generations of smartphone, the Redmi Note 5 was already equipped with Snapdragon 636. With a rather well optimized MIUI, the smartphone is fluid overall, even if one can perceive from time to time some slowdowns.

I had the right once to a jerky read on YouTube, because the smartphone seemed to try to manage other applications in the background. Emptying the memory from the multitasking menu allowed me to solve the problem.

	Redmi Note 6 Pro	Redmi Note 5	Honor 9 Lite	Galaxy J6 (2018)
SoC	Snapdragon 636	Snapdragon 636	Kirin 659	Exynos 7870
AnTuTu 7.x	116,426 points	116,098 points	88,512 points	62,544 points

Unsurprisingly, the results on AnTuTu are very close to those obtained with the Redmi Note 5. On Arena of Valor, the smartphone can easily handle 30 frames per second with all available options pushed to the maximum. However, the game does not offer here the option IPSE to unleash performance above 30 fps, a sign that this is a smartphone tight budget.

With PUBG Mobile, the result is more contrasted. By default the game offers at launch the "low" settings, which turn out to be the "fluid" graphics and the "average" frame rate in the settings. The game is very fluid overall, I have never encountered significant slowdowns.

Very good on the back, less on the front

The Redmi Note 6 Pro takes again one of the successes of the Redmi Note 5, its photo module on the back. It is composed of a 12 megapixel main sensor with 1.4 μm photosites, an f / 1.9 aperture lens, and a 5 megapixel secondary sensor (f / 2.2 and 1, 12 μm) as depth measurement. Before talking about the pictures, a word about the software. Once again, Xiaomi will default to adding a lousy watermark to your photos. So think about turning off the option as soon as possible. I also noticed some slowdowns in the interface, and the triggering of the application.

In broad daylight, the phone is doing very well. It produces images with a very good sharpness and beautiful colors. Overall, the dynamic is badured, but we come to find some cases where the sky is burned, especially on the photo of the alley. He does it all the same with honors, hard to find a device doing better on this price range in 2018.

At night, it's inevitably worse. The noise is very present, it lacks sharpness and the colors are pretty bland. Nothing abnormal, however, for a phone at this price, no manufacturer offers here too a really better result in this segment.

Double selfie

The Redmi Note 6 Pro incorporates two photo modules at the front. The first of 20 megapixels with an aperture f / 2.0 and pixels of 0.9 μm, and the second of 2 megapixels, again to make the depth measurement.

The results are rather mixed, the addition of a second sensor has virtually no impact on the results. Here, the Redmi Note 6 does, at best, as well as the previous generation and as well as its competitors. This is not an area in which he shines particularly.

Never out of breath

The Redmi Note 5 was our all-around champion in terms of battery life among FrAndroid-tested smartphones, thanks to its economical processor and generous 4000 mAh battery. The Redmi Note 6 Pro does not change this recipe, so we can expect similar results. In use, I observed a very good autonomy, among the best I encountered with a smartphone. I was able to keep 1 day and 8 hours (ie 32 hours, including 7 hours 20 minutes with the screen on) before falling below 20%, with a session including many downloads of applications, a few hours of YouTube, a little game, and a lot of web (Twitter, Chrome, OneNote, Pocket Casts).

Our test protocol Viser, which simulates a versatile use of the smartphone, confirms this impression with a result of 10 hours all stack, a very good score. It is however lower than the result obtained by the Redmi Note 5 during our test. Be that as it may, the Redmi Note 6 Pro is an exemplary smartphone, which can easily hold two days with proper use of the device.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi did not take advantage of the generation change to solve the problem of fast charging. The Redmi Note 6 Pro is compatible with Quick Charge 3, but there is only a 10W charger in the box. It can raise the phone from 9% to 33% in 30 minutes, 60% in one hour and reach the full charge in 2 hours. With a large battery of 4000 mAh to recharge, we would like to see the brand become a little more generous on the charger included in the box.

Prices and availability

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro is not officially marketed in France. It is possible to import from Hong Kong from about 160 euros. The global version is compatible with all 4G LTE frequencies used in France, except the B28 band (700 MHz).

Our photos of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro