Xiaomi introduced the Redmi 8A Dual on February 11, 2020, and released the phone for sale on February 18, 2020. The smartphone was priced at Rs 7,499, higher than its predecessor Redmi 7A Dual (Rs 6,699).

Display

The smartphone comes with an IPS LCD screen measuring 6.22 inches, featuring a screen-to-body ratio of 81.8%, a resolution of 720x1520 pixels, an aspect ratio of 19:9, and a pixel density of 270 ppi. The Redmi 8A’s display also has a maximum brightness of 400 nits.

In-plane switching, or IPS, is a display tech for LCDs (or liquid-crystal displays). This technology was created to overcome the main limitations of the TN matrix LCDs that were very common in the 80s, including low-quality color reproduction and strong viewing angle dependence. IPS involves switching and arranging the orientation of the molecules of the LC layer between the glass substrates. The IPS technology is also used a lot in TV and tablet screens.

At 270 ppi, the screen on this phone is nowhere near good, but it makes sense considering its price tag. Even from a distance, you can still see that the detail on the screen is not smooth, you can tell the pixels individually. Besides, the 400-nit brightness is not impressive either, the screen is bright for room lighting condition, but if you use it outdoor on a sunny day, you will have difficulty seeing what’s on the screen. The good news is, the display is quite responsive with hardly any delay when you swipe.

When it comes to gaming, it’s important to remember that this is an entry-level handset, which means it cannot handle games as well as mid-range and higher-end smartphones. However, if you are a PUBG fan, you can totally play this game on the Redmi 8A Dual. The low pixel density implies that there’s not a lot of graphics detail in the game, but the screen still lets you see everything clearly.

Overall, from testing sessions, the graphics performance of this phone is pretty good, the action is fine and there’s hardly any frame drop.

Chip

The Redmi 8A Dual is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 set of chips. This is a 12nm octa-core processor that features quad 1.95GHz cores and quad 1.45GHz cores, paired with the Adreno 505 GPU.

On AnTuTu, this chipset gets a higher score than the Snapdragon 625, 96239 points as opposed to 96209 points. It’s worth noting that its GPU score is 10603 points, lower than that of the 625 (11188 points). However, Xiaomi decided to use the Snapdragon 439 for this phone because it offers the same performance and efficiency as the Snapdragon 625 with the same smoothness and responsiveness.

As we pointed out in the previous section, this chip can totally handle gaming, even intensive titles like PUBG Mobile. But there’s not much to expect with a chip at this price range. From gaming tests, it appears that you can still get smooth actions in the game though the detail is not fascinating.

Storage

In terms of storage, there are two variants for you to choose from. The first option is 2GB RAM with 32GB internal storage while the other option is 3GB RAM and 32GB storage.

So, you get the same onboard memory capacity regardless of the choice of variant. The difference is in the RAM capacity. Sadly, both 2GB and 3GB is very small RAM capacity considering that high-end smartphones now even have 12GB RAM.

With this small RAM, you can still play games, as we said before, but sometimes you may be forced to close the game, which can be frustrating. You can choose the 3GB RAM variant for a better performance.

Gaming tests show that the Redmi 8A Dual can totally heat up when you play for a long time, like many other devices. In a 33-degree-C room, its temperature can go up to 37 degrees and up to 40 degrees around the camera module. This means the phone can get hot, but keep in mind that the test was conducted in a room that was already warm.

Battery

The smartphone packs a 5,000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging. With this battery life, there’s no doubt you can last an entire day even when doing a lot of intensive tasks. And if you play games continuously, it can last you up to 6-8 hours too. While it takes about three hours for the phone to fully recharge, you can always take advantage of the fast charging ability to reduce the charging time when you’re in a hurry.

As we said before, the phone does heat up when you play games for a long time. But the heat mostly concentrates around the camera module, not the battery, meaning you don’t have to worry about the battery getting hot at all.

Camera

On the back of the phone, there is a 13MP wide-angle lens along with a 2MP depth lens. There’s also an LED flash and support for panorama and HDR modes. You can record videos at 1080p resolution and 30fps frame rate.

On the front, there is a single 8MP lens with HDR mode and video recording at 1080-pixel resolution and 30fps frame rate.