Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi announced its new affordable flagship handset the Redmi K30 Pro at an event in China yesterday. The handset succeeds last year’s Redmi K20 Pro and boasts of several feature additions and upgrades over its predecessor. This launch also comes just a few months after Xiaomi launched its K-Series sibling, the Redmi K30, in China.
The Redmi K30 and the K30 Pro are both handsets with similar-sounding names. However, there are several key differences between the two. The purpose of this article is to clear the air of any confusion you, the reader, might probably have. Note that there is another variant of the K30 Pro called the K30 Pro Zoom Edition. For simplicity, this article only talks about the standard K30 Pro variant — not the Zoom Edition.
Before we start, for our Indian readers, you should know that both these handsets might not officially arrive in the country with the Redmi label attached to the rear panel. Instead, Xiaomi relaunched its popular POCO sub-brand and launched the Redmi K30 as the POCO X2 in the country. The just-launched Redmi K30 Pro, therefore, is likely to be launched as the POCO F2 as per several credible reports.
Anyway, let’s dive straight into the comparison.
Redmi K30 Pro vs Redmi K30: Specifications Compared
Both the Redmi K30 Pro and the K30 are large handsets with slight differences in their dimensions. But the display on both the handsets is of the same size. Both the panels measure 6.67-inches across and boast of FHD+ resolution. They also share a similar aluminum frame and get glass-clad rear panels. Both the front and rear glass panels get Gorilla Glass 5 for scratch resistance. The displays on both the phones can play HDR 10 content as well. As for the differences here, the more expensive K30 Pro gets a Super AMOLED display with 180 Hz touch response rate (not refresh rate) while the K30 Pro gets by with an IPS LCD panel.
Both these phones use Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Being the more expensive of the two, the Redmi K30 Pro gets the flagship-grade Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with support for 5G networks. The phone comes in three variants starting with a 6GB + 128GB variant, going up to a top-end 8GB +256GB variant. The Redmi K30, on the other hand, is powered by the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset and comes in three different variants as well starting with a base 6GB + 64GB variant, going up to an 8GB + 256GB option.
The Redmi K30 Pro — even though similar in size to the K30 gets a slightly larger battery capacity (4700 mAh as opposed to 4,500 mAh) and also supports slightly faster quick charging speeds (33W instead of 27W).
On the software front, both the handsets are identical with the devices running Android 10 atop MIUI 11.
Redmi K30 Pro vs Redmi K30: Camera Specifications Compared
The Redmi K30 Pro and the K30 both feature a quad-camera setup at the rear. The primary rear-facing camera on both the handsets use a 64MP sensor with a 26mm lens and support for PDAF. Both the phones also get a 2MP depth sensor. The two other rear-facing cameras are, however, slightly different. For example, the Redmi K30 Pro gets a 5 MP telephoto camera with 2X optical zoom, while the secondary camera on the K30 is a 2MP macro camera. Both the handsets get an ultra-wide-angle camera but with different resolutions. The K30 Pro, for example, gets a 13 MP sensor while the K30 gets by with an 8 MP sensor.
As for the front-facing camera, both the handsets take completely different routes here. The K30 Pro gets a pop-up camera mechanism that houses a 20-megapixel sensor. The K30, on the other hand, gets a dual-camera setup here — both of them housed within a punch-hole on the display. The primary front-facing camera on the K30 gets a 20-megapixel sensor while the secondary camera happens to be a depth sensor.
Redmi K30 Pro vs Redmi K30: Pricing
The Redmi K30 Pro and the K30 belong to different price segments. Thanks to its positioning as an affordable flagship, the K30 Pro has been priced above the Rs 30,000 mark in China. It remains to be seen of Redmi manages to price it below 30k when the phone launches as the POCO F2 in India. The K30, on the other hand, is already sold as the POCO X2 in the country, and the price ranges from Rs 15,999 for the base version to Rs 19,999 for the top-end variant.
