DEC 7, 2023
NimishAndAkriti
There comes a time in our tech lives when we need a good basic smartphone. Nothing too flash, nothing crazy great, something that is rock solid and might not have multiple bells and whistles, but just rocks the basics. And which does not cost a bomb. It could be a phone that acts as a backup for your main phone, or it could even be someone's first phone. If you are looking for such a phone, perhaps you should consider Xiaomi's just-launched Redmi 13C 5G!
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The Redmi 13C 5G starts at Rs 10,999, which makes it one of the most affordable 5G smartphones around. Mind you, it does not look like one. It has those straight sides and flat back that are the in-thing days - both are plastic, but feel solid enougb. And it comes with what Xiaomi calls its Star Trail Design. As a result, the back of the phone shines and shimmers in different colours when light falls on it. Gimmicky? Perhaps, but it is very eye-catching.
Of course, you are not going to get beast-level hardware at this price, but the Redmi 13C 5G ticks most of the basic boxes. You get a 6.74 inch HD+ display with 90 Hz refresh rate. It is not AMOLED but it is large, bright and colourful. A surprise is the MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ chip, which is pretty powerful at this price and can even handle high-end games with some tweaks. The single speaker is loud enough to make this a good video/ show-viewing device!
You also get a 5000 mAh battery with support for 18W charging through a Type-C port, which should deliver over two days of battery life on a single charge! The 50 megapixel main camera on the back is good for daylight shots, and the 8 megapixel selfie camera is decent enough for video calls (hey, this is a 5G phone) and for basic selfies. The phone comes with MIUI 14 (Android 13), which is pretty feature laden, although there is some bloatware on board!
There are some corners cut - a middling camera, a drop notch (not a punch hole), just a 10W charger in the box, and the display is not full HD. But in spite of that, the Redmi 13C 5G gets a lot right - good design, good processor, big display, 5G, loud sound, good battery life, and a design that's different as well as tough (splash resistant, Gorilla Glass on front). Candidate for best basic phone? At Rs 10,999, Definitely!
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