Gadgetory

- Hey guys, this is Austin and this is the brand new Redmi Note 7 which at $150 might be the best value in a smartphone we've seen yet. So I imported this direct from China and with a converted price of just under 150 US dollars, this is an insane value. Even if it does go up to $200 when it comes out here, there is so much to this phone. Feels like it's been a while since we've done a good old-fashioned unboxing. What really makes the Note 7 stand out is the fact that it does have a full 48 megapixel camera. Now that's cool for any phone, but especially considering the price. Also, actually it's kind of a cool finish. Because this is a Chinese market phone literally everything is in Chinese, so I hope I can figure this part out. English. There we go, alright. So one of the first things you'll notice is this does have a waterfall notch. Wait, waterfall notch, what is it called? Waterdrop notch? Teardrop notch? No, not teardrop notch. Waterdrop notch, not teardrop notch. Now the phone is a little bit on the thicker side but that is for good reason. Inside, there is a massive 4,000 milliamp hour battery. I have a feeling that there is a lot more plastic than metal in this build. I don't know, what do you feel about that blue? I actually think it looks, like from some angles it looks a little bit on the cheap side, but for the most part, I actually do think it looks pretty nice. The display, at first glance, also does seem to be pretty decent. Yeah, there's a little bit of a chin, but considering how small that notch is, for 150 bucks, I mean, c'mon, like, no, don't...don't complain. And in true Redmi fashion, we do have a clear case included in the box. Always a nice touch. Something I feel like... That's actually...it feels like usually it's cheaper phones that come with the more accessories. You've got the fingerprint sensor on the back, which at first glance seems to be just as fast as you would expect on pretty much any other device. So we can confirm that there is no Play Store on this version, but it's mostly just because I actually imported it straight from China. If you get pretty much any kind of world version, it should have that pre-installed. So after spending some time with this phone, things actually do get a little bit confusing because there's actually three versions of the Note 7. So there's the standard international version, 150 bucks. It is very very similar to what I have here with the exception that it only has a 12 megapixel camera. Now, this is the Chinese version of the Note 7 which has a 48 megapixel camera. However, if you want this in the international market instead of importing it, which you shouldn't do; this was dumb, you can buy the Note 7 Pro. The Note 7 Pro has the same 48 megapixel camera. The main difference here is that it jumps the price from 150 to 200 dollars, but with the addition to that camera you also get a faster processor. This guy has a 660. The other Note 7 Pro has a 675. There you go. That should be clear enough, right? The way you should look at it is like this: for 150 dollars you get the Note 7. It does have the 12 megapixel camera and the Snapdragon 660, but if you spend up to 200 dollars, you get not only the 48 megapixel camera, but importantly, you also get the Snapdragon 675. Pretty much everything else should be the exact same - screen, battery, fingerprint sensor, design, all that kind of stuff. You're mainly just paying another 50 dollars for a much better camera and a more powerful processor, which in my opinion is totally worth it. Now, up front, this actually looks a little bit like a Pocophone, which should be no surprise considering that they both have Xiaomi as their parent company, but the main difference here is that while it does have a little bit of a chin, we have a much smaller notch. This is not quite the same kind of water drop notch that you would find on the OnePlus 6T. It's just a little bit chunkier, but considering the price, nothing to complain about. And the screen itself is pretty solid - 1080p. On top of that you have a decent speaker. (phone speaker plays audio) The only real problem is that it's a single bottom-firing speaker, but, you know, 150 - 200 bucks, not complaining. So because this is the Chinese version of the phone without the Play Store, it means that I was able to side-load a few apps, but I wasn't able to do my full tests. That being said, from a few benchmarks that I was able to run, it does seem to be reasonably powerful, but I really do feel like that 675 in the Pro version should be a much bigger step up. Still not quite on the same level of the Pocophone, but we're talking about, what, like 50% the cost here or 70% of the co- No, actually yeah, 50% of the cost here, yeah. I can do math. I feel like we spent enough time talking about this 48 megapixel camera, so let's actually give it a try. So in reality it actually doesn't shoot 48 megapixel photos. It takes that and super samples it down to 12 megapixels, but supposedly it still has the detail of a much much higher megapixel camera, which would make sense. So we have all the AI processing, HDR, and at first glance, I mean, this looks like it's got a lot of range in it. That's actually not bad. So we still got the sky. We've got a little bit of crunchiness with the camera, but not bad for a 150 - 200 dollar camera. Now, of course, this is not a particularly fair comparison, but I want to see how it stacks up to the best camera on any smartphone right now, the Pixel 3. Oh wow, yeah, that's actually a pretty significant difference. I mean, you do have to definitely zoom way in, but I'm seeing a lot more little tiny detail on the Redmi that's just not here on the Pixel. I mean, it all just looks a touch soft. Zoom it out and I still think the Pixel takes a little more of a natural image. That's actually pretty impressive. Let's see how it handles sort of the different colors here as well as a little bit of sky. It's a lot to ask. The range is not bad here. I think it kinda little bit...actually, no, you know what, that's reasonably accurate. Especially, again, when you zoom in on like the individual tiles on the wall. I still think it's quite as natural as far as, sort of, dynamic range is. Specifically, with the colors. They're not quite as natural-looking as something like the Pixel, but the detail we're getting here and the range is really not bad. Now the Note 7 does top out at 1080p video and there is no optical image stabilization which is probably one of the biggest things that you're missing from a more expensive camera. But as I kinda walk around here the electronic stabilization seems to do a pretty decent job. Although exposure is a little, uh, a little crunchy probably on both cameras right now when I get in the sun. Now that we're in direct sunlight, I really wanted to see exactly how well the detail can be resolved with this 48 megapixel camera. So I think this landscape should be a pretty good way of seeing exactly just how much we can get out of it. So there are a couple of things that are immediately noticeable. First of all, I think the Redmi is much cooler on the white balance which gives the entire photo a little bit of, uh, a cooler tint. It's not quite as accurate as the Pixel. But when you look really close at that detail, I've got to say, the Redmi does have a slight advantage. It's not quite as extreme as something like that leaf, but there's definitely more here. I'm really legitimately impressed with what you're able to get with a 150 dollar phone, I mean, this is a huge huge comparison. Considering the price, I mean, it is hard to argue with this phone right now. Now let's try the portrait mode. This does have a 5 megapixel secondary shooter, which is essentially just for the depth sensing. So let's see if it's actually any good or whether it's hot garbage like this pretty much always is. That is night and day. So again, the Redmi looks significantly cooler and it just doesn't look as natural. I mean, the Pixel absolutely wins this by a lot. I guess it does an okay job of cutting you out of the background, I will say, but, yeah, I don't think anyone is going to look at these two photos and not want to go with the Pixel. There's also a lot more range, I mean, it's sort of losing your forehead and especially a lot of your jacket on the Redmi. Whereas, on the Pixel it's fine. It's getting really windy. I bet it's picking up on my mic, isn't it? Uh, Beauty Mode? No, go away Beauty Mode. Alright. (camera shutter clicks) Uh, so it's...it looks decent, um, especially when you turn off the Beauty Mode there's a fair bit of detail there. The only thing is that I just consistently see, and I don't know, maybe it's just this asphalt or something, but the images look very cool. A lot cooler than they actually look in person. Okay, so there's a few main takeaways with this phone. First of all, I don't really recommend importing the Chinese version, even though it is 150 dollars. By the time you pay the import fees, it's basically the same price as the Note 7 Pro, which has the same camera, but importantly, it does have those better specs. When you put this whole package together, for 150 to 200 dollars, there is a lot to like with this Redmi Note 7. As far as a value king, I can't even think of anything that even comes close right now.