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
