Xiaomi recently introduced a new Redmi series with the launch of Redmi K20 Pro and Redmi K20. We have already talked about the Redmi K20 Pro in our review and now, it is the turn of the smaller sibling.
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The Redmi K20 comes with a price tag of Rs 21,999 for the 6GB RAM variant and Rs 23,999 for the 8GB RAM option. The phone is available for purchase from Flipkart, Mi.com and Mi Stores. With this, Xiaomi has entered into a mid-range to mid-premium segment, which has always been troubled waters for the brand. However, with the latest offering, Xiaomi is all set to try its luck in this segment. So, will it be successful? Let’s find out.
What we like about Redmi K20!
Starting with the pros, the Redmi K20 is surely one of the best-designed smartphones from Xiaomi. The phone is carved out from the same skin that is present in the Redmi K20 Pro. In fact, if you place both the smartphones together it will be impossible to judge, which one is Redmi K20 and which one is Redmi K20 Pro. Xiaomi has introduced an Aura Prime Design, which comes with a special gradient finish at the back panel.
It is one of the most distinctive-looking gradient finish we have seen in a smartphone. Furthermore, the front features notch-free design, meaning that you get an immersive viewing experience. The Redmi K20 is quite comfortable to hold, though you might find a bit heavy.
Another area where Redmi K20 impress is the performance. The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Processor along with Adreno 616 GPU. During our testing period, we did not notice any lag or shutter. Apps were quick to open and multitasking was a breeze with this smartphone. On the gaming front, the phone all the casual games like a piece of cake and high-graphics games like PUBG Mobile, Hitman Sniper, and more ran without any instance of lag or shutter. The PUBG Mobile gameplay was quite smooth and it ran on high graphics settings.
The battery performance is decent as well. The phone is backed by a 4000mAh battery, which delivers almost 1.5 days of battery backup with normal usage. Under power usage, the phone can last up to one full day with some battery juice still left in it. Apart from this, the in-display fingerprint sensor is quite accurate and fast to unlock the smartphone.
The display of the Redmi K20 is decent as well. The smartphone is equipped with a 6.39-inch Full HD+ AMOLED Display with a screen Resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The phone features the same display as we have seen in the RedmI K20 Pro. The AMOLED screen delivers some really good colours and the blacks look quite decent. The display offers a slightly warmer colour tone, but you can change in the Display Settings. Oddly, the company has not given DC Dimming feature on this feature, which is present in Redmi K20 Pro. The outdoor visibility is decent and the texts are readable in sunlight.
The camera performance of the Redmi K20 in the daylight is quite impressive. The triple-camera setup does a really good job in capturing well-detailed shots in the daylight conditions. The acro came out to be good as well and we faced no issues with shooting with Wide-Angle lens and telephoto lens. The front camera also does a good job in broad daylight. The video performance is decent with the Redmi K20.
What we didn’t like about Redmi K20!
What we didn’t like about the Redmi K20 was the low light performance. The photo came out to be a bit softly detailed and the colour reproduction could have been better. There is a Night mode, which adds some light to the image, though detailing is still missing in some photos. The selfie performance in the low light condition is not that great in our opinion.
Another area where the phone lets down is the amount of bloatware you get in MIUI 10. There are a host of the company’s application and third-party apps that comes pre-installed with the Redmi K20 smartphone. Although you can delete third-party applications, company-owned applications cannot be deleted. Furthermore, there are some apps like Mi Video and Mi Music that constantly spams you with notifications. The Mi Security App is another culprit of spoiling the user interface as it always pops-up whenever you install an application from Google Play Store.
Moving on, the pop-up selfie mechanism is one of the slowest we have seen in this smartphone. We have seen phones like Vivo V15 Pro, Realme X and more that comes with a fast pop-up mechanism. Furthermore, it becomes a tedious task to unlock the device using face unlock feature. Users need to first press the power on/off button and more the lock screen, you need to swipe up to unlock the device using Face Unlock feature. This is quite frustrating at times as most of the other smartphones don’t make it so complex.