Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Review After 6 Months of Usage

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 series is elaborate as it has multiple smartphones in the series. Stepped up from the Redmi Note 9 series, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max offers an all-rounder performance thanks to the big battery, impressive cameras, big display, and a few things here and there. Plus, it features a 108MP primary snapper as it’s one of the USPs among others.

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You might have already read the on-paper specifications of the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max but how does the phone fare in real use cases? Here’s a detailed hands-on review that you should read.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max in India is available in three storage and RAM variants i.e. 6GB+64GB, 6GB+128GB, and 8GB+128GB.

The mid-tier variant is available at Rs 19,999/- on Mi.com. The top variant with 8GB+128GB is available at Rs 21,999/- on Mi.com. You can choose between Glacial Blue, Dark Night, and Champagne Gold colour variants. Of course, there is a tonne of offers including exchange offers and discounts from partner banks.

The unboxing experience is pretty old school and inside the box, you get the usual stuff that can be expected from a Redmi Note series phone. This includes the device itself, a fast 33W charger, a USB to USB Type-C cable, some documentation, and a translucent clear silicon back case.

Before we talk in detail about Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, let’s have a quick look at the key specifications. 

• Display: 120Hz high refresh rate FHD+ (1080×2400) AMOLED Dot display; 16.9 centimeters (6.67 inch)
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G 
• Storage: 6GB/8GB, 64GB/128GB
• Software: MIUI 12 (Based On Android 11)
• Rear cameras: 108 MP Quad Rear camera with 8MP Ultra-wide, 5MP Telemacro and Portrait lens
• Selfie camera: 16MP
• Battery: 5020 mAH battery with 33W fast charger
• Weight: 192g
• Dimensions: 164.50 x 76.15 x 8.10mm

Now, let’s move ahead and see what makes the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max a powerful mid-ranger.

Xiaomi phones aren’t bad in terms of design. The Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has proven the same with a rather different design. Talking about the front first, it is an all-screen with narrow bezels display with a punch-hole to the top-left corner. Somehow, Xiaomi thought it would be good to add a silver ring around the selfie shooter but it is distractive.

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The back arrives with two finishes though depending upon the colours you choose. The Dark Night colour variant has a glossy back panel while the other two colour variants have a frosted glass back with a shimmering gradient colour pattern that Xiaomi called EVOL Design. It shifts from light to dark when the light is reflected on it which looks truly awesome.

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max weighs 192 grams and has a thickness of just 8.1mm. Xiaomi has simply done a great job packing everything in a compact body. The camera setup at the back follows a two-step protruding camera bump where the primary sensor is highlighted with a silver right followed by other sensors. This is probably because of the protrusion that Xiaomi decided to have a two-step bump that looks cooler and elegant perspectively.

Luckily, the new Redmi phone arrives with an official IP53 rating from dust and splashes of water. This is required in case you want to claim a warranty on water damage while relieving you from stress in case you ever drop your phone in water but be cautious there.

For the usual part where I discuss peripherals and buttons, there’s a power button cum side-mounted FPS on the right along with a volume rocker. The top has a secondary mic as usual along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR blaster. Finally, there’s a dual SIM plus dedicated microSD card slot on the left.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max packs in a 6.67-inch Super AMOLED panel boasting a 1080×2400 pixels resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The panel is HDR10 compliant and with 450 nits of typical and 1200 nits of peak brightness. There’s a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on top of it.

If you are confused between Redmi Note 10 Pro and Pro Max, be assured as the latter is using the same display tech as the former. The display is rated with a 120Hz refresh rate which is easily one of its USP and a standout feature to note. It is HDR10 compliant and with Widevine L1 DRM certification, you can stream HDR content on the device on OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video among others.

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The display gets sufficiently bright at 1200 nits which is bright even when you are using the phone under harsh sunlight. I didn’t have any issue viewing the screen when walking on a beach when testing the phone so I gave it a go.

Further, the device supports Always-On Display thanks to its AMOLED tech which makes it a premium assortment to pick. The colours rendered by the display are pious, vivid, and vibrant which makes all the sense if you are into immersive gaming or binge-watching sessions.

In essence, the display mounted on Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is truly a flagship-grade display which is amazing if you want a great display without paying for a highly-priced flagship phone.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G SoC under the hood makes for a lot of beef on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. Manufactured on an 8nm process, the chipset has a dual cluster arrangement which includes two big 2.3GHz Kryo 470 Gold cores plus six small 1.8GHz Kryo 470 Silver cores. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max features an Adreno 618 GPU that handles its graphics rendering. Plus, it has 64/128GB of UFS 2.2 storage with 6GB/8GB of RAM.

The chipset on Redmi Note 10 Pro Max with Snapdragon 732G has surely made an upgrade over Snapdragon 720G but it isn’t a much bigger upgrade. The chipset scored 281,443 points on AnTuTu while the GeekBench scored 564 and 1,725 points on single-core and multi-core scores. This device scores less on AnTuTU when compared to its rival Realme X7’s Dimensity 800U SoC.

Check out this cool 2-minutes review of Redmi Note 10 Pro Max

At the end of the day, the chipset is still SD732G which means it can take up any tasks you throw at it. Be it entry-level apps or heavy games and apps, Redmi Note 10 Pro Max can handle it. I played a bunch of games including graphics-intensive COD Mobile with the highest graphics and very high frame rate which makes up for considerably smooth gameplay.

The phone doesn’t overheat as such but once you start playing games for a longer session, it will surely warm up a bit if not more.

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Redmi Note 10 Pro Max runs on Android 11-based MIUI 12 at the time I was testing it. The UI is feature-rich but brings a lot of unwanted bloatware which is annoying.

You can’t remove all those bloatware so it is stuck with you for a lifetime. Ads are another issue with MIUI although MIUI 12.5 is expected to cut back on bloatware at least.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max packs in a single front and quad-camera setup at the back. This includes a 16MP selfie camera with an f/2.5 aperture. There’s a 108MP primary camera with f/1.9 aperture and dual-pixel PDAF; an 8MP ultrawide snapper with 118-degree FoV with f/2.2 aperture; a 5MP macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture; and a 2MP depth snapper with f/2.4 aperture.

Talking about the rear primary cam, it is a massive snapper at 108MP. It uses 9-in-1 pixel binning technology to capture great details in 12MP shots although you can go as high as 108MP mode. The shots captured with the 12MP binned mode are excellent in terms of details retention, accurate colours that simply pop up, wide dynamic range, and good control of exposure in every shot you capture. In fact, the software that does computational photography is well-calibrated and does its job pretty efficiently.

I have tried various modes on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max including its dedicated night mode which is among the best in its price range. The highlights, details around the subject, and the shadows are properly captured thanks to the humongous sensor size which is capable of gathering more light than a 48MP or 64MP sensor. It keeps noise to a minimum making the shots blissful.

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Next up, you get an 8MP ultrawide snapper which is the usual sensor at this price tag. It captures shots with 118-degree FoV while correcting the edge distortion using the underlying software. In fact, the shots are pretty undistorted which is a big thing to achieve.

There’s a 5MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor where the former is responsible for taking snaps of tiny subjects while the latter works with the primary snapper to capture highly convincing portrait shots.

Finally, we have a 16MP selfie shooter that lets you capture decent photos at the best with the Note 1o Pro Max. It oversharpens the faces in many shots although usable. The same goes for shots captured using the selfie shooter at night time as it won’t disappoint you.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max packs in a 5,020 mAh battery which is more than the average battery Android smartphones have nowadays. With a beefy battery pack, you can easily spend a day browsing, calling, texting, and streaming with some juice left that will take you to “Day 2”. In fact, I have found out that even hardcore usage will get you around a day of battery life. You get a handsome 6 to 7 hours of screen-on-time which is not bad, to be honest.

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With Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, you get a 33W fast charging tech under the hood. This is blazing fast as it takes just 80 minutes to juice up the battery to its capacity. Plug it for 30 minutes and you get around half the battery pack that will give you a day’s worth of battery life if used wisely.

Getting a stereo speaker setup is surely a boon above a single speaker system. As usual, the bottom-firing loudspeaker acts as a primary and right-channel in landscape mode whereas the earpiece acts as a secondary and left-channel. Apparently, it is loud but lacks bass which is essential for an overall immersive experience. But at the end of the day, I didn’t have any issue with the sound quality as it is crisp and loud.

You get a USB Type-C 2.0 port on the go with Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max along with an IR port, GPS (BDS, Glonass, and A-GPS), Wi-Fi 802.11ac with dual-band support, Bluetooth v5.1 (with LE and A2DP) among others. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device as well with 24-bit/192kHz audio.

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has dual SIM support with 4G. You can connect to the LTE-A (A) 4G network with DSDS. I had no issues connecting on calls, texting, and more when I was testing it out on both Vi 4G and Jio 4G. Call drops are rare and being unable to send messages is a rare occurrence too, however, it is likely that the carrier is to be blamed and not the phone. I haven’t faced any issues with the proximity sensor either.

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As usual, Redmi Note 10 Pro Max gives you access to both FPS and Face Unlock. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner (FPS) is embedded on the power button, however, it isn’t recessed. It is quick though as you can simply tap and unlock the phone in a jiffy. On the contrary, the Face Unlock is a 2D software solution and does work fine but it isn’t that secure, to be honest. It does get the job done but I would still prefer having a fingerprint sensor around for reliability.