Chinese manufacturing giant, Xiaomi, has finally released its first flagship smartphone from its Redmi sub-brand, Redmi K20 series at the Beijing University Gymnasium. Since Redmi went independent in January 2019, the company has released a couple of mid-range smartphones which include Redmi Note 7, Redmi Note 7 Pro, Redmi 7 and others. Now, the Redmi K20 series which has Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro have finally been released.
Redmi K20 Pro
The flagship Redmi K20 Pro was much speculated such that its presence almost annihilated the existence of its smaller sibling. The Redmi K20 Pro uses a 3D four-curved glass body (Corning Gorilla Glass 5) with an aluminum 7000 series frame. It uses a Kevlar gradient texture on the glass. This smartphone will be available in Carbon Black, Flame Red, and Glacier Blue colours. The top bezel of this smartphone is 1.85mm thin, the side bezels are 2.11mm while the chin is 3.8mm. It has a dimension of 156.7mm x 74.3mm x 8.8mm and it weighs 191 g.
The Redmi K20 Pro is equipped with the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 octa-core SoC (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 485) coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. On AnTuTu, this smartphone runs 388,803. It has an Adreno 640 GPU. It comes with a 6.39-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 and a 91.9% screen to body ratio. This display comes with eye screen 2.0 and DC dimming.
The front camera uses a pop-up solution which comes with a seamless 0.8s rise after the camera shutter is pressed. The company also claimed that this camera can withstand 300,000 rises and falls just like the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 slide design. This device is also equipped with the 7th generation on-screen fingerprint recognition sensor which supports floating response, display preloading, and DSP parallel algorithm acceleration.
The battery capacity is 4000 mAh with 27W fast charge (Quick Charge 4+) support which promises to deliver a full charge in 73 minutes. It adopts a double-sided three-dimensional heat dissipation structure as well as Game Turbo 2.0 technology which makes this device good for high-demanding games like PUGB. This smartphone is also equipped with a custom game controller priced at 179 yuan ($26) while supporting an ultra-sensitive touch
In addition, the Redmi K20 Pro uses a rear-mounted Sony 48MP wide-angle main camera with a 13MP super-wide sensor and an 8MP telephoto lens. It supports 960 frames of super slow motion video shooting, handheld super night scene mode, portrait mode, 2x optical zoom and shooting proofs. The main lens is Sony IMX586 with an aperture of F / 1.75 and it supports support PDAF phase focus. For selfies, this smartphone is equipped with a 20MP pop-up camera which supports multiple beauty modes, large wide-angle panoramic imaging, and self-timer angle mode.
This device comes with an NXP latest generation SN100T NFC chip. As one of the pioneers in the application of NFC feature in China, Xiaomi NFC is very rich in functions. It supports 200 city bus cards, simulation of unencrypted access cards, Xiaomi payment, NFC door lock, and other features. In addition, it is compatible with many third-party APP used as bus card/campus card/gas card recharge, liquor anti-counterfeiting query, etc.
Furthermore, the Redmi K20 Pro comes with a dual-band GPS which allow the phone to use two bands thus improving accuracy and speed. It’s not a big breakthrough but there are good use cases for it. For example, one use case is street navigation on Google Maps, better AR and VR tracking, IoT, and smart city planning and other stuff. Other features on this smartphone include a USB Type-C interface, 3.5mm headphone jack, Mi Sound and it supports Hi-Fi sound quality (passed Hi-Res audio protocol).
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As for the price, the Redmi K20 Pro 6GB+64GB version was released for 2499 yuan ($362), 6GB+128GB version for 2599 yuan ($376), 8GB+128GB for 2799 yuan ($405), and the 8GB+256GB version comes with a 2999 yuan ($434) price tag. There is also a limited edition gift box for the K20 Pro but the company said that this limited edition is not for sale.
Redmi K20 Pro specifications
- 6.39-inch (2340 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19.5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED HDR display with 103.8% NTSC Color Gamut, 600nit brightness
- Octa-Core Snapdragon 855 7nm Mobile Platform (1 x 2.84GHz Kryo 485 + 3 x 2.42GHz Kryo 485 + 4x 1.80GHz Kryo 485) with Adreno 640 GPU
- 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB / 256GB (UFS 2.1) storage
- Android 9.0 (Pie) with MIUI 10
- Dual SIM (nano + nano)
- 48MP rear camera with Dual LED Flash, f/1.75 aperture, 1/2″ Sony IMX586 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, 6P lens, 8MP 1/4″ telephoto lens with 1.12μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture, 13MP 1/3″ 124.8° ultra-wide sensor, 1.12μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture
- 20MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
- In-display fingerprint sensor
- Dimensions: 156.7×74.3×8.8mm; Weight: 191g
- 3.5mm audio jack, Qualcomm Aqstic WCD9340 Hi-Fi audio chip
- 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS (L1 + L2 Dual Band) + GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C
- 4000mAh battery with 27W fast charging
Redmi K20
The Redmi K20 is the lower variant of the series. Despite its position as a second-fiddle device in the series, it still comes with many flagship features that make this smartphone desirable. The design of this smartphone is technically the same as its bigger sibling. One of the major differences between the Redmi K20 Pro and the K20 is that the latter is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC. Although Redmi claims that this chip is almost at par with the SD855, it managed to score only 218,625 on AnTuTu (chip score).
The Snapdragon 730 is based on the 8nm process technology and it adopts the fourth-generation Kryo architecture. The CPU clock speed is up to 2.2GHz and the GPU is Adreno 618. Apart from the change in the processor, all other aspects of this device are technically the same with the Redmi K20 Pro.
As for the pricing of this smartphone, the Redmi K20 has only two variant and it starts at 1999 Yuan ($290) for the base 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant. The 6GB + 128GB version will cost 2,099 Yuan ($304).
Redmi K20 specifications
- 6.39-inch (2340 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19.5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED HDR display with 103.8% NTSC Color Gamut, 600nit brightness
- Octa Core (2.2GHz Dual + 1.8GHz Hexa) Snapdragon 730 Mobile Platform with Adreno 618 GPU
- 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage
- Android 9.0 (Pie) with MIUI 10
- Dual SIM (nano + nano)
- 48MP rear camera with Dual LED Flash, f/1.75 aperture, 1/2″ Sony IMX582 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, 6P lens, 8MP 1/4″ telephoto lens with 1.12μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture, 13MP 1/3″ 124.8° ultra-wide sensor, 1.12μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture
- 20MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture
- In-display fingerprint sensor
- 3.5mm audio jack, Hi-Fi audio chip
- Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS (L1 + L2 Dual Band) + GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C
- 4000mAh battery with 18W fast charging
The company also announced protective cases for these smartphones as well as the Redmi 7A which was first released quietly on May 24th. The Redmi 7A is an entry-level smartphone which has two versions. These include the 2GB + 16GB version with a 549 yuan ($80) price tag and the 3GB + 32GB version which will sell for 599 yuan ($87). The Redmi K20 Pro will be first sold at 10 am on June 1. The K20 and Redmi 7A will arrive on the market on June 6. To see the complete specs of the Redmi 7A, see our initial launch post HERE. Lu Weibing stressed that the Redmi K20 series is well stocked thus netizens do not have to worry.
OIS there or not in PRO version ?
Was going to make the same comment. All Mi 9 versions came without OIS, so I guess it’s the same here.
That’s very bad … how can they miss such a important feature that too for their so called FLAGSHIP KILLER
I would prefer it to have OIS, but the Mi 9 never had OIS and it didn’t hurt it’s dXo Mark scores too much, so I’m happy to overlook it here.
Everything else hits the mark for me.
I don’t need an sd card slot and FHD+ and 60Hz are more than good enough for normal use.
All the flagship specs that are on the K20 Pro and the price of the top model is not far from the price of the original OnePlus 1 when it was released.
It really is both a flagship killer and the killer of all other flagship killers.
I guess the other question is whether the Pro version will actually come with a 27W charger?
Xiaomi have previous form for providing a charger in the box that is less powerful than the phone can actually charge at. The fact that the specs state it ‘supports 27W charging’ suggests that it might not have a 27W charger in the box.
NO bro…it comes with an 18W charger. Users can buy the 27W charger separately and get full charging capacity
Thanks for the update.
I have just found it on the Xiaomi Chinese site. It’s 20 yuan more to order the Pro with the 27W charger.
It also looks like you can order a Redmi branded suitcase with the phone too. I can’t read Chinese, so I assume the photo is literal and it is an actual suitcase you are buying. Not sure I understand why someone would want to order a suitcase with a phone?
The Redmi suitcase was the last item to be unveiled in the press conference. Its a separate product. Redmi said it is not just a “smartphone” company so I guess that’s why it probably rebranded one of the Xiaomi suitcases and called it “Redmi Suitcase”. Its just a regular suitcase so its no big deal
Just checked out the specs on the Chinese Xiaomi site, the initial version that’s currently about to be sold in China does not come with global LTE bands, I noticed that band 20 at least, which is used as the primary band in many European countries, is missing. So if anyone was thinking of getting it from AliExpress, Gearbest, etc. then sticking a Xiaomi.eu ROM on at a later date, beware that you might not have the 4G bands that you need.
Killer specs and great value for money, but why on earth would they knock off expandable storage? By doing this they’ve made Asus Zenfone 6 (though priced higher) a worthy competitor; sigh.