More unique is the provision of an IR blaster on the top edge of the phone, which enables you to use it as a remote control. This isn’t unusual for anyone familiar with Xiaomi’s previous work, but it does set the phone apart from the Realme 8 5G and the Oppo A54 5G. Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G: display Redmi is a sub-brand of smartphone monolith Xiaomi, and as such, its phones utilize MIUI - specifically, MIUI 12, on top of Android 11. This means that it offers the same basic experience as the one you’ll receive with the super-high-end Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and the giant-slaying Poco F3. The provision of an 18W charger here isn’t the most generous around. The Poco X3 NFC gives you a 33W charger in the box. It’s equal to the Realme 8 5G’s provision, however, and is better than the 10W Oppo A54 5G charger. That means no dedicated telephoto and no ultra-wide. The former is no great surprise in a phone of this price, but the latter is slightly more noteworthy. True, we often decry budget ultra-wides as being scarcely worth the space they occupy. But if you offered us one in return for that dodgy macro sensor and depth sensor, we’d probably take it.

While it’s not what you’d call a mainstream component, the Dimensity 700 is perfectly capable of running day-to-day applications reasonably well. It’s quite capable in CPU-heavy tasks, as a Geekbench 5 multicore score of 1,677 goes to illustrate - though that falls a little short of the Realme 8 5G’s 1,765. You won’t go far wrong if you choose the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G as your next budget phone. It's arguably one of the best cheap phones and one of the best Xiaomi phones, just know that you can get a more rounded alternative if you’re happy to forgo 5G data speeds for another smartphone cycle. Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G: price and availability It’s not a particularly speedy processor by any means, and it’s not helped here by a relatively meagre 4GB of RAM. The aforementioned Realme 8 5G pairs the same chip with a choice of either 6GB or 8GB, which leaves more headroom for app switching and the like.

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As it is, this more functional system is hardly the snappiest way to gain entry to your phone. But it’s reliable enough all the same. In keeping with that, we were rarely outright impressed during our time shooting with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G. It seems to struggle in very bright conditions, completely blowing out highlights and skin tones on sunny days. HDR management is really not its forte.

At its price, you’re kidding yourself if you’re expecting the Redmi Note 10 Pro to be a fancy glass and metal mix. Instead, it’s one of the best plastic phones we’ve tested.

Living with it

We have to confess that familiarity has bred a certain level of contentment with MIUI. It’s a highly customizable UI, with the potential for a neat split notification pane and a fully fleshed out themes store.