In January Xiaomi announced in China the first device in its newly independent Redmi brand, the Redmi Note 7. As of 7 May that phone officially goes on sale in the UK at £179. You can read our full review here.
Redmi Note7 is a budget phone that mixes the mid-range Snapdragon 660 processor with a high-capacity 4,000mAh battery and impressive 48Mp camera.
A Pro version of Redmi Note 7 was announced in China and India in March, but no plans have been announced for this Pro model to come to the UK. As anticipated it has a 48Mp camera with a Sony IMX586 rather than Samsung GM1 sensor, 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of storage, with a processor upgrade to the Snapdragon 675. It’s otherwise largely identical to the standard model, with the same 4,000mAh battery and 6.3in display.
How to buy Redmi Note 7
Redmi Note 7 goes on sale in the UK on 7 May, when it will be available direct from the UK Mi Store from £179.
That’s for the Space Black 3GB RAM + 32GB storage model, while a Neptune Blue variant and more memory/storage options will be available in the coming weeks. A 4GB RAM + 64GB storage model will cost £199, while a 4GB RAM + 128GB storage Redmi Note 7 will cost £249.
The Redmi Note 7 will also be available from third-party outlets such as Amazon and eBuyer soon.
Also see: Best Xiaomi deals.
Redmi Note 7 features & specifications
A ‘Note’ device, the new Redmi phone packs a large 6.3in screen. This is an LTPS in-cell screen with 2.5D curved glass and a tough Gorilla Glass 5 outer layer. It has a tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 2340×1080 Full-HD+ resolution. The company claims the Redmi Note 7 offers 450cd/m2 brightness, and 1500:1 contrast.
The front of the device is largely all-glass, with incredibly slim 1.95mm bezels for a budget phone. There’s also a waterdrop-style notch at the top of the screen in which the 13Mp selfie camera is housed.
Turn it over and you find the phone’s USP: a 48Mp + 5Mp dual-lens AI camera with f/1.8 aperture. It’s uses Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright GM1 backside illuminated CMOS sensor, and Tetra cell tech that can merge four pixels into one large 1.6um pixel to increase light sensitivity.
The rear is also all glass, with a new Redmi logo at the bottom where normally you would expect to find a Mi logo – this is the first product announced by the company’s newly separated Redmi brand, headed up by Lu Weibing, the former president of Gionee.
Inside the Redmi Note 7 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, which is paired with 3-, 4- or 6GB of RAM and 32- or 64GB of storage (you can also add a microSD card up to 256GB in capacity, though you must do so at the expense of using a second SIM). It runs at a 2.2GHz clock speed and integrates the Adreno 512 GPU, all running on a high-capacity 4,000mAh battery.
The new phone also supports Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-FI, GPS, USB-C and an increasingly rare IR blaster. At 159.2×75.2×8.1mm the Redmi Note 7 weighs 186g.
Also see: Best Xiaomi Phones
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Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our EMEA and LatAm editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.