I have been reviewing mobile phones since 2004, and in those 15 years till date, I have reviewed hundreds of them, from the lowliest basic phones to world acclaimed flagships. I have reviewed Palm phones, Symbian phones, BlackBerry phones, Windows phones, Ubuntu phones, iPhones, and more. But this is the most fun smartphone I have ever reviewed till date.
And there is only one reason for that – the fact that the phone seems unbreakable. Trust me, I know that nothing is unbreakable. Even Captain America’s Adamantium shield got broken in EndGame. And Thor’s hammer got smashed by Hela in Ragnarok.
Even Hulk got smashed by Thanos like he was nothing. Nothing is really unbreakable. But the Redmi Note 7 has been smashed against hard surfaces and it survived. It has been dropped from the fringes of Outer Space down to the earth and survived. You don’t believe that? Watch this:
See what I mean?
Let me proceed. It has been dropped to the hard floor and it came off none the worse. If anything, this affordable mid-range smartphone has earned the right to be called “unbreakable”.
At the office, we were preparing for our drop test and everyone came around to see how strong it is. Someone took it and hit it on the desk a few times without any consequence. Shock. Disbelief. He would never do that to his phone. I would never do that to my Galaxy S9 Plus either. We all laughed.
People kept walking in to see the phone that could be hit or dropped without damaging it. It was loads of fun. The phone has practically become a meme. I have two friends who have already purchased one for their personal use.
Last night, the family was chilling in the living room when my son mentioned how cool the Redmi Note 7 looks. I had left it lying on a table and he had taken a good look at it. So, I replied with something about how cooler it is that the phone can be dropped without fear of breakage. He jumped up! “What? Are you serious?!”, he almost yelled.
There was only one way to do this. I handed him the phone and turned on my camera to capture the moment in video. You will enjoy his outbursts:
Hilarious! We had fun doing that. I have had fun every step of the way.
Mrs Mo is convinced that this is the phone she needs. She has dropped a few of her phones in the past and paid for it in hard cash. She has a point. She should get the Redmi Note 7. I am sure that if I were to drop Thor’s hammer on it, it would finally break or shatter. But like most people, what Mrs. Mo fears the most is her smartphone dropping to the floor. And the Redmi Note 7 is not afraid of the floor.
Before we recorded our drop test video, our unit had dropped to the floor twice by accident. It had gotten hit on a desk. And then it got dropped repeatedly in the making of our video. Last night it was dropped repeatedly by my son. And it still does not have a scratch, much less a crack on its glass body.
I took it out into daylight this morning and examined it carefully. There is still not a scratch on it after all of that. Amazing.
Update: Based on a request, we added a concrete drop test. Did the Redmi Note 7 crack this time? You can see for yourself here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KKxw8m1uU_Q%3Ffeature%3Doembed
After this last drop test, we noticed one tiny little scuff mark on the left bottom edge…
Not bad at all.
But toughness aside, there is one more thing about the Redmi Note 7 that I want to mention: Both cameras on the phone are very good. They do have one weakness, however: colour accuracy. Pictures produced often tend to be sightly off the mark in terms of the shades and tones of the subjects. By way of comparison, my Galaxy S9 Plus has much better colour accuracy. The S9 is a much more expensive phone after all.
But by all that is good and holy, the Redmi Note 7’s camera gives me less hassles in taking pictures – especially portrait pictures. AND..its portraits just come out looking better. Which is interesting, because the reason they come out looking better is that mild light blue-ish tone that makes the photos less accurate in terms of colours.
So, we have less acurate tones but better looking photos. See, I am getting old and I prefer the camera that gives me less hassles and makes me look better. Or…cough…younger.
I have been inches away from switching my SIM cards to the Redmi and selling off my S9 Plus. One thing alone held me back: the Redmi’s lack of Glo 4G support. Glo 4G is my personal Internet service. Sigh. Nobody gets it all; right? But the Redmi Note gets a lot of things right.
The last two weeks of reviewing the Redmi Note 7 have been tons of fun. I wonder what the next person who sees it with me is going to want to do to it. Have you seen my review?