In a rather surprising move, Xiaomi today announced that it has partnered with Maxis to release the Redmi 10 5G in Malaysia. This is despite the fact that the telco has yet to reveal its 5G deployment timeline for the mass market.
In general, the phone is the updated 5G variant of last year’s Redmi 10, bringing with it improved specs such as a more powerful processor, a slightly bigger display, and, oddly enough, fewer cameras — all at a significantly higher retail price. The Redmi 10 5G sports a 6.58-inch LCD display with a teardrop notch for the front camera instead of its predecessor’s hole-punch design choice.
The screen has a 90Hz refresh rate and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The phone can be unlocked through a side-mounted fingerprint sensor while it also offers AI face unlock, though the latter method is camera-based and may be less secure.
Under the hood, the phone runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset and even though it is supposed to be available with a variety of RAM and storage options, Maxis is only selling the 6GB+128GB version. Aside from being equipped with a dual-SIM tray, there is also a microSD slot for storage expansion up to 512GB.
The Redmi 10 5G features a dual-camera setup on the back, with a 50MP main shooter and a 2MP depth sensor. While the lack of a macro lens won’t make much of a difference, it is notable that the company decided to remove the ultra-wide camera from the vanilla Redmi 10. Up front, it also has a downgraded 5MP camera housed in the notch.
Powering the phone is a 5,000mAh battery, the same capacity as its predecessor with support for 18W charging, but it seems the reverse charging feature has been removed from the 5G variant. As for connectivity, the phone supports 5G, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack — a port you can’t take for granted these days.
The retail price of the Redmi 10 5G is RM959 but as mentioned earlier, the phone can only be obtained through Maxis at the moment. Depending on the selected Maxis Postpaid and Zerolution plans, Maxis customers can get their hands on it for as low as RM1, although the arrangement seems a bit odd.
Under the Zerolution program, the Redmi 10 5G costs RM1 per month if customers choose Maxis Postpaid 188, which is the telco’s most expensive plan to go with it. However, they can obtain the phone for a sole payment of RM1 just by choosing the normal 24-month contract with Maxis Postpaid 128.
Given that Zerolution’s contract duration is also 24 months, it made us wonder why one would choose that option over the normal contract when the Zerolution option is clearly more costly, at least for the Redmi 10 5G.
