March 18, 2020

Redmi K30 Pro Screen Will Be A Compromise

March 18, 2020/ Mitchell Gross

The Cheapest Snapdragon 865…

The Redmi K30 Pro is set release quite soon and a lot of people are wondering about the type of display the Redmi K30 Pro will have. The Redmi K20 Pro was a huge a success for Xiaomi Redmi. Redmi is trying to build on the success of the Redmi K20 Pro and with the release of the Redmi K30 Pro Redmi is hoping to build on that success. Part of the success of the Redmi K20 Pro was the notch free display. The Redmi K30 Pro is expected to build on the all screen display of the Redmi K20 Pro and we are expecting the Redmi K30 Pro to build on that success. But how could Redmi give the Redmi K30 Pro a high refresh rate display when the their flagship device, the Xiaomi Mi 10 and Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, already has a 90hz Amoled display? If you don’t think screens are important, see how we ranked them in our Smartphones of 2019 article HERE

Components And Cost…

To expect that the Redmi K30 Pro will be the cheapest Snapdragon 865 device and it will ship with high refresh rate amoled display is absolutely ludicrous. The Redmi K30 Pro has one purpose and one purpose only, Redmi wants the Redmi K30 Pro to be the cheapest device on the market with a flagship tier processor. The Redmi K30 Pro is set to have more than just a flagship SOC. It has also been confirmed that the Redmi K30 Pro will feature UFS 3.1 storage. This means that the storage of the Redmi K30 Pro will in fact be faster than the storage on the flagship Xiaomi device, The Xiaomi Mi 10.

A Compromise We Can All Agree On

An option seemingly unspoken of by most tech outlets about the Redmi K30 Pro is the fact that we could see the Redmi K30 Pro come with a high response screen, at a normal 60hz refresh rate. What would this mean for the Redmi K30 Pro from a user experience standpoint? A lot actually. Touch input rate is generally tied directly to screen response rate but Xiaomi has implemented significantly higher touch response rate digitizers on a variety of devices including the Blackshark 3. The faster touch input allows the device to register your finger movement before it asks the GPU to create the screen. This means that the touch input and user experience on the Redmi K30 Pro in some ways could still be at flagship level, without incurring the extra cost of a high refresh amoled display. This would allow the Redmi K30 Pro to retain the title of the cheapest Snapdragon 865 device while also giving the Redmi K30 Pro a unique experience. This would be welcomed since devices like the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 come with a curved AMOLED display

January 20, 2020

5 Reasons I am Not Upgrading from the K20 Pro to the K30 Pro

January 20, 2020/ Pedro D'avila

It is no news to anyone that the K20 Pro was a device we loved using in 2019. With so many awesome features on offer, we were staggered to see what Xiaomi would have on offer for the sequel of this great device. Unfortunately, it is not always that the company’s interests and ours align, and with the recent release of the K30 Pro, we have been less than excited for what it has on offer.

The Display

Taking a step back in screen brightness is never a good idea, in fact, it’s this feature alone that makes our phones usable where we desire them the most: outside. With the K30 Pro however, Xiaomi has receded about 100 nits of brightness from its predecessor, a significant amount considering the K20 Pro’s outdoors visibility was on the line of what we would consider “visible” in outdoors situations - making the K30 Pro a phone that should just stay at home.

Lack of OIS

The triple camera setup was a great feature of the K20 Pro, and whilst we took some great photos with it throughout the year, we have always been disappointed by the lack of OIS in the video department. In our list of features we wanted to see in a potential K30 Pro, this was on top of our priorities, as we hoped Xiaomi would see the community’s positive reaction to the device’s photography abilities, and improve on it.

Sadly however, this was simply not the case, and as well featured as the K30 Pros set of cameras may be, it has still left out this very important feature, making video stabilisation less than desirable in a phone that in 2020 has some worthy competition.

Back to Plastic

With last year’s K20 Pro, Xiaomi sent a message that it cares about design just as much as it cares about performance. For a device claiming to be the K20 Pro’s successor, such downgrade in built seems a bit odd at best. Not only is glass prettier, but often times more resistant, and it allows for the addition of extra perks such as wireless charging.

Controversial Design Choices

Whilst the pop up selfie camera was a design quirk we had a range of thoughts about last year, we truly appreciated the K20 Pro’s bezel-less look, which made video-viewing experience better, and gave the phone a more futuristic look overall. Copying the design trends popularised by the Samsung S10, the K20 Pro features a camera hole that takes away from the beautiful viewing experience first brought to us by its predecessor.

Walking Backwards

As all these points may have shown, the K30 Pro takes many fundamental ideas of what made the K20 Pro a remarkable device, and deviates from it entirely. In this path, not only does the K30 Pro lose a great deal of identity, but it also creates a device that is ultimately superior to its much beloved predecessor. With this idea in mind, we do not think that the K30 Pro is a worthy purchase, and believe that many customers would be happy sticking with their K20s for the meanwhile.

Will you be picking up a K30 Pro? Let us know in the comments below!