Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 impressions: All the fitness tracker you need
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 is one of the best value sport-tech products available, and one of the only fitness bands you should consider buying. Why? I question whether the fitness tracking band still has its place in the world of wearables at all, since many phones will count steps, and all smartwatches do that and plenty more. If you really want one, why splash out on anything more than a basic version, when spending more will bring you closer to the cost of a decent smartwatch?
Xiaomi’s latest fitness band is 35 British pounds, or about $40 if you import one to the U.S., where it’s not officially available. The Fitbit Inspire HR and the Samsung Galaxy Fit both cost $100, yet have the same level of functionality and the same general design. Let’s talk about that first, as design is perhaps a word that doesn’t really apple to the Mi Smart Band 4 or its competitors.Design
Like almost every fitness band, the Mi Smart Band 4 has a main module wrapped up on a silicone band that’s held on your wrist using a pin-and-hole fastener. The style isn’t too attractive, and is best hidden away from sight under a sleeve, unlike a watch. It’s slim and lightweight, at only 22 grams. I’ve worn this one for several weeks, during the day and night, often alongside a watch and I didn’t really notice it was there. The module pops out of the band, so you can change it for one in a different color, or to charge it when the battery runs out.
The Mi Smart Band 4 sadly doesn’t have wireless charging, and instead has one of those annoying proprietary charging pods it clips in to. Lose it, and you can’t recharge the band. The good news is the battery lasts for at least 20 days, so you don’t have to fiddle around with it very often. The black version is stealthy and inconspicuous and isn’t high maintenance when it comes to charging, unlike the majority of smartwatches. If you’re not settled on a smartwatch, then the Mi Smart Band 4 is a great compromise.Screen and software
The tiny 0.95-inch color AMOLED is the main upgrade over the Mi Band 3, and it’s also one of the primary reasons you should consider buying the Mi Smart Band 4. It’s flatter than the curved Mi Band 3’s screen for a cleaner, more modern look. The colors are glorious, and even though it’s small, all the benefits of an AMOLED screen — great contrast and deep blacks — are still obvious. It’s bright enough to be seen in daylight, but strong sunlight does make it hard to see. The touch system is responsive, but it’s annoying to have to tap under the screen to wake it up, rather than anywhere on the face.
Xiaomi has added a degree of customization, letting you choose from several different faces pre-installed on the band, or download others. It’s fun, and personalization is rare on low-cost fitness wearables. Swipe up and down the screen to access different features, including the chance to display notifications. It was a pain to set this up at first on the Huawei P30 Pro, as EMUI demanded various deep permission alterations before it would work. Once running, alerts arrived in a timely manner. Setting up notifications on other phones will likely be different.
The rest of the operating system is great, as it only needs a few swipes and taps to navigate to the function you want. Despite the small size, the Mi Smart Band 4’s screen is easy to read and responds as you want it to, while the software is pleasingly smooth and simple to use, without ever looking ugly.Fitness and sleep tracking
You need the Xiaomi Mi Fit app installed on your phone to sync the Mi Smart Band 4. It’s available for Android and iOS. It has been consistently reliable, and connects quickly and easily to the band using Bluetooth 5.0. The band does not have GPS and relies on the phone, but I like the maps the app produces for walking, running, and cycling. Sadly, it’s not always easy to find your historical data. It takes random taps to dig deep enough in the app to locate data stored over time, and when you do find it, dates are not very clear.
Track a workout — there are only a few basic pre-loaded plans, including walking, cycling, and swimming — and the report given is comprehensive. The Mi Smart Band 4 has a heart rate sensor, and it breaks the metrics down into relaxed, light, and intensive sections, plus it will provide a calorie burn, exercise time, and maximum heart rate data too. Best of all, Mi Fit and the Mi Smart Band 4 operate with Google Fit and Apple Health.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The step count was in-line with the number recorded by my P30 Pro, and the heart rate sensor returned a similar result to the Apple Watch Series 4. I take this as an indication the Mi Smart Band 4 is accurate, at least compared to the competition. The band is light and comfortable so it’s no problem to wear it at night. It automatically activates sleep mode, and turns it off again when it notices you’re moving around. I found this to be acceptable, although I’d take the band off to shower after getting up, which it often recognized as me going back to bed (I wish), resulting in skewed times.
If all you want is data, then the Mi Smart Band 4 and the Mi Fit app deliver. It doesn’t overwhelm and shows what you need to know, although it may require a little work in the app to find it. What it doesn’t do is motivate or offer any advice on where to improve. You can add friends in the app, which could be motivational, but you need to have friends who also own a Mi Band, and are active enough to make friendship in the app worthwhile. If you’re happy with getting data, and not much else, the Mi Smart Band 4 will satisfy your needs.
If you want much more, like onboard GPS, further integration with your phone, or comprehensive fitness tracking plans and motivational tools, you’ll have to spend more. The Apple Watch Series 4, which does all the above and more, will cost at least $400. The Galaxy Watch Active brings the price point down to a respectable $200. Really think about what you want from a fitness tracker before splashing out though.Conclusion
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 counts your steps, tracks your sleep, monitors your heart rate, works with your phone’s GPS, has good software, and a battery that lasts at least 20 days. That’s all the basics and a little more covered, plus a lovely color AMOLED screen — all for about $40.
It’s been a little tough keeping up with Xiaomi’s release schedule lately. While some phones have a more straight forward name, like the Mi 5 for instance, the Redmi Pro is an oddly named device that doesn’t seem to fit into any of Xiaomi’s product lines. This may not be a bad thing though, as the Redmi Pro begins some important changes for Xiaomi including an OLED display, dual cameras on the back and MediaTek Helio processors. At around $250-300 how does this one compare to others on the market, and specifically other similarly priced offerings from Xiaomi themselves? Let’s take a look!
Specs
As with many Xiaomi phones, the Redmi Pro comes in two configurations; a base model and an upgraded one. The base model features a MediaTek Helio X20 2.0GHz deca-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The upgraded model features a MediaTek Helio X25 2.5GHz deca-core processor, 4GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. At the time of writing the price difference between the two units is minimal at best, with the base model selling for $270 while the upgraded model sells for $277. MSRP of each model is 1,499 Yuan ($224) for the base model, 1,699 Yuan ($254) for the upgraded 64GB model, and 1,999 Yuan ($299) for the upgraded 128GB model.
Both models share the rest of the components, along with the design and materials used on the phone as well. On the front sits a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display with 60,000:1 contrast ratio and 100% NTSC color gamut reproduction, and a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU drives the visual experience. The metal body of the Redmi Pro comes in three different colors, a light silver, darker grey and a light gold. Inside this body is a non-removable 4,050mAh battery, which is charged via the USB Type-C port on the bottom of the phone. Dual-SIM card support is featured as well as microSD card support. On the front sits a 5-megapixel Samsung camera, while the back of the phone features a dual camera setup with a 13-megapixel Sony IMX258 main camera, as well as a 5-megapixel Samsung sensor for extra effects. The Redmi Pro weighs 174 grams and measures in at 151.5mm high by 76.2mm wide and 8.2mm thin.
In The Box
The value of Xiaomi’s phones have almost exclusively been inside the phone itself rather than the box, and as such you shouldn’t expect much in the way of extras to be included with the phone. Inside the simple white box is of course the phone itself, and you’ll also find a small packet of manuals and warranty guides, as well as a SIM tray ejector tool. Underneath this paperwork sits a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable, as well as a 5v/2a 10W wall charger for QuickCharge 2.0 speed charging.
Display
Marking a first for a Xiaomi device, the Redmi Pro ships with a 100% NTSC gamut 1080p Full HD AMOLED display. Traditionally we’ve only seen IPS LCD displays on Xiaomi phones, most likely due to trying to keep the cost down for these devices, but now it seems that many OEMs are finally switching over to AMOLED technology instead of LCD. As a general rule of thumb AMOLED displays provide true black levels, as they can turn individual pixels completely off when a black color is trying to be displayed, as well as higher contrast ratios and more attractive colors. Xiaomi clearly waited for one other thing to be present on this panel before moving to AMOLED displays as well: color accuracy..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_11 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
While colors are saturated and deep, the panel is able to display 100% of the covered NTSC spectrum, making this one of the finest displays around, much less in the lower priced segment of phones. At the default automatic contrast setting the panel ups the contrast and saturation in most lighting conditions so that the panel is super high contrast and overly saturated. This makes the colors pop and will certainly make people say wow when looking at it, but ultimately the colors are unrealistic and the overall white balance trends toward cool. Moving into display settings and turning the contrast to the standard setting actually perfectly balances out the display and makes whites almost truly white, and colors essentially completely accurate.
Black levels of course are perfect since this is an AMOLED display, and brightness levels are phenomenal to say the least, with ranges from ultra dim and easy on the eyes in a dark room, to torch bright for seeing in the sunlight. There’s also no obvious purpling or warming effect of the panel as brightness drops to its lowest point either, a problem AMOLED panels can sometimes have. Viewing angles are better than many recent AMOLED panels too, and only exhibits a rainbow effect at extreme angles. Even the digitizer is absolutely top notch and rounds out one of the absolute best displays you’ll find on any phone in this price level, and exceeds even plenty displays in higher price brackets too.
Hardware and Build
The past year or so has seen a radical transformation in Xiaomi’s hardware build quality, and the all metal unibody frame of the Redmi Pro is a perfect example of that transformation. With a 4,050mAh battery inside and a metal chassis, the Redmi Pro weighs slightly more than the average smartphone, coming in at 174 grams, or about 20 grams heavier than the average phone. This is significantly heavier than the 129 gram Mi 5 that was released just a few months ago, and a little bit heavier than the 164 gram Redmi Note 3 as well. With that extra weight though comes the feeling of a truly premium, quality and well built device that holds up to close scrutiny..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_12 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
The only oddity in the design is the plastic face, which feels like is simply placed inside the metal shell but didn’t quite fit, as there’s a small section of it protruding from the top of the metal base and creates a lip that looks out of place. It’s likely the larger battery is the cause for the protrusion here, but it still looks oddly out of place and would have looked considerably better if the metal came all the way up to the edges of the device. Around the chamfered metal frame sits a metal power button and volume rocker on the right side, 3.5mm headset jack and IR blaster up top, SIM tray on the left and a centered USB Type-C port on the bottom, flanked by two speaker grilles. There’s only a single speaker housed in the right side though, and this symmetry is purely for looks rather than what its function appears.
On the front you’ll find some average sized bezels for a modern smartphone, possibly hinging towards slightly slimmer than average on top and bottom. Below the screen sits a physical home button that’s ever so slightly recessed into the frame, and features both a physical click as well as a capacitive touch in addition to housing the fingerprint reader inside. This home button is flanked by two nondescript white dots, which by default represent a back button and an Overview multi-tasking button, but who’s functions can be customized. The back of the device is all metal as described before, and features a very shiny brushed metal finish. There’s little in the way of texture here though, and just holding the device without looking at it might make you think this is just shiny, slippery plastic at first. You’ll find the dual cameras on back here in addition to the dual-LED flash in-between both lenses.
Performance and Memory
Raising of the lowest common denominator has been a consistent part of the smartphone experience in recent years. MediaTek has been a big player in providing high quality, fast chipsets to OEMs for considerably less money than its competitors, and as a result has brought about some significant strides in the sub-$300 market. Their latest Helio line of SoCs really pack a major punch, delivering 2015 flagship level performance for a fraction of the cost. The Redmi Pro feels almost no different from any modern flagship in daily use. This includes launching apps, running intensive 3D games, and performing tasks with ease that used to choke phones. If the entire experience were like this, things would be super rosy, however after only a menial period of use you will find some serious issues on the back end of the system, and ones that ultimately bring about a poor user experience..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_13 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
First off Xiaomi’s memory and power management features are far too over-aggressive out of the box. Essentially every app is limited from auto starting, running in the background, delivering notifications in most places on the system, etc. Apps are significantly hindered in the ways they are designed and as a result this breaks lots of functionality throughout the system, as well as with many apps. During the review period nearly every app I commonly use and rely on to deliver notifications or messages simply wasn’t able to. This includes apps like GroupMe, Hangouts, Inbox by Gmail, Allo, What’sApp and Android Wear to name a few. These integral parts of my daily smartphone life weren’t allowed to run in the background or deliver notifications without some significant digging into the system and effort that most people simply wouldn’t go through.
If this were just related to Google services not being installed on the phone since this is a China-based device, it would be one thing, but this extends to so many other apps that it’s clearly pervasive throughout the system. This wouldn’t be so bad if it were all apps, but Xiaomi’s own services and apps are questionably exempt from these restrictions out of the box, an obvious play at getting people to stick with Xiaomi’s services over others since they require less inherent effort to use on their phones. These issues have been present on MIUI-based phones for a long time now, but only get more irritating with time as they never seem to be truly fixed. Enabling auto launching, background data, changing the notification preferences and shutting off MIUI power savings seem to be the only way to fix these issues, and there are simply too many steps out of the box just to get apps working like they should be.
VR Performance
As a more mid-range device you should expect mixed results when it comes to VR performance on the Redmi Pro. Even though it largely matches the performance of 2015 flagship devices, VR demands a lot more out of devices than what 2015’s flagships could adequately provide, and it’s not until this Fall’s release of the Snapdragon 821 that it appears mobile VR can finally provide a good overall experience. That being said the screen on the Redmi Pro is certainly VR ready in every way, and given that it’s an AMOLED panel with a low persistence rate of the pixels, movement in the VR world is clean and clear, and those black levels help immerse you deeper into the experience.
Performance is where the waters become a little muddy though, and it’s here where you’ll find the mixed experience. Some VR games are visually simple enough for the Redmi Pro, and mobile devices in general, to keep up with. However many developers of VR games on the Play Store seem to forget that the paramount most important part of the experience is frame rate. Without a solid frame rate of at least 60 frames per second, the VR experience is janky at best, and will make you sick at the worst. What Xiaomi has provided hardware wise in the Redmi Note offers a fantastic VR experience though, so just be choosy about overly detailed VR content and you’ll be enjoying some great titles with this phone.
Benchmarks
As daily performance shows when running intensive apps, the Redmi Pro is no slouch when it comes to performance despite the sub-$300 price tag. Performance is right in line with last year’s flagship phones, and that includes the ones that cost 3 times more than the Redmi Pro currently does. Check out all the benchmarks we ran on the phone below:.soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_14 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
Wireless Connectivity
The Redmi Pro features global 2G and 3G connectivity, as well as 4G LTE connectivity in many countries. There’s no support for US 4G LTE bands though, which is going to severely limit the Redmi Pro’s network performance in general for US customers. As the phone is mainly only sold Internationally and within China, this likely isn’t an issue for many people who are looking into buying the phone, but it’s well worth noting as 3G connectivity is incredibly slow compared to what people have gotten used to on LTE networks. Wifi support ranges up to 802.11n speeds only, and 5GHz support is not present. Bluetooth v4.2 is present, however, and it’s definitely worth noting that the phone features an IR blaster up top that’s high on the feature importance list for some people. See below for all supported wireless spectrum:
2G: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G HSPA: 850/900/1900/2100MHz
4G LTE Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/38/39/40/41
Battery Life
At 4,050mAh the battery inside the Redmi Pro is 30% larger than most phones with a 5.5-inch screen (phablets). Battery life is better than average as you should expect from the size difference, and it was more than common to see the phone at only 50% after being off the charger for 17+ hours. Screen on time during this usage peaked around 5-6 hours on heavy use days, and some users could certainly see in upwards of 8 hours of screen on time if they’re really bored and browse something relatively simple and not process-intensive like Reddit all day long. What’s not entirely clear is how much of this good battery life is caused by forcing apps to close once they move to the background. By not allowing apps to update in the background and provide the necessary communication they need with their data services, MIUI falsely raises its battery life while simultaneously worsening user experience. There’s a line between keeping apps from running to help with battery life and getting too aggressive, thereby negating the advanced notifications features Android users love to have..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_15 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
Sound
Sound output is definitely a high point of the Redmi Pro, something that can’t be said of many of Xiaomi’s previous generations of phones. There’s no advanced hi-res sound output or anything like that here, just good quality 16-bit standard audio coming from the 3.5mm jack. Unlike some previous generation phones, the audio coming from the Redmi Pro is well balanced out of the box and only needs the use of the built-in equalizer with some pairs of headphones. As Xiaomi’s audio interface has been designed for tweaking headphone output for years, it’s only down to choosing the right type of headphone to cater to your tastes and hardware in order to get the right balance of sound. Folks with nicer quality sound systems, like a vehicle audio system for instance, will likely find the default output is of high quality and offers a great base to tweak if needed..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_16 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
The single, bottom-facing speaker on the Redmi Pro is about what you would expect from such a configuration on a phone that sells for this price. Quality is decent at best, offering fairly clear sound with a relatively narrow audio range and little to no base present at all. Volume is pretty good compared to some other handsets out there, however at the highest few notches on the audio panel you’ll find that this speaker vibrates quite a bit and distorts the audio, even something as simple as a ringtone or notification tone.
Software
The Redmi Pro launched with MIUI 7 but featured an MIUI 8 upgrade almost immediately. Our review unit had the update ready as soon as the phone was connected to the Internet, and it updated within about 20 minutes tops. MIUI 8 is the latest in highly customizable OS’s from Xiaomi, built upon Android 6.0 Marshmallow. MIUI 8 represents some of the most significant changes for the OS in quite some time. While MIUI 7 was mostly just a facelift, MIUI 8 continues the visual evolution of the platform and adds some significant new features as well and manages to carry pretty much all the features we loved in MIUI 8 from the Mi Max review into a smaller package..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_17 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
In fact it’s this updating feature that always needs to be mentioned in every Xiaomi phone review, and it’s because Xiaomi is one of the best in the industry when it comes to a specific kind of update. While it still takes quite a few months on average to update the base version of Android on every phone, Xiaomi actually provides regular and sometimes weekly updates of MIUI itself. This means that you’ll regularly see updates concerned with security, bug fixes and feature enhancements throughout every single month you own the device, something no other OEM on the market does on such a regular occurrence. It’s doubly impressive too when you consider the large number of devices Xiaomi has on the market too, and it ultimately adds value to the package as a whole.
Quite a few of the most interesting features, new or otherwise, lie in security and privacy of the user. Found prominently on the main home screen under the security app’s listing, many of these features help you take better control of your personal privacy and security of your data. Second Space allows you to create a second profile to switch between on the phone, essentially making two separate accounts with completely different installed apps and synced accounts. Dual apps allows you to clone individual apps to use on the phone, so if you manage multiple Instagram accounts or something similar this might be a good way to help keep them as separate as possible. App locking allows you to keep the individual app behind a pattern, PIN or fingerprint lock so that other people using your unlocked phone can’t get into your gallery, messages or other sensitive information.
UI/UX
MIUI 8 is clearly an evolution from the vast visual overhaul we saw in last year’s MIUI 7, and represent some fine tuning of many aspects of the UI for the better. First up is the notification shade, which is probably the most improved portion of the UI as a whole aside from the multi-tasking interface. By default the shade is in the new combined format which resembles a notification shade design that Samsung and LG have used for a few years now. This features a horizontally scrolling row of quick toggle icons, showing 5 icons per horizontal page, and many toggles like WiFi and Bluetooth can be individually expanded to make quick selections from the shade without having to navigate away from the currently active foreground app. There’s also a “classic” mode with a separated quick toggles page that works the same way as previous versions of MIUI, however has received a much needed face lift and looks great..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_18 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
Not everything about the new shade is rosy though, as there’s no way to expand individual notifications, leaving most notifications in an abbreviated state without the ability to see the rest of the information without having to click to go into the app. Text size can be changed on a system wide level to fit more characters here and elsewhere throughout the UI, however there’s no display density option like many Android 6.0 Marshmallow phones have, including Xiaomi’s own Mi Max. This means that more text will fit in certain elements on the UI, but elements don’t scale, so some apps have rather large elements even though the Redmi Pro features a 5.5-inch screen. This is because the phone’s display is only 1080p and thus the OS tries to scale things for a smaller physical screen.
The latest redesign of Android’s ever evolving volume adjustment panel is present in MIUI and looks nearly identical to many other Marshmallow powered phones, however Xiaomi has changed the behavior a little bit when it comes to any toggles system wide. You actually have to grab the small round indicator and drag across the bar to adjust rather than just being able to click where you want it to go on the bar. This is minor but annoying, and I found myself getting irritated when having to adjust volume to brightness. The home button’s design is quite the opposite of this though, as it gives users the option to either touch it like a capacitive button, or to physically click it in if they prefer. Different actions can also be assigned to this touch or click too, and the same goes with the other buttons on the phone as well..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_19 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
Lastly Xiaomi offers tons of themes for MIUI 8, as they have for pretty much every version of MIUI since its inception. MIUI is one of the original Android skins to feature any kind of theming, and it still holds some of the most robust theming support available, allowing users to individually theme elements on the screen like the launcher icons, notification shade, messaging app and more. The ecosystem for this theme support is incredibly robust to say the least and features thousands upon thousands of free and paid themes, all available via a single theme app that makes it easy to choose what you want.
Camera Software
The camera interface has stayed largely the same in looks, but functionally has been updated a bit. Instead of swiping left or right to change modes or add live filters, a modes button is prominently displayed right above the shutter button, and brings up the same familiar grid of icons to change the camera mode. There’s also a dedicated button next to the shutter to switch back and forth between photo and video mode, giving quicker access to these modes over other modes on the camera. Adding a live filter to the photo is done via the triple circle icon the the left of the modes button, and since the Redmi Pro features dual cameras you’ll find a dedicated floating shutter icon above the modes button to switch to stereo camera mode. The top of the screen features a dedicated HDR toggle button and a flash toggle button as well..soliloquy-caption{display:none}#soliloquy-container-custom_gallery_20 li:first-child>.soliloquy-caption{display:block}]]>
Once in the new stereo shutter mode you’ll find a slider representing the virtual f-stop of the camera, which ranges from F5.6 to F0.95. For reference the f-stop generally provides a more shallow depth of field as the number gets smaller, and a longer depth of field as the number gets larger. A shallow depth of field produces a gorgeous bokeh effect where the background is blurred and the subject is very prominently displayed, putting extra emphasis or artistic value on the foreground subject. This stereo shutter mode is available in both photo and video modes, and the real-time switching effect works on both modes too, allowing you to adjust the f-stop rating in real time to get the shot you want. HDR mode is not available when using stereo mode.
Xiaomi offers a quick exposure modification option by clicking to focus and then dragging up or down to adjust the exposure level. Manual mode on the Redmi Pro doesn’t provide anywhere near the number of adjustments we’ve seen on other Xiaomi devices, and honestly is pretty useless for anyone looking at normal manual controls. The only two options that can be adjusted here are white balance and ISO, and even then the maximum manual ISO is only 1600.
Camera Performance and Results
Xiaomi’s camera software has long been one of the fastest performing on the market, but previous generations of phones have shown there’s a cost of quality to that speed. This year has signaled a turnaround for quality on Xiaomi’s part, yet there’s been no sacrifice for performance and speed of the software. From screen off to taking a picture takes literally one full second, something most phones could only dream of. The only downside here is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to quick launch the camera via button gesture, like pressing the power button twice or home button twice. This means you need to turn the screen on first, followed by swiping left on the lock screen to launch the camera, which doesn’t take long but it adds false additional time to the camera launching experience.
Response time from clicking the shutter button to taking the picture is absolutely instant, but that sometimes comes at a cost. Focusing is done quickly, usually in about 1/3 of a second, but the shutter won’t wait to focus when it takes a picture. This could result in some out of focus shots, so waiting just a fraction of a second before pressing the button is definitely advised. The software generally prioritizes a lower ISO over a faster shutter speed, translating to blurry moving objects in darker environments. This isn’t always the case, but it happened often enough to where it’s worth noting.
Zoom detail is mostly great and is about what we expect from a modern 13-megapixel sensor, including image processing that’s not overly heavy. This processing helps remove unwanted fine grain noise while still keeping plenty of detail in the scene. HDR does a good job of matching processing quality with speed, taking HDR shots instantly and helping bring out a wider dynamic range in photos. Auto HDR isn’t terribly aggressive, but it kicks in when it’s needed the most and I have nothing but positive thoughts on its speed and quality. Even white balance was super accurate in every light and never got the scene wrong.
A unique feature of the Redmi Note is the stereo photo mode, which utilizes the secondary rear 5-megapixel sensor for depth information but still uses the 13-megapixel sensor for the actual photo. This means you get full 13-megapixel resolution and quality shots, all with an interesting new depth of field filter that attempts to be more accurate than the software-based ones we’ve seen on some phones like the Galaxy S7. This method is almost exclusively intended for taking an up-close shot of an object and blurring the background, such as a portrait of a person. In practice many shots turned out quite nice looking and exhibited a quality depth of field effect, but often times it was obvious that this wasn’t a hardware lens effect as a digital SLR camera would have, rather a software augmented effect.
This stereo effect can also be used in video mode, where the results are going to be a mixed bag at best. Stereo mode certainly works best for photos since it’s such a temperamental algorithm, and I didn’t find any real usable solutions where I could use this video mode and get a good desired effect. Regular video mode is quality, even though it’s limited to 1080p quality, and exhibited great details for a full HD video, as well as good dynamic range and white balance. The Redmi Pro features optic image stabilization that does a good job of keeping things steady when moving around a lot or walking, but isn’t enabled by default, so users will have to remember to check this box in the settings to use it.
Low light performance of the camera overall, including both photo and video modes, is definitely on the list of better performers in the sub-$300 price category. The front-facing 5-megapixel camera is a good selfie camera and did a great job overall in any light. Shots get a little fuzzy in lower light but nothing too offensive, and details in good light are fantastic, although certainly not the best selfie cam on the market. Dynamic range could use a little help, but the software was smart enough to know that the person in the foreground was the intended point of reference for lighting, so in harsh lighting you’ll find that bright backgrounds are whited out while the person in the foreground is more optimally lit. This was a good tradeoff and overall is a good shooter. Check out the Flickr gallery below for all the images and video we took with the Redmi Pro during our review period.
The Good
High value
Fantastic build
Excellent screen
2015 flagship levels of performance
Large battery
Dual cameras
Fast camera software
Lots of software features
Regular MIUI updates
The Bad
Multi-tasking issues
Notification issues
No LTE in the US (and probably some other countries)
No NFC
Conclusion
Almost no one does value better than Xiaomi in the smartphone market, and the Redmi Pro is proof of that. Top tier hardware build and design, tons of software features and great battery life are a few of the highlights of the Redmi Pro. Better than average sound output and camera performance in this price category are also worth noting, and an excellent display coupled with great every day and gaming performance round out the device as a whole. There are still some serious issues with MIUI out of the box though, and it takes way more effort and hunting around in the settings than it should just to get apps to work like they should. Out of the box you’ll find missing notifications, apps getting constantly closed once they go into the background, and services that simply don’t work because of Xiaomi’s “power savings” in their OS. These can be turned off and fix the issues, but they simply should not be enabled out of the box, as it’s going to create an overly frustrating experience for more users than they help. If you’re interested in picking up a Redmi Pro of your own, check out the GearBest links below.Buy The Xiaomi Redmi Pro 32GB Buy The Xiaomi Redmi Pro 64GB
Both the Xiaomi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro boot the latest MIUI 10.3 ROM based on Android 9 Pie. There is one difference though – the K20 Pro comes with Poco launcher 2.0 pre-installed, which adds a feature-rich app drawer, while keeps the rest of the MIUI 10 intact.
The Redmi K20 Pro supports Always-on display and you can schedule it or leave it on/off all the time. There are various themes you can choose from and make it yours.
Always-on screen
You can unlock the screen via the latest-generation under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is very easy to set up and works surprisingly fast. The accuracy is superb, too, and overall, it’s great for your daily unlocking.
You can also set up face unlock in addition to it – it’s equally fast as the Redmi K20 Pro wakes up the moment you pick it up. Note that the face unlock option may not be available in all regions.
Unlocking options
The Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro has a Dark mode – it will switch all system colors from white to black and this way you can save some battery juice by making the best use of the power-efficient AMOLED screen. Note that not all apps support the dark mode, but the majority do.
Dark mode
The K20 Pro also comes with various live wallpapers including the cool 24-hour wallpaper – it changes depending on the time of day and is quite nice, indeed.
Wallpapers
Having a Poco launcher means you get an app drawer over the MIUI 10 UI. It is quite powerful and supports automatic categories, you can change backgrounds and transparency, icon arrangement and size, among other things. The thing is we never felt the need for an app drawer on MIUI, but it’s on the K20 Pro and it can be disabled, of course, so we don’t mind it.
And if you are getting the Mi 9T Pro, which doesn’t come with Poco launcher installed by default, but want an app drawer – just go to the Play Store and download the Poco launcher app. It’s free, of course.
The app drawer
Here are the default home screens on Redmi K20 Pro. There’s a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. There is a Quick Card pane, the leftmost one. It contains different cards with relevant information – recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar events, the weather, and favorites, among others. You can configure what shows up here, or you can disable this altogether.
The task switcher felt a bit awkward at first, but we’ve grown to like it. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.
Recents and Split Screen
Themes are supported on the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro, but the app appears only when the phone is set to a supported region, say India.
Themes
MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.
MIUI also offers proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video app include paid streaming options. FM radio app is available, too.
Security app • Security app • Gallery • File Manager • FM radioPerformance and benchmarks
The biggest difference between the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro, as well as the Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro, is the chipset upgrade. The Pro models are powered by the flagship Snapdragon 855 chip, though it’s not the overclocked Plus revision. The SoC employs an octa-core processor with 1+3+4 configuration – there is a single Kryo 485 Gold core (a Cortex-A76 derivative) clocked at 2.84GHz; three more Kryo 485 Gold cores clocked at 2.42GHz and a cluster of four Kryo 485 Silver cores (Cortex-A55 derivative) ticking at 1.78GHz.
The GPU is Adreno 640 and it’s Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line graphics processor that can handle pretty much everything you throw at it. And it will surely ace every test running at the K20’s 1080p screen.
The K20 Pro is available in four different versions – the 6GB RAM model is available with 64GB and 128GB storage options, while the K20 Pro with 8GB RAM can be bought with 128GB or 256GB storage.
The international Mi 9T Pro comes only with 6GB of RAM in either 64GB or 128GB.
The Redmi K20 Pro has a dual-sided advanced cooling around its chipset. There are 8 layers of graphite and thermal silica just below the screen glass and a copper foil plus thermal silica behind the rear glass. These should allow for a balanced and sustained performance when the phone uses the maximum power of the Snapdragon 855 SoC.
The GeekBench CPU test still paints that Snapdragon 855’s processor as the champ for multi-core tasks. But as far as single-core performance is concerned, the newest custom core by Samsung does much better.GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
Lenovo Z6 Pro11155
OnePlus 711075
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)10800
Asus Zenfone 610721
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro10684
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)10114
Samsung Galaxy S10e10081
Huawei P309789
Xiaomi Mi 9T6863
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE6017
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S10e4518
Asus Zenfone 63505
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)3499
Lenovo Z6 Pro3479
OnePlus 73461
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)3351
Huawei P303295
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro3000
Xiaomi Mi 9T2537
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE1905
The GPU benchmarks revealed no surprises – the Adreno 640 is among the best GPUs in a smartphone and delivers unprecedent performance under a 1080p screen.GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro71
Lenovo Z6 Pro71
OnePlus 771
Asus Zenfone 671
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)71
Samsung Galaxy S10e67
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)56
Huawei P3054
Xiaomi Mi 9T27
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE26
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro57
Lenovo Z6 Pro57
Samsung Galaxy S10e57
OnePlus 757
Asus Zenfone 657
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)57
Huawei P3048
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)48
Xiaomi Mi 9T24
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE24
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro42
Lenovo Z6 Pro42
Samsung Galaxy S10e42
OnePlus 742
Asus Zenfone 642
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)42
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)33
Huawei P3029
Xiaomi Mi 9T16
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE15
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S10e40
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro36
Lenovo Z6 Pro36
OnePlus 736
Asus Zenfone 636
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)36
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)28
Huawei P3026
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE14
Xiaomi Mi 9T13
Finally, the Redmi K20 Pro aced the compound AnTuTu benchmark furthermore cementing its flagship narrative.AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)377024
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro368846
OnePlus 7367812
Asus Zenfone 6361679
Lenovo Z6 Pro357672
Samsung Galaxy S10e325192
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)314595
Huawei P30287960
Xiaomi Mi 9T211915
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE180057
The Redmi K20 Pro delivers similar performance to some of the most powerful smartphones on the market today. We played a couple of modern games on it and we didn’t notice any bottlenecks or drops in the games’ frame rates.
There is a dedicated Game Boost menu within the Security app, go figure, and it is basically a game launcher that allows for better resource management. We tried it, but we didn’t notice any benefits. Maybe when the chipset gets older and more demanding games arise – the Game Boost might be useful, but for now – well, it’s there.
Despite the cooling solutions within the K20 Pro – it may get hot at a spot but only after prolonged processor benchmarks. This could lead to some potential drop in performance, but once gain – it happened only while doing multiple runs of CPU stress tests.
So, the K20 Pro is delivers cutting-edge performance on the jaw-dropping price of €399/INR
Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro review
Android 9 Pie, MIUI 10.3, and Poco launcher 2.0
Both the Xiaomi K20 Pro and Mi 9T Pro boot the latest MIUI 10.3 ROM based on Android 9 Pie. There is one difference though – the K20 Pro comes with Poco launcher 2.0 pre-installed, which adds a feature-rich app drawer, while keeps the rest of the MIUI 10 intact.
The Redmi K20 Pro supports Always-on display and you can schedule it or leave it on/off all the time. There are various themes you can choose from and make it yours.
Always-on screen
You can unlock the screen via the latest-generation under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is very easy to set up and works surprisingly fast. The accuracy is superb, too, and overall, it’s great for your daily unlocking.
You can also set up face unlock in addition to it – it’s equally fast as the Redmi K20 Pro wakes up the moment you pick it up. Note that the face unlock option may not be available in all regions.
Unlocking options
The Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro has a Dark mode – it will switch all system colors from white to black and this way you can save some battery juice by making the best use of the power-efficient AMOLED screen. Note that not all apps support the dark mode, but the majority do.
Dark mode
The K20 Pro also comes with various live wallpapers including the cool 24-hour wallpaper – it changes depending on the time of day and is quite nice, indeed.
Wallpapers
Having a Poco launcher means you get an app drawer over the MIUI 10 UI. It is quite powerful and supports automatic categories, you can change backgrounds and transparency, icon arrangement and size, among other things. The thing is we never felt the need for an app drawer on MIUI, but it’s on the K20 Pro and it can be disabled, of course, so we don’t mind it.
And if you are getting the Mi 9T Pro, which doesn’t come with Poco launcher installed by default, but want an app drawer – just go to the Play Store and download the Poco launcher app. It’s free, of course.
The app drawer
Here are the default home screens on Redmi K20 Pro. There’s a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. There is a Quick Card pane, the leftmost one. It contains different cards with relevant information – recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar events, the weather, and favorites, among others. You can configure what shows up here, or you can disable this altogether.
The task switcher felt a bit awkward at first, but we’ve grown to like it. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.
Recents and Split Screen
Themes are supported on the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro, but the app appears only when the phone is set to a supported region, say India.
Themes
MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.
MIUI also offers proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video app include paid streaming options. FM radio app is available, too.
Security app • Security app • Gallery • File Manager • FM radioPerformance and benchmarks
The biggest difference between the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro, as well as the Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro, is the chipset upgrade. The Pro models are powered by the flagship Snapdragon 855 chip, though it’s not the overclocked Plus revision. The SoC employs an octa-core processor with 1+3+4 configuration – there is a single Kryo 485 Gold core (a Cortex-A76 derivative) clocked at 2.84GHz; three more Kryo 485 Gold cores clocked at 2.42GHz and a cluster of four Kryo 485 Silver cores (Cortex-A55 derivative) ticking at 1.78GHz.
The GPU is Adreno 640 and it’s Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line graphics processor that can handle pretty much everything you throw at it. And it will surely ace every test running at the K20’s 1080p screen.
The K20 Pro is available in four different versions – the 6GB RAM model is available with 64GB and 128GB storage options, while the K20 Pro with 8GB RAM can be bought with 128GB or 256GB storage.
The international Mi 9T Pro comes only with 6GB of RAM in either 64GB or 128GB.
The Redmi K20 Pro has a dual-sided advanced cooling around its chipset. There are 8 layers of graphite and thermal silica just below the screen glass and a copper foil plus thermal silica behind the rear glass. These should allow for a balanced and sustained performance when the phone uses the maximum power of the Snapdragon 855 SoC.
The GeekBench CPU test still paints that Snapdragon 855’s processor as the champ for multi-core tasks. But as far as single-core performance is concerned, the newest custom core by Samsung does much better.GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
Lenovo Z6 Pro11155
OnePlus 711075
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)10800
Asus Zenfone 610721
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro10684
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)10114
Samsung Galaxy S10e10081
Huawei P309789
Xiaomi Mi 9T6863
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE6017
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S10e4518
Asus Zenfone 63505
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)3499
Lenovo Z6 Pro3479
OnePlus 73461
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)3351
Huawei P303295
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro3000
Xiaomi Mi 9T2537
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE1905
The GPU benchmarks revealed no surprises – the Adreno 640 is among the best GPUs in a smartphone and delivers unprecedent performance under a 1080p screen.GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro71
Lenovo Z6 Pro71
OnePlus 771
Asus Zenfone 671
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)71
Samsung Galaxy S10e67
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)56
Huawei P3054
Xiaomi Mi 9T27
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE26
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro57
Lenovo Z6 Pro57
Samsung Galaxy S10e57
OnePlus 757
Asus Zenfone 657
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)57
Huawei P3048
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)48
Xiaomi Mi 9T24
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE24
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro42
Lenovo Z6 Pro42
Samsung Galaxy S10e42
OnePlus 742
Asus Zenfone 642
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)42
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)33
Huawei P3029
Xiaomi Mi 9T16
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE15
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S10e40
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro36
Lenovo Z6 Pro36
OnePlus 736
Asus Zenfone 636
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)36
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)28
Huawei P3026
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE14
Xiaomi Mi 9T13
Finally, the Redmi K20 Pro aced the compound AnTuTu benchmark furthermore cementing its flagship narrative.AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)377024
Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro368846
OnePlus 7367812
Asus Zenfone 6361679
Lenovo Z6 Pro357672
Samsung Galaxy S10e325192
Huawei P30 (perf. mode)314595
Huawei P30287960
Xiaomi Mi 9T211915
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE180057
The Redmi K20 Pro delivers similar performance to some of the most powerful smartphones on the market today. We played a couple of modern games on it and we didn’t notice any bottlenecks or drops in the games’ frame rates.
There is a dedicated Game Boost menu within the Security app, go figure, and it is basically a game launcher that allows for better resource management. We tried it, but we didn’t notice any benefits. Maybe when the chipset gets older and more demanding games arise – the Game Boost might be useful, but for now – well, it’s there.
Despite the cooling solutions within the K20 Pro – it may get hot at a spot but only after prolonged processor benchmarks. This could lead to some potential drop in performance, but once gain – it happened only while doing multiple runs of CPU stress tests.
So, the K20 Pro is delivers cutting-edge performance on the jaw-dropping price of €399/INR 27,999. That sounds quite Pocophone-ish, doesn’t it?
Peak Design Travel Tripod could be a photographer’s must-have
Peak Design has already built up a huge following in bags – now it wants to do the same with a new Travel Tripod. The photographers-favorite has seen no shortage of crowdfunding success with previous launches like the Everyday Pack and camera clips, and has now turned that attention to another must-have accessory.
That’s the humble tripod, though the Peak Design Travel Tripod promises not to be all that humble. It attempts to straddle both the worlds of ultra-portable and prosumer photographer models.
So, rather than a trio of circular legs clustered around a circular central core, Peak Design has opted for a triangular core and three oval cross-section legs. That cuts down on wasted space.
Indeed the company says that, when folded up, the Travel Tripod occupies half the volume that other travel tripods demand. Small enough, in fact, to fit into a water bottle pocket on your bag. The five-section legs extend and lock into place with five cam levers, which can be opened simultaneously.
As for the head, that has a single adjustment ring that controls all of the articulation. Peak Design has used an aluminum ball and three portrait mode cutouts, together with a quick-release button. A lock dial clamps the whole thing down with one flick.
While it may be a small tripod, Peak Design says it can handle up to 20 pounds of weight. That means a full-frame DSLR with a 70-200 lens, should you have one in your bag. It’ll extend up to 60-inches tall, and there’s a counterweight hook underneath.
It’s not the only surprise the company built in. A universal mobile phone mount is hidden in the center column: pull that out, and you can put your smartphone on top instead of your camera. An Inverted Mode flips the tripod for macro and product shots, while a Low Mode splays the legs out flat for a ground perspective.
Peak Design says it created the Travel Tripod with third-party tripod plates and L-brackets in mind, and you’ll be unsurprised to hear that it works with other Peak Design products like the Capture Camera Clip. A case is included, but it’s weatherproof and impact-resistant, and comes with a lifetime guarantee. As standard it’s made of aluminum, but there’s a carbon fiber version that trims the weight from 3.44 pounds to 2.81 pounds.
As before, Peak Design has turned to Kickstarter to get the project off the ground. $289 gets an aluminum model; $479 gets a carbon fiber; after launch, their regular prices will be $349.95 and $599.95 respectively. The campaign runs until July 18, but as of writing is already more than three times past its original $500k goal. Assuming no hiccups, Peak Design says it expects to begin shipping the Travel Tripod in December of this year.
The Problem with ‘Everybody’s Bag’ Camera Backpacks
Right now if you head over to Kickstarter and search for “camera bag,” three active choices pop up. That’s three more camera bag ideas vying for your attention in addition to the tons that have hit Kickstarter over the years and the hundreds more made by larger brands like Lowepro, Manfrotto and Think Tank.
Every year we get another stack of “new” and “innovative” camera bag ideas from a host of different companies all trying to convince you that they have finally solved the camera bag problem. Except… this has been everyone’s slogan for the past ten years. So very clearly the camera backpack problem has not been solved. Sadly, despite their pomp and circumstance, no one is actually trying to solve it.
Eight years into reviewing camera backpacks, I can definitively say that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all backpack idea; no one has gotten it right yet, and this whole industry is stuck in a rut where everyone keeps trying to mix up the same few ideas in new ways in an attempt to get your hard-earned dollars.
Kickstarter videos are especially notorious for claiming they have a single answer for all the camera backpack woes.
And the thing is, even if the backpack does introduce new features that are actually compelling, in order to succeed with that backpack, the designers have to make the same set of concessions, resulting in the same overarching problem no matter how good one or a few of those implemented ideas are.
That problem is that in order to achieve mass appeal, you have to try and make your backpack hit just the right number of high notes with the most people, and that results in a backpack that gets some of its features for some buyers right some of the time, but never gets everything right for all customers all of the time.
So no matter how many new backpacks we get that shuffle around the same design aesthetics in a way that they promise will be the best thing ever, they all eventually slip into this same problem. And the thing is, it’s not a problem that I think can be solved with the methods these guys are going at it.
As a photographer myself, and speaking to my network of photographer friends, every single one of us laments our camera backpacks. Whenever a large group of us are together, we all end up talking about each other’s bags, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that not a single one of us actually loves everything about any one of our hundreds of bags.
I personally have a backpack wall with seven bags hanging on it right now. Of those seven, I generally use two or three regularly. Of those two or three, I actually don’t like any of them all that much. It’s more of a case of tolerating them more than anything else available. It is a sort of war of attrition I am forced into.
“But Jaron, just taking a step back, it’s absurd that you have seven camera backpacks at all. Each of them was several hundred dollars apiece, and you’re telling me that none of them were capable of being the best single backpack?”
Why yes, me. I am saying that. I’m saying that making that single, perfect backpack may actually be impossible.
Advertised as one bag that could do it all, the Peak Design Travel Backpack never excelled at anything.
Last year, I reviewed Peak Design’s Travel backpack, a backpack that was supposed to fill pretty much every need of day-to-day life on the road. It wasn’t designed to take the place of either of my backpacking camera bags (with the internal frames and whatnot), but it was supposed to fill the gaps that those bags aren’t particularly useful for.
As great as backpacking camera bags are, they really suck to try and travel with because of their awkward dimensions and dangling straps (dangling straps are the worst for squeezing through tight spaces or trying to cram into overhead bins). When I saw the Kickstarter, the concept seemed really spot on. And while it did get some things right (like the really awesome small bags for toiletries and tech cables), the actual backpack was seriously flawed. I wrote a couple thousand words about why the bag, to me, failed and was seriously disappointed with what I was hoping would cut my bag wall down to just two.
So as such, I still find myself begrudgingly using Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack pretty frequently, but I lament it on a regular basis. The name of the backpack is especially irksome, because though I want a backpack that I am comfortable using “everyday,” this one is simply the least irritating to use in the capacity. “Least irritating” is not a moniker you want attached to yourself as the only form of praise, but it’s all I can grant the Everyday Backpack after a couple of years trying to make it work. I honestly can’t wait to get rid of it in lieu of something else, should something else ever emerge.
But last week, there I was, using it on an international trip and hating every second it was on my back.
Yesterday, Peter McKinnon launched his Kickstarter in collaboration with Nomatic, and there are parts of the design that look seriously compelling. For example, I like the idea of using magnets for dividers (I think it’s magnets), though I have my doubts that they can stay in place when packed against the weight of a full-size camera and a 70-200mm lens. But the idea is cool, and I applaud that.
The thing is, I am betting that if I got this bag, it still wouldn’t feel like it ticks every box that I am looking for. It’ll probably hit about 60% of my wishes, and join my wall of bags where I might pick it up on occasion. In order to advertise itself as being great for everything, it will likely end up not being a great choice for anything. It survives, maybe even thrives, at being a solid, average application of bag technology.
And that sucks, but it’s also by design whether or not the guys at Nomatic actually wanted that to be the case. In order to please the most buyers, a lot of concessions had to be made, conscious or not.
You’re not going to get people to buy it unless it looks really nice, which requires a certain type of material and a designer to make it. You’re not going to sell them if they’re too big, or too expensive. You won’t get the word out about them unless you partner with a big name, like McKinnon (unless you are Peak Design because you already did that once and now you have enough clout on your own).
All of these things work towards that bottom line, and that squeezes what you can do with the bag. By the time it has hit production, you’ve made a good bag. Not a great bag, just a good one.
Pretty much every single bag maker who wants to make a “backpack for everyone” or a “bag for everyday life” falls into this rut. The only exception is when a company picks a niche, and one example I like to point to is Shimoda. They’re making a backpack for a very specific audience, never claiming they’ve made something for everyone. They’re not trying to do the backpack for the masses, and as such didn’t worry themselves with making a Kickstarter video that’s supposed to impress 95% of consumers. But because of this, they also won’t get all the coverage something like McKinnon’s bag will. Less coverage means less money, which means it’s harder to keep making bags. They also launched a new Kickstarter yesterday, and McKinnon’s bag is likely to overshadow them.
And that’s the problem. When you finally do set out to make a bag for a specific person to where they will actually be happy with the bag, you are limiting yourself to a small audience. You just won’t move the needle much. In order to make those big bucks, you kind of have to make a bag that’s not very good. It’s a system that churns out a regular flow of backpack designs that cannibalize ideas off each other in a never-ending circle, and no one bag has been able to live up to its promises.
I don’t mind having seven backpacks on my wall. What I do mind is that five of them at one point or another claimed to be a backpack for any, everyday use. In the end, all of them aren’t very good at doing any one thing and at some point just got relegated to the wall almost in permanent storage.
What I think would be ideal is a set of backpacks all with distinct uses, all great for a specific purpose. At least then my wall of bags would feel like it had a reason for being there other than to remind me of the thousands of dollars I’ve sunk into them. If more bags were designed with the mentality that Shimoda is born from, then I think many of us would be a lot happier with our bag options.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, I just don’t think this is as likely as the situation where more bags with a wider, overarching generalized idea of what the nameless photographer wants are made, and the continued cycle of rehashed ideas into “new” bags just keeps chugging along.
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