When you think of budget phones, Xiaomi’s name is probably the first that pops into your mind. And for good reason too. You can count in the brand to introduce decent smartphones at competitive prices and apart from the upcoming Redmi Note 8 series launch in Pakistan, the brand has also upped the ante with its latest budget offering -- the Xiaomi Redmi 8.
This fresh arrival is a slight improvement over the still very recent Xiaomi Redmi 8A. It carries over most of the raw specs from its predecessor but integrates a glass build and another camera into it.
Along with the 12-megapixel primary shooter on Xiaomi Redmi 8, you get a secondary 2-megapixel depth lens. On the front, you have an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The highlight for this revival is still the beefy 5,000 mAh battery with the support for 18W fast-charging but Xiaomi has revised the design to a certain degree.
Redmi 8 now boasts Xiaomi’s so-called Aura Mirror design – a very clean and glossy back panel with a contrasting band cut from glass. This band houses the twin camera setup as well as the capacitive fingerprint reader. The back panel is available in three different variations: Ruby Red, Onyx Black, and Sapphire Blue. Although it may feel slippery at times, the design itself is eye-catching yet minimal.
As touched on above, the Redmi 8 borrows the 6.22-inch display, the compact notch, and the Snapdragon 439 chipset from the Redmi 8A. But it comes with upgraded memory configurations, namely: 3 GB / 32 GB and 4 GB / 64 GB variants. It retains the dedicated support for microSD card and still offers up to 512 GB of expandable storage.
The variant with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage is expected to retail for 17,500 PKR (not including the taxes) while the other version might be priced around 20,000 PKR. The phone has already been unveiled in India and Ukraine and is expected to hit their store shelves in the next couple of days. Note that this launch hints that its release in Pakistan may not be far off.
