Xiaomi Redmi K50 Gaming brings SD 8 Gen 1 and 120W charging

2022-02-20

Xiaomi held an event in China earlier today where it announced the Redmi K50 Gaming - the first member of the anticipated Redmi K50 series and a direct successor to last year’s K40 Gaming. The new phone uses Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and brings blazing-fast 120W charging. It’s also the first phone in the Xiaomi and Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team partnership with a special limited edition of the phone sporting the racing team’s badge and colors.

Like last year’s K40 Gaming, there’s a pair of physical game triggers on the right-hand side. The phone also comes with Xiaomi’s CyberEngine x-axis haptics motor and dual JBL-tuned speakers. The phone features a metal frame while the back is made from glass.

Xiaomi developed an all-new dual vapor chamber (VC) cooling system to keep the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and the rest of the components in check. It starts with a copper radiator placed right on top of the chipset. Xiaomi also employed dual graphite sheets, stainless steel and mesh materials.

Redmi K50 Gaming features a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and 480Hz touch sampling rate. The panel outputs 10bit colors and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. There’s a 20MP Sony IMX 596 front-facing cam while the back houses a 64MP Sony IMX 686 main, an 8MP ultrawide snapper and a 2MP telemacro cam.

You get a 4,700mAh battery with 120W charging which Xiaomi claims can fully charge in just 17 minutes. There was a demo on stage that showed the phone took 37 minutes to reach a full charge while being actively used to play a MOBA game. The software side is covered by MIUI 13 based on Android 12. The phone also comes with WiFi 6E connectivity and NFC.

Xiaomi Redmi K50 Gaming comes in Dream color blue, silver and black as well as a Mercedes AMG F1 edition.

The baseline K50 Gaming with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage costs CNY 3,299 ($520). There’s a 12/128 GB version for CNY 3,599($567) and a 12/256GB CNY 3,899 ($615). The limited-edition Mercedes AMG F1 model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage will retail for CNY 4,199($662).

Open sales in China are scheduled for February 18. International pricing and availability were not disclosed yet.