Redmi K20 Full Review

Xiaomi has finally brought the Redmi K20 to India after launching it in China this May. 

The Redmi K20 starts at Rs. 21,999 in India, and for that price, the phone offers a striking

design, a notch-less AMOLED display, triple rear cameras including a 48-megapixel main 

snapper, a large 4,000mAh battery, and 18W fast charging. And did we mention that MIUI 

on the Redmi K20 will dish out fewer ads? Yes, Xiaomi has finally heeded the tsunami of complaints and claims to have toned down its advertising strategy. The Redmi K20 is 

filled to the brim with powerful hardware that is hard to find elsewhere in this price
bracket and boasts of a snazzy design that will surely turn heads.

This new Xiaomi phone seems to be superior to its competition in terms of specifications,
but does it perform well enough? Read on to find out in our in-depth Redmi K20 review.

Redmi K20 design

Redmi K20's design is one of its biggest attractions. The flame-inspired gradient pattern
on our Glacier Blue review unit's rear panel looks eye-catching, while the black strip in the
middle contrasts with the dynamic pattern on either side.

Xiaomi calls this Aura Prime Design and says it has been achieved using a 6-layer stacking process. The back of the phone is made of curved Gorilla Glass 5. This design is seen on
the Glacier Blue and Flame Red variants of the phone, but Xiaomi also offers the Redmi
K20 in a Carbon Black variant with a sleeker and more understated Kevlar-like finish.

As far as ergonomics go, the curved glass panel ensures a comfortable grip, but the
Redmi K20 is quite slippery and the rear panel also gets smudged quickly. Thankfully the
retail package includes a hard protective case that has a matte finish and provides a
more reassuring grip.

The frame running around the sides of the phone is made of Series 6000 Aluminium and
matches the colour scheme of the rear panel. Overall, the Redmi K20 is built solidly and
feels premium from the get go.

The phone has Gorilla Glass 5 on the front as well as the rear. The volume and power
buttons are comfortably positioned on the right side, and both provide good tactile
feedback when pressed. The power button has a red accent and stands out from the rest
of the body. The camera module at the back of the Redmi K20 protrudes slightly, but this
is not enough to make the phone wobble while lying flat.

The pop-up front camera module has LED lights that glow when it is raised in dark
surroundings. It also has a small ring at the top that lights up and acts as the phone's
notification light, but it is hard to notice most of the time when the phone is lying flat.

Xiaomi has trimmed the bezels on all sides of the screen to give the Redmi K20 an all-
screen look. The chin is thinner compared to other phones in this price segment, making
the phone look modern.

Redmi K20 specifications and software

The specifications of the Redmi K20 are quite impressive for a phone that starts at
Rs. 21,999. This phone's hardware is nearly the same as that of the more expensive
Redmi K20 Pro, with two major differences. The Redmi K20 Pro is powered by the
Snapdragon 855 and employs the 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor for its primary rear
camera, while the Redmi K20 gets the Snapdragon 730 SoC and comes equipped with
the slightly lower-end 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor.

The only difference between the two sensors is that the Sony IMX586 can record 4K
videos at 60fps, while the Sony IMX582 can only go up to 30fps. Xiaomi apparently went
with the latter because the Snapdragon 730 does not support 4K video encoding at 60fps
anyway.

The Redmi K20 features a 6.39-inch full-HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) HDR AMOLED display
with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 91.9 percent, 403ppi
pixel density, and 600 nits of peak brightness. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla
Glass 5.

The in-display fingerprint sensor on the phone is reasonably quick and accurate, and
unlocked the Redmi K20 within a second during the course of our usage. While setting
up the fingerprint sensor, we were warned that using an adhesive screen protector might
interfere with the scanner, and only an authorised protective cover compatible with the
phone should be used.

The Redmi K20 comes in two variants – a base model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of
internal storage which is what we have for review, and a higher-end configuration with
6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Unfortunately, there is no microSD card slot for
storage expansion.

There are three rear cameras – a 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor with an f/1.75
aperture, an 8-megapixel secondary camera with a telephoto lens and an f/2.4 aperture,
and a 13-megapixel camera with an ultra wide-angle lens and 124.8-degree field of view.

Selfies are handled by a pop-up 20-megapixel camera with an f/2.2 aperture. The lens is protected by sapphire glass, while the module itself is automatically retracted when the
phone detects that it is falling.

As for camera features, the Redmi K20 supports slow-mo video capture at up to 960fps
and 4K video capture at 30fps. There is a dedicated night mode, a 48-megapixel mode,
lighting effects, and a tonne of beautification filters to play with. The lights are kept on by
a 4,000mAh battery, and this phone supports Quick Charge 3.0 so it can be topped up
with the supplied 18W fast charger.

On the software side, the Redmi K20 runs MIUI 10.3.3 based on Android 9 Pie. Our
review unit ran on the dated May 2019 Android security patch, but we hope Xiaomi will
roll out an update with the latest security patch soon.

The first thing that struck us about the Redmi K20's UI was the presence of an app
drawer, something that has been missing from MIUI for a long time. This is thanks to the
use of Poco launcher. The other major attraction is a system-wide dark mode. The rest
of the interface is typical MIUI, with plenty of customisation options and useful features.

The Redmi K20, unsurprisingly, comes with a lot of preinstalled third-party and in-house bloatware including Amazon, Facebook, WPS Office, Dailyhunt, and Paytm, to name a few.
All the third-party apps can be uninstalled, but Xiaomi's own can't be.

Some of the native apps such as Mi Video and Music pestered us with notifications,
prompting us to revoke their notification permission. The Mi Video app, in particular, was
the main culprit and even showed a lot of content in the ‘fashion' and ‘beauty' categories
that we would describe as unflattering and not safe for work.

A major sigh of relief was the lower frequency of ads. Xiaomi made it a point at the
launch event to state that the Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro will show fewer ads than
people are used to seeing on a Xiaomi phone. We found this to be true to a large extent.
For example, the ads that appeared after we installed apps from the Google Play Store
have gone entirely.

There are some small quirks scattered throughout the interface. The swipe gesture to
switch to the last-used app doesn't always work. Also, for apps that have slide-out menus
to the left, the gesture simply can't be performed from the left edge because the app's in
terface is prioritised over the navigation gesture.

The categorisation of apps in the app drawer is also not accurate. For example, Downloads,
File Manager, and Gmail fall into the Knowledge & Education category. When
navigation gestures are enabled, the one-handed mode cannot be activated unless the
Quick Ball tool is activated.

A minor discomfort, which may well be a pet peeve, is that without the Android navigation
buttons on the screen when gestures are enabled, the keyboard is pushed right to the
bottom. We found this less comfortable and our typing was less accurate as well. Another
issue was with face recognition. It performed admirably in well-lit conditions but
struggled in low light.

Still, overall, MIUI on the Redmi K20 feels a bit more refined than its implementation on
other Redmi series phones. The ambient display feature is a neat touch, and we quite like
d the minimalist dynamic wallpaper in which the sun changes its position on a circular
path depending on the time of day.

Redmi K20 display and performance

The Redmi K20's 6.39-inch AMOLED display is great, and that is especially evident when
MIUI's dark mode is enabled. Colours simply pop, and viewing angles are good too. The
display offers a peak brightness of 600 nits, but we didn't feel the need to crank the
brightness up past the 80 percent mark even under daylight.

Sunlight legibility was good too, and the contrast level was excellent for a phone in this
price segment. Reading emails and viewing content on the Redmi K20's display was easy
on the eyes. However, we found that the screen brightness was sometimes adjusted
erratically, requiring us to reset it manually using the slider in the notifications shade.

The display is HDR certified, but it is not clear what standard Xiaomi has used. The Redmi
K20 is currently absent from Netflix's list of phones that support HDR10 content, which
means you currently cannot watch HDR 10 content from Netflix on the phone - not yet,
at least. However, we were able to watch HDR videos on YouTube.

The full-screen display looks great and is also good for watching content without any
camera hole or notch coming in the way.

The AMOLED panel has a slightly warm tinge by default, but one can adjust the colour temperature and contrast to their liking. Users can set the brightness and temperature of
the Night Mode independently, and there is a reading mode as well. To sum up, the
Redmi K20's display is among the best in its price bracket.

Coming to the phone's performance, the Snapdragon 730 SoC with its eight Kryo 470
cores and Adreno 618 GPU truly blurs the lines between flagships and mid-range models.
We did not come across any lag or instances of freezing while using the phone. Even with
10-15 apps running in the background, switching between them was smooth.

The Redmi K20 had no trouble with high-end games either. We played PUBG Mobile at
high graphics settings and did not see any noticeable frame drops or stuttering. Xiaomi
has implemented some neat features and claims to boost speed with its Game Turbo 2.0
tool.

In PUBG Mobile, for example, players can adjust the touch response and sensitivity of the
screen to repeated taps. You can also reduce touch sensitivity around the edges of the
screen to avoid triggering a navigation gesture by mistake.

There is also a feature called ‘Enhanced Visuals' located in the ‘Additional Settings' of the
Game Booster app, which allows users to choose between visual presets labelled Original, Moderate, Strong, and Extreme. However, they merely appear to tweak contrast and
shadows based on the selection.

The game booster also offers a quick settings panel that can be accessed by swiping in
from the top-left corner of the screen. It shows stats such as CPU and GPU usage, and
also provides nifty shortcuts for actions like grabbing a screenshot, recording gameplay,
and clearing memory.

There are also shortcuts for apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook, which can be opened
in small floating windows. This implementation is quite similar to Game Genie on the
Asus ROG Phone (Review).

In PUBG Mobile, we recorded an average of 30fps at the High graphics preset, which is
not too shabby. As far as synthetic benchmarks go, the Redmi K20 reached a score of
214,685 in AnTuTu. In Geekbench's single-core and multi-core tests, the phone scored
2,537 and 6,910 respectively. GFXBench T-Rex returned 58fps, while the GFXBench
Manhattan 3.1 score was 23fps.

The Redmi K20's Snapdragon 730 is not at the level of the Snapdragon 845, which powers
many of last year's flagships that are still on sale for around Rs. 25,000. But it is a tangible upgrade over the Snapdragon 710 and the Snapdragon 675, both of which are now very
common at this price level.

Redmi K20 cameras and battery life

The Redmi K20 offers the same camera hardware as the flagship Redmi K20 Pro (except 
for the sensor difference discussed above), and that does make a solid statement for a 
phone that costs around two-thirds as much as a budget flagship like the OnePlus 7 Rs 32,999 (Review) or Asus 6Z Rs 31,999 (Review). The third rear camera is an additional 
bonus. In our camera tests, the Redmi K20 punched well above its class.

The camera takes 12-megapixel pixel-binned photos by default, but there is a 48-mega
-pixel mode if you need full-resolution 48-megapixel photos. The images captured by the 
main sensor are crisp and contain a lot of detail. The dynamic range is good too. We 
noticed that the Redmi K20 captures images at high ISO levels by default in daylight, and 
some of our shots turned out a bit oversaturated.

In close-ups, gradients are reproduced in vivid detail with nice contrast, but the edges of
objects appear a little soft, and highlights around bright objects are overblown. Shooting
in the 48-megapixel mode brought out more detail and deeper contrast, but we prefer
the 12-megapixel photos because they look more vibrant.

Macro shots captured by the Redmi K20 retain an impressive amount of surface detail
and have punchy colours. The camera occasionally boosts colours a bit too much, which
robs shots of true-to-life colours. Disabling the AI camera mode helped with this colour inaccuracy issue to some extent.

The telephoto camera is used for portrait shots and does a good job of separating
subjects from backgrounds. Edge detection is also on point. The blur effect is applied
evenly, and there are a host of portrait lighting effects to play with too. Portrait shots
captured in daylight look great, but those captured indoors or under low light tend to
exhibit a grainy texture when zoomed in.

The wide-angle camera takes pleasing photos, and thanks to the distortion correction
feature, we did not notice any unnatural warping in shots. One area in which the Redmi
K20 leaves a lot to be desired is low-light photography. The low-light shots we took had a
lot of noise and poor colour rendition.

The dedicated Night mode helps with noise reduction and increases brightness, but details,
and colours are missing. Night mode simply enhances the ISO and does little to sharpen
objects in the frame. Still, compared to the regular mode, the Night mode does a decent
job with subject exposure.

Low-light photos captured by the wide-angle camera are also underwhelming with weak exposures, a lack of detail, and grainy textures. We found the Motorola One Vision's
(Review) night mode was better than its implementation on the Redmi K20. It is also
worth mentioning that the wide-angle camera can't take advantage of the Night mode.

The 20-megapixel pop-up selfie camera somewhat makes up for the rear cameras'
shortcomings. Selfies captured by the 20-megapixel front camera exhibited minimal
over-processing, and this phone could capture natural colours with an impressive
amount of detail.

Portrait selfies had good subject separation and edge detection, but they are a little less
sharp than regular selfies. Our only gripes with the front camera are low dynamic range
and lack of sharpness when clicked indoors or in dimly lit surroundings.

The 4K videos capture a good amount of detail and render natural colours. There is no
OIS, but the EIS does an admirable job of negating the hand movements. The dynamic
range is also better compared to 4K videos captured by phones which fall under the
same price bracket.

The 4K videos shot by the ultra-wide-angle camera are a bit oversaturated and have
lower dynamic range compared to what the primary camera can capture. Slo-mo videos
turned out smooth, and with steady hands, we could capture some social-media-worthy
clips at 960fps.

Battery life is another strong area of the Redmi K20. In our usage over a week, which
involved using social media and productivity apps throughout, an hour of gaming, a
couple of hours of listening to music over Bluetooth headphones, and intermittent calls,
the phone still had around 30 to 35 percent battery left in the tank at the end of each day.

In our HD video battery loop test, the phone lasted for a very impressive 25 hours and
17 minutes. The supplied 18W charger took the 4,000mAh battery from zero to 45
percent in 32 minutes, and needed around 1 hour, 40 minutes for a full charge.

Verdict

There has been some outrage over the Redmi K20 being overpriced, with many

fans and prospective buyers expressing disappointment that the company did not

target the sub-Rs. 20,000 segment. Here's the bottom line, though — the Redmi K20 is
the most heavily specced and feature-laden ‘non-flagship' phone under Rs. 25,000 in the
market right now, And its day-to-day performance is still extremely impressive consider
-ing its price.

The design of the Redmi K20 is attention-grabbing and this phone will stand out in a sea
of glass slabs and garish gradients. The display is of excellent quality, and the in-display fingerprint sensor is also quick and reliable.

The camera hardware is impressive, and save for the slightly underwhelming low-light performance and some other minor issues, the overall quality and versatility you get are
a notch above what the competition offers. The phone's battery life is also amazing, and
you can easily sail through a day and more with each charge.

The Snapdragon 730 SoC powering this phone ensures a lag-free experience in even the
most demanding situations. A refined MIUI with fewer ads, plus features like a dark mode
app drawer, and ambient display, further sweeten the deal.