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Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Unboxing and Review – Other smartphone brands better sit up

by Henry O

April 29, 2019 1

A lot of you may not know it, but Xiaomi has got lots of fans here in Nigeria. You’d have to check out Nairaland to have a sense of the kind of following Xiaomi has.

So when I heard Xiaomi was coming to Nigeria, I felt like they wouldn’t have to worry knowing how a lot of people already like their devices even though they had no presence in the country.

We’ve had some Xiaomi devices in Nigeria in the past but they were brought in by some third party partner. But just last week, Xiaomi in partnership with Jumia Nigeria and i mean the real Xiaomi not some partner company, launched its first smartphone in Lagos Nigeria and that’s the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7.

I was able to get a review copy and this is my unboxing and first impressions on the device.

Unboxing

The Redmi Note 7 like most other Xiaomi Devices comes in a white box that contains a section with the User Guide, Warranty Card and a tinted TPU transparent case. This section also houses the sim ejector tool. Next in the box is the Redmi note 7. I have the Space Black color here and it’s got some heft to it. We’ll set this aside for now. Net we have a USB C cable and a 5W 2A charger. This is not a fast charger but if you do have a fast charger lying around it should get your device up on juice real quick.

Build and Specs

The build quality of the Redmi Note 7 is great, scores a 7.5 out of 10 in my build quality. It feels like a very premium device and has a premium heft to it. It’s got a plastic back shell which you’d have to take a very close look at to tell that it’s actually plastic. It looks and feels like glass.

The variant I have here comes with 3Gigs of RAM and 32Gigs of internal storage. It also sports a 14nano meter octa-core Snapdragon 660 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, there’s a 4000mah battery, a 1080p 6.3Inch FHD+ IPS LCD display panel that sports a water drop notch. In that notch, we have a 13MP F2.2 selfie camera that shoots video at 1080p@30FPS.  For those of you who like to know the PPI rating, the Note 7 has got a pixel density of 409.

To the back of the device we have a dual camera setup consisting of 48MP Primary and 5MP depth sensor. The rear camera shoots 1080p videos at 30 or 60FPS and also has Electronic Image Stabilization. More on this later.

As for physical buttons placements we’ve got them all in the usual places, Volume and power buttons to the right, a dual SIM slot consisting of a SIM and a Hybrid tray, so you can either use two SIMS or a SIM and a micro SD card. To the top we’ve got a 3.5mm headphone port, a noise cancelling microphone hole and an IR blaster which is always a welcome feature and super useful. On the bottom we have the USB type c port flanked on both sides by two speaker grilles. Only one actually houses the speaker. The other houses a microphone.

There’s a fingerprint scanner to the back of the device and you also have a notification LED light at a very interesting location. The bottom of the phone.

The Included TPU case fits the device snuggly, but it doesn’t feel like it hugs the device very tightly. You’d feel it occasionally cone off the phone without trying hard.

The Screen

The 6.3 inch FHD screen on the Note 7 is a pleasure to use. It’s got really good color calibration and doesn’t seem too saturated. Colors are balanced and the picture quality is very impressive. Watching videos on this screen is enjoyable and at 6.3 inches it doesn’t feel too big. In fact it’s quite manageable with one hand.

Software

The Redmi note 7 comes with MIUI 10 over android 9 and it runs quite well although I experienced occasional stutters here and there, the software is mostly very smooth.

MIUI is up there amongst the best android skin and just for perspective it’s far better, smoother and a more enjoyable software experience than Samsung’s One UI. The transitions and overall look and feel is awesome. No wonder MIUI has a huge following around the world. It’s almost like a cult.

Fingerprint unlock is fast although you hear it unlock before it actually shows on your screen. Here’s a video of what that looks like.

I have not setup face unlock at this time but will give you and update on that in my full review.

Camera

I’ve had this device for just a day and from the photos I took, they’re pretty good. I took some shots in low light situations and they came out quite okay as you can see on your screen. Pictures were mostly detailed though there were times when the pictures just came out disappointing. Selfies were okay, there seemed to be some smoothening but they were mostly good looking selfie shots.

You have to know however that there were some software updates that came in while I was making this video and it had some updates to the camera software, so there should be improvements.

My full review should bring you more in-depth look on how well these cameras perform

Conclusion

Considering all you’d be getting with this device, a great build, nice design, good performance, beautiful software experience, awesome battery life and a 1080p FHD display with impressive color representations and balance, The Redmi note 7 is at a very good place in the mid-range smartphone market.

But is it all pros and no cons? What are the cons you may ask, well there are placement of Ads in the OS. However I’ve only seen the ads displayed on the screen that shows up when you’re installing an app.

Outside that, I haven’t seen ads show up in other parts of the OS. I also dislike the fact that the camera bump on the back is quite high, even with the case on. It still juts out from the case, making it prone to scratches. There are also some stutter when going into recent app but this only occurs when using the full screen gestures. Using the buttons eliminates this.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 comes in three variants, the 3+32GB variant which I have here, costs N58,000 ($161), there’s also a 4+64GB variant that’s going for N66,900 ($185) and a third 4+128GB variant going for N75,500 ($210).

You can purchase the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 on Jumia Nigeria in a daily flash sale at 12 noon via their mobile app. You can also click to purchase the device here: Buy Redmi Note 7 on Jumia.com.ng 

These prices are very competitive when you look at the smartphone offerings in Nigeria and they cater to mostly everyone who needs an affordable smartphone with great specs.

Guys if you have any questions on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, leave them in the comment section of this review and you can follow me up on social media with those questions as well.

My handle is @henreeneo on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.