Redmi Note 7S Brief Review, Ratings, Pros Cons, Specs, Cases & Covers

Redmi Note 7S Brief Review and Pros Cons:

The Redmi Note lineup of phones has always been a market dominator in the budget segment. This year with the release of their Note 7 and Note 7 pro we first thought that Xiaomi has basically dominated the budget segment.

It was only when there were rumors of the Note 7S being released especially with the speculated specs, the tech world and Note fanboys thought that Redmi is making a huge mistake. As per what the leaks suggested this looked like a parts spin of between the Note 7 and the Note 7 pro.

When the Note 7S did release it did turn out to be a parts spin-off, until the point the price was dropped. To keep this short review nice and crisp till the end we will discuss the verdict of the phone for the conclusion. With that said this is probably the best strategy that Redmi has ever played. Why do we think so? Read on to find out in this review of Redmi Note 7S.

Now before we even get to the specs just remember this that this phone is truly a part spin-off between Note 7 and the 7 pro. With that said let’s jump right into the review.

The Note 7S comes with glass sandwich design where we see gorilla glass 5 to both the front and the back and the phone just screams premium. That said the frame that holds the back and front panel is a plastic one and gives the overall build and design a pretty good feel. Not only this but the back also comes with a beautiful gradient back finish, that like the 7 and 7 pro which overall gives the 7S too a beautiful look.

Coming to the buttons. To the right, we have tactile power and volume buttons, classic Redmi. To the top of the phone, we find the secondary microphone, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an IR blaster. To the left, we see the Hybrid SIM card slot which can be used with 2 SIMs or a SIM and a micro SD card expandable up to 256 GB. Finally, to the bottom, we get the primary microphone, Type C port, thank you Redmi and the speaker grill. We have the Dual camera setup at the back of the phone with a well-placed classic fingerprint sensor in the middle.

All in all, the 7S is on par with the 7 and 7 pro if not better, the icing on the cake the entire phone is coated with Xiaomi’s patented P2i coating. What is that? This basically makes the phone humidity and spill proof and that in our book is great. 

The display has been one of the strongest suits of Redmi especially for the Note series since forever. This thankfully continues for the Note 7S too. To begin with we have gorilla glass 5 protecting the front of the display. Getting into the specs of the display itself we have a 6.3-inch FHD+ Dot notch LCD. This display runs at 2340 x1080p and has a very welcoming 450 nits of brightness with a 409ppi screen density.

Picture quality looks really nice and punchy with accurate colors. It might not be as vivid and punchy as an AMOLED panel. Yes, LCD’s stand no chance when compared to AMOLED ones. But for what it is the display is simply put the best in this price point. We are sure that you will definitely like it.

When it comes to battery life, Redmi has always been on point. The same has been continued with the 7S too. The 7S gets a very modest and very frequently appearing 4000mAh. This is one of the best features that the Note series has been providing ever since Note 3. The 4000mAh battery is easy 1-day battery life. If you’re a light user you will easily get into the second day.

The 7S comes with a 10W standard charger  but supports Quick Charge 4.0 charging technology to quickly charge the phone. Note that, the fast charger is not bundled in the box. All in all, the 7S is basically a champ when it comes to battery life.

Now coming to the camera review. The department that makes all the difference. Let us get the specs out of the way. The 7S gets the same 48MP F1.8 primary sensor and 5MP F2.2 depth sensor as seen on the Note 7 Pro. The selfie shooter gets again the same 13MP F2.0 shooter. Now what’s funny is this that the 7S runs on Snapdragon 660, more on this in a while. Natively the 660 does not support both, a 48MP and 5MP sensors.

The picture snapped is a compressed 12MP one and gives plenty of details. The picture quality will be good and full of detail thanks to the 4 in 1 pixel binning technology. Now there are 2 48MP sensors on the market. One is from Sony and is aka Sony IMX 586 while the other one is from Samsung known as the GM1 sensor. The Note 7S hosts the GM1 Samsung sensor while the Note 7 Pro hosts the Sony IMX sensor. 

OnePlus 7 Pro also hosts the Sony IMX 586 48 MP sensor. Yes it is sad but it is true that the 48MP sensor is nothing else but a complete marketing scheme. Redmi has played it very, very well.

The selfie camera is also pretty darn good. 13MP with all the bell and whistles that are expected of a 13MP lens. The selfie camera supports standard features like 2D facial unlock and selfie portraits.  Pictures taken will be well detailed and the overall image quality is good.

The camera department is a mixed bag cause the 48MP shooter is a capable shooter. It could deliver true 48MP shots if a much powerful chipset were used. As of today, you will most definitely not be disappointed with this camera, however, it won’t wow you either.

So, as we mentioned in the camera department that how Redmi has very cleverly played things of with the use of the 48MP sensor. We also mentioned that the 7S is a parts spin-off. Well, in the processor side the 7S uses the same aforementioned Snapdragon 660 processor with AI capabilities. This is the full-fledged SD660 with the higher 2.2GHz clock speed used in the Note 7. The 660 is a very capable processor and day to day task will be a breeze to use.

Now, again we see Redmi’s very strong marketing strategy coming in to play with the use of a 3/32GB variant and the 4/64GB variant exactly same as Note 7. You will be able to play high end games like PUBG but at medium setting with zero frame loss and high settings with a few frame drops.

We always say this that a phone hardware is not the only thing that runs the phone as the software behind it also matters allot. Well, the good news is the Note 7S runs on MIUI 10 atop Android 9 Pie. MIUI 10 is the result of Xiaomi’s over the year evolution of their custom skin.  The UI is pretty heavy with a few neat tricks. However, what is worse is this that the UI is far, far from even being in the vicinity of stock Android.

Let us now take a peek in to the price before we could conclude. The 3GB/32 GB variant comes at rupees 10999 and the 4GB/64 GB variant comes at rupees 12999.

Comparing the Note 7S pricing with the Note 7 and Note 7 Pro. The Note 7 with the 3/32GB variant comes at Rs 9999 and the 4/64GB variant comes in at 11999. While the Note 7 Pro with the exact same specs as that of the 7S but with a Snapdragon 675 comes at Rs 13999 for the 4GB/64GB and Rs 16999 for the 6GB/128GB variant.

Yes, the 7S is placed right between the 2 Notes and Redmi is trying to capture each and every user in this price range of under 10000 to under 15000 by offering one bait or the other.

Now here is what we suggest. If you were to choose between the Note 7 and the Note 7S, we would say go for the top end variant of the Note 7. This will be a 1000 rupees less than the base variant of the Note 7S while giving you an extra GB of RAM and double the storage.

While if you really want the best graphics and processing power pay 2K more and buy the base variant of the Note 7 pro. With this, you get the Snapdragon 675 and Adreno 612 GPU which is miles ahead of the Adreno 512 which you get with the SD660 on both the note 7 and the note 7S.

Honestly speaking if your budget was tight, we wouldd say buy the top end variant of the Note 7. This will be a great proposition as the Note 7S is not really a huge value for money solely because of the 48MP sensor as it really doesn’t turn any table.

User Reviews of Redmi Note 7S:

If you would like to read the reviews given by customers who bought Redmi Note 7S, check out the links below

Read Redmi Note 7S User Reviews on Flipkart