Xiaomi reignites the megapixel wars with its 48MP Redmi Note 7 (Update: now in India)

It feels like we’re back in 2012 with phone makers battling each other over megapixel counts. Weeks after Honor announced its ambitious View20 with a 48-megapixel dual camera, Xiaomi today announced the Redmi Note 7 with a similarly specced shooter.

This is the first phone under the company’s new Redmi sub-brand that was announced last week. The rest of the Note 7’s specifications of the phone give us an idea of what we can expect from mid-range phones in 2019:

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660
• Screen: 6.3-inch 2340×1080 pixel LCD display
• RAM: 6GB
• Rear camera: 48-megapixel + 5-megapixel depth-sensing camera
• Front camera: 13-megapixel
• Internal storage: 64GB
• Software: Android 9 Pie with MIUI 10
• Battery: 4,000 mAh

The company claims that you can take a 48-megapixel photo with 0.8-micron pixel size in well-lit conditions, or opt for a 12-megapixel photo with a larger 1.6-micron pixel size in low light situations. We will be only able to tell if these numbers matter in real life once we get our hands on a review unit, so stay tuned for that.

The Redmi Note 7 is priced at 999 Yuan ($150) for the 3GB+32GB version,1,199 Yuan ($175) for the 4GB+64GB version and, 1,399 Yuan ($200) The device is only available in China at the moment. If you’re based elsewhere, you can order it over at Gearbest, where the 4GB/64GB variant costs $279.

Any bets on which brand will be the next to launch a 48-megapixel phone?

Update (February 28, 2019): Redmi has launched this device in India today, and it’s dubbed the Note 7 Pro. It’s priced at Rs. 13,999 ($196) for the 4GB/64GB model, and at Rs. 16,999 ($238) for the 6GB/128GB variant; it’ll go on sale on March 13 on Mi.com, Flipkart, and Xiaomi’s offline stores. 

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