The budget smartphone space in India ha become a whole lot more interesting with the launch of Xiaomi’s Redmi 8A. The Redmi 7A successor gets some impressive upgrades with only a marginal uptick in price. At a starting price of just INR 6,499, you get a dot notch display, Gorilla Glass 5 protection, 5000mAh battery, and USB Type-C charging.
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Redmi 8A Specifications, Features
The Redmi 8A offers a significant upgrade over its predecessor in pretty much every aspect. The display now measures 6.22-inches as opposed to the 5.45-inch sized screen of the Redmi 7A. The new screen offers an HD+ resolution, and its bezels have been noticeably reduced thanks to the use of a ‘dot notch’ design. There is still a bit of chin with the Redmi branding, but we are not complaining. The phone maker has also managed to offer Gorilla Glass 5 protection for this display.
To ensure a comfortable grip, the Redmi 8A gets something called the “Aura Wave Grip” design. Despite the vibrant rear panel design, Xiaomi says the back of this smartphone is fingerprint resistance. Perhaps an even more impressive durability feature is the inclusion of P2i splash resistance rating. There is still no fingerprint scanner offered. Maybe we shall see one with the next Redmi A smartphone.
In the imaging department, the Redmi 8A offers a 12MP Sony IMX 363 sensor at the rear, that bears an F/1.8 aperture and is accompanied by an LED flash. Turn the smartphone around, and you get an 8MP selfie camera. The rear camera offers PD autofocus, while both sensors get support for AI Portrait mode.
Under the hood, the Redmi 8A rocks the same Snapdragon 439 SoC that is found on the Redmi 7A. This chipset is paired with either 2GB or 3GB of RAM, while storage on both models remains the same at 32GB. A dedicated microSD card slot lets you add up to an additional 512GB of storage. For software, the phone runs Android 9 Pie-based MIUI 10 for now, but an upgrade to MIUI 11 shouldn’t be too far off.
As for the battery, Xiaomi has managed to cram a 5000mAh cell into this smartphone and has also gone as far as to offer fast charging support over the phone’s USB Type-C port. While the phone itself will ship with a 10W brick, you do have the option to enjoy 18W fast charging by purchasing a compatible charger later on. The Redmi 8A is a dual-SIM smartphone that also rocks an IR blaster along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Redmi 8A Price in India, Availability
The Redmi 8A will be offered in three color variants – Sunset Red, Ocean Blue, and Midnight Black. The base variant of the handset with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage has been priced at INR 6,499, while an upgrade to 3GB of RAM will set you back by INR 6,999. The phone will go on sale in India via Flipkart and Mi.com first, with offline stock to become available sometime later. The first online sale of the phone will take place at 11:59 PM IST on September 29, with many launch offers to be available under Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sale. Xiaomi will then make the phone available for purchase via Mi.com starting from September 30.
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