Redmi K50 Ultra with SD 8+ Gen 1 and Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4" announced

2022-08-14

Xiaomi unveiled the first Redmi phone with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset today, which also boasts an impressive screen. Speaking of screens, there is also the new Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro with a larger 12.4” screen.

Xiaomi Redmi K50 Ultra

The Redmi K50 Ultra is like a mix of the K50 Pro and K50 Gaming, but better than them in some ways. This is the first Redmi phone to feature the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, following only the 12S flagships and the new Mix Fold 2 in the Xiaomi stable.

The chipset is attached to a vapor chamber measuring 3,725mm² that promises to keep the chip cool even after over 2 hours of gaming. And more importantly, it can maintain close to 120fps after all that. But we’ll get to the screen, for now let’s just say that the chipset is paired with 8/12GB of LPDDR5 RAM (6,400Mbps) and 128/256/512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

The AMOLED display measures 6.67” in keeping with its siblings. However, this is a rare 12-bit panel, which can render 68.7 billion colors. For comparison, the K50 Gaming has a 10-bit panel (1,080 x 2,400px) and the K50 Pro has an 8-bit panel (1,440 x 3,220px). The display has perfect color calibration (deltaE is around 0.38) and it stays that way t hanks to the ambient color temperature sensor. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are supported.

The resolution is between FHD+ and QHD+, 1,220 x 2,712px, which works out to 446ppi. According to Xiaomi, this display looks almost as good as a QHD+ panel, but it uses less power. A few more stats to mention: 120Hz refresh rate, 480Hz touch sampling rate and 1,920Hz high frequency PWM dimming. One last interesting tidbit about the screen is that the built-in fingerprint reader can also measure your heart rate.

The Redmi K50 Ultra borrows the power system from the K50 Pro – a 5,000mAh battery that offers 120W fast charging thanks to the in-house Surge P1 chip. According to the official numbers, this battery is good to last you over a day (thanks to the new chipset and efficient display).

The camera is very similar to the Pro. It stars a 108MP main sensor with OIS, specifically the 1/1.67” HM6 sensor with 0.64µm native pixels, which can be combined (9-to-1) into 1.92µm effective pixels. This camera has a combination lens with 1 glass and 5 plastic elements that lets through more light and a bright f/1.6 aperture to boot.

Also on the back is a fairly basic 8MP ultra wide camera and a 2MP macro lens, the selfie camera on the front has a 20MP sensor (IMX596).

This is a 5G phone with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and there is both NFC an an IR blaster on board. The stereo speakers boast Dolby Atmos support, while the wired (over USB-C) and wireless output to headphones bear the Hi-Res Audio mark.

The Redmi K50 Ultra starts at CNY 3,000 ($445/€430/?35,500), check the table below for the other memory configurations. The phone is available in Black, Silver and Blue. You can leave a CNY 100 despoit to reserve a place in Queue, sales will start soon.

Xiaomi Redmi K50 Ultra
8/128GB	CNY 3,000
8/256GB	CNY 3,100
12/256GB	CNY 3,400
12/512GB	CNY 3,700
12/512GB Mercedes F1 Edition	CNY 4,200

A special edition is available for F1 fans the “Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Summer Edition”. Yes, that is quite a mouthful of a name, but note that it is limited to only 20,000 units, so Hamilton and Russell fans may want to grab one soon. If they have the CNY 4,200 to spare, of course (that’s CNY 500 more than the regular 12/512GB version).

Here is an infographic that summarizes the Redmi K50 Ultra's best features:

Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4”

As you can tell from the name, the new tablet is a larger version of the original Pad 5 Pro (which has an 11” display). The display panel of the new Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4" has the same resolution, 2,560 x 1,600px, so the pixel density is lower (244ppi vs. 274ppi), but you get 27% more viewing area in return.

The 120Hz refresh rate has been preserved, but there have been some other downgrades, e.g. touch sampling is now 120Hz (stylus tracking works at 240Hz) and this is an 8-bit panel (the 11” one was 10-bit). Dolby Vision and HDR10 are still supported and the brightness is the same at 500 nits.

The larger slate comes with a larger 10,000mAh battery (up from 8,600mAh), enough for over 2 days. The 67W fast charging system gets to 60% in 36 minutes and to 100% in 68 minutes. The company even managed to slim down the tablet, which now measures 6.66mm (without the camera bump) compared to 6.9mm for the 11” model.

The rest is pretty familiar. The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4” is powered by the same Snapdragon 870 chipset with 6/128GB base coniguration and two new options: 8/256GB and 12/512GB (LPDDR5 and UFS 3.1 in all three cases).

The chip may be the same, but this time its 5G skills are going unused as there is only a Wi-Fi version. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (ax) and Bluetooth 5.2 (with LDAC and LHDC 2.0/3.0 support).

The one important camera on the tablet – the front-facing one – is based on a 20MP IMX596 sensor, which bins pixels to 1.6µm for better low light performance. The rear camera has a 50MP sensor (1/2.76”, 1.28µm pixels post binning, f/1.8 aperture) and a 2MP depth sensor. Only the 5G version of the 11” Pad 5 Pro had a 50MP camera (though with a different sensor).

The USB-C port supports 3.2 Gen1 speeds, which allows it to drive an external monitor over DisplayPort. The tablet is loaded with MIUI 13 (based on Android 12). Or you cold attach the optional full-size keyboard (64 keys, 1.3mm key travel) to turn the tablet into a petite laptop. The keyboard’s kickstand can adjust the angle of the tablet between 110° and 122°. As mentioned before, there is an optional stylus as well, which has 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and 240Hz tracking. It uses magnets to attach to the tablet for safe keeping and for charging (it lasts 8 hours of a full charge, 1 minute is enough for 20 minutes of usage).

The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4” starts at CNY 3,000 ($445/€430/?35,500) for the 6/128GB model, reservations are open today. The 8/256GB version is CNY 3,500 and the top-specced 12/512GB model is CNY 4,200. The keyboard is an extra CNY 470, the stylus can be yours for CNY 350.

If you like infographic summaries, enjoy this one for the Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 12.4:

Source 1 | Source 2 (in Chinese)