The 5G-prompted compromises continue with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G’s mediocre camera setup. It’s a fairly bare-bones effort made up of a 48MP main camera, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor.

The phone is available in the US, but retailers are harder to find than in the UK. We can't see the 64GB variant on sale in the US at the time of writing, so it seems you can only buy the 128GB.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. Anyone who needs an Android phone to tide them over between pricey flagships, the Redmi Note 10 Pro is also perfect for you. Design We can’t think of a more compromise-free budget phone than the Note 10 Pro, it really is that simple.

The Redmi Note 10 5G’s night mode shots turned out better in both situations than the Oppo A54 5G, and while they were a lot noisier than the Realme 8 5G’s in full night conditions, they had better clarity in low ambient light. In addition to its 108MP main camera, the Redmi Note 10 Pro features an 8MP ultra-wide lens for action-cam-a-like shots, and a 5MP macro camera, which, thanks to autofocus, isn’t a massive waste of space. There’s also a depth sensor for good measure. Just like the aforementioned Oppo A54 5G and Realme 8 5G, the Redmi Note 10 5G goes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor rather than the more fashionable in-display method. We really don’t mind such an approach at this end of the market, where in-display methods are generally slow and unreliable. The best camera in the world can’t detract from the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s adverts. Yep. Ads for third-party apps pop up when you install a new app. They’re pretty gross, but you can turn them off. Nevertheless, to get away with such an eye-sore, the Note 10 Pro would have to be the best phone money can buy at its price, which, as you’ve probably gathered by now, it is. So, should I buy it?

Killer feature

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. Xiaomi’s AI does a reasonable job with the phone’s portrait mode, for a budget phone at least. It’s far from perfect, with a slight hazy halo around the subject, and with certain elements (such as hats) losing corners to the algorithm. But the subject was given plenty of pop, and there was plenty of detail to be found in the skin. The 2MP macro sensor is truly terrible, to the point where a whole series of what we thought would be usable examples of flower close-ups turned out to be nothing of the sort. The camera completely failed to pin their subjects, yielding a blurry, noisy smudge of colors. 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. 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.

Why oh why...

You only have to look at the shared nomenclature of these three handsets to see why this might be. 5G modems are some of the most power-hungry components to be found in any modern smartphone. We’ll say one thing for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G: it doesn’t look like a slightly compromised budget phone. We’ve been using it alongside the similarly pitched Realme 8 5G and the Oppo A54 5G, and it’s considerably nicer to hold and behold than either.