Verdict: Redmi K50 Gaming Edition
Our editorial rating is based on product testing.
- high performance
- gaming buttons and overall layout customization for players
- ultra-fast 120 W charging
- beautiful design of the special Mercedes AMG edition
- OLED display with automatic refresh rate
- higher price for the limited edition
- weaker cameras and video
- absence of the B20 LTE band
Redmi K50 Gaming Edition is a new release from Xiaomi’s daughter brand, which only recently saw the light of day. We didn’t waste a moment and ordered the smartphone from our favorite e-shop, TradingShenzhen, in a special edition created in collaboration with a top Formula 1 team – Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team.
In our exclusive review, you’ll find everything you need to know about this new release. We’ll test not only its performance and gaming comfort, but also battery life, charging speed, and we’ll take a look at the cameras.
International sales via the best e-shop
The best Chinese and well-known e-shop TradingShenzhen is now bringing the newly launched Redmi K50 Gaming Edition to international customers as well. All memory variants are in stock, including the special Mercedes AMG edition. In this article on Xiaomi Planet, we share our ordering experience, where you’ll also get all the details about the smartphone system.
Redmi K50 Gaming Edition (Chinese version without B20)
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
The advantage is that this seller can deliver your parcels from China duty-free, with no additional fees. This magic is handled by Global Priority shipping, which costs an extra €16. The parcel is delivered within our country by courier.
Technical specifications
Model 21121210C Dimensions 162.5 x 76.7 x 8.5 mm Weight 210 g Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 / maximum frequency 3.0 GHz RAM 12 GB LPDDR5 ROM 256 GB UFS 3.1 Display 6.67" OLED with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 px (FHD+) Refresh rate 120 Hz Sampling rate 480 Hz Contrast 5,000,000 : 1 Cameras Main 64 MPx Sony IMX686 with a sensor size of 1/1.73" Ultra-wide 8 MPx with a 120° field of view Macro 2 MPx Selfie 20 MPx Battery 4700 mAh / 120 W charging Connectivity 5G / 4G without B20 LTE / WiFi 6 Plus / Bluetooth 5.2 / NFC Software Android 12 / MIUI 13
Special packaging
Since this is a special, limited edition created in cooperation with the Mercedes factory team in prestigious F1, the packaging is adapted accordingly. The box is slightly larger and comes in the colors of the Mercedes Formula car livery, including the silhouette of the Formula car on the sides of the box.
The box opens upward by pulling a small paper strip, which flips up the top part. Right after opening, the smartphone is placed on top in black foam padding. The traditional paper box with a case and a pin for opening the SIM card slot is located inside the top lid of the box. It’s a shame that such a limited edition only comes with a plain transparent case.
The charging adapter together with the USB-C cable are hidden in the bottom part of the box in a small pull-out drawer. They’re also stored in foam padding, which adds to the exclusivity of the whole package. This is exactly how we imagine the packaging of a limited-edition smartphone.
Design and build quality
The special edition also brings a special design. As we already mentioned above, besides being the gaming version of the Redmi K50, its design comes in the colors of an F1 team. Mercedes fans will especially enjoy this, as they’ll appreciate such a smartphone design.
It’s mainly the look of the back cover that stands out here, as it comes in various shades of gray together with a distinctive green, which is typical for the Mercedes AMG team in F1. In addition to the Mercedes AMG logo, you’ll also find various textures on the surface of the cover. While most of it is matte gray, the triangular sides and the pair of stripes running across the entire cover are mirror-glossy.
The rear camera module, the lightning-shaped LED light, and the customized speaker grille design also fit very well into the overall look. Besides the special edition, the smartphone is also available in other colors, specifically black, blue, or gray. Naturally, the classic color variants are available at lower prices as well.
Different button layout
Gaming smartphone editions usually differ from regular models in some way, and it’s not just about the back cover and hardware. The manufacturer has also placed a pair of pop-up gaming buttons here, located on the right side. We’ll talk more about how they work later.
Since the buttons take up a substantial part of the right edge of the smartphone, only the unlock button fit here, with the fingerprint reader integrated into it. The volume rocker has moved to the opposite, left side.
Compared to the standard position, this rocker is placed a bit lower than usual, so it took us a while to get used to its position. Right next to it is the microphone, and a bit higher up you’ll find the SIM card slot. It’s a dual SIM slot, where you can place 2 SIM cards, with no option to expand storage using a microSD card.
On the bottom, you’ll find the standard USB-C charging port, microphone, and speaker grille. At the top, there’s a second speaker, a third microphone, and one of the sensors. Both speaker grilles are positioned so you won’t cover them with your hands while gaming. Overall, the smartphone design is therefore adapted for the most comfortable horizontal gaming possible.
High performance is a given
When it comes to a gaming smartphone, we expect top-tier performance—and no one should be disappointed in this respect. The computing power is handled by one of today’s newest and most powerful processors, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which you’ll find in Xiaomi 12 / 12 Pro phones, as well as in other flagship devices from brands like Samsung, Vivo, or OnePlus.
This is an octa-core processor made using a 4 nm process. It consists of 1 x Cortex-X2 cores clocked at 3.0 GHz, 3x Cortex-A710 at 2.5 GHz, and 4x Cortex-A510 at 1.8 GHz. 5G network support is also included, but unfortunately this is the Chinese version of the smartphone, so it lacks support for the 800 MHz 4G LTE band known as B20. We’ll get back to that later—let’s focus on performance for now.
The powerful processor is complemented by the Adreno 730 graphics chip, integrated into the processor. You’ll also like the LPDDR5 RAM and the fast UFS 3.1 storage. Our tested unit has 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of ROM, but there are also versions with 8 GB of RAM or 128 GB of ROM.
There’s genuinely plenty of performance, and on this smartphone you can play any game without any issues. Cooling is also taken care of—it separates the two biggest heat sources: the processor and the charging chip.
As is customary, we put the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition through its paces in the AnTuTu benchmark. We achieved a high score of up to 917,114 points, placing it among the top positions.
6.67″ OLED display
A quality OLED display will delight not only gamers but all users. It has a 6.67″ diagonal, FHD+ resolution, and a high refresh rate of 120 Hz. The sampling rate is also great at 480 Hz, and DisplayMate’s A+ display rating confirms the panel’s quality.
There’s also a cutout at the top for the selfie camera, but it’s fairly discreet—it definitely belongs among the smaller, less noticeable ones. The refresh rate is set to adjust automatically according to your current needs. The alternative is manual settings at 60 or 120 Hz.
Color adjustment is set to automatic based on the surrounding environment, but if you want to fine-tune the colors yourself, you can do so in the display settings.
Cameras
Let’s first look at the specifications of the trio of main cameras found in the design module on the back of the smartphone:
Main camera 64 MPx Sony IMX686 Exmor RS 1/1.7-inch sensor size with f/1.73 aperture Ultrawide camera 8 MPx unknown sensor 120° field of view with f/2.2 aperture Macro 2 MPx unknown sensor f/2.4 aperture
Photos from the 64 MPx main camera are decent and sharp, with warm colors—though sometimes they’re even a bit too warm, with a noticeable yellow tint. The dynamic range isn’t the best, especially in shady areas or on tree canopies. Overall, some photos look slightly darker than we’d expect. Even those taken during a sunny day.
In weaker light during cloudy days, you can see higher contrast and an artificially increased saturation that doesn’t feel very natural. Overall, the photos are still very good, but we would have welcomed a slightly brighter rendering.
Indoors, we also notice more contrast and more saturated colors, especially with artificial and dim lighting. Noise appears in darker areas, some details are lost, and sharpness is also a bit weaker.
Ultra-wide camera and macro
The ultra-wide camera on the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition has an 8 MPx sensor, but the photos from it are also quite good. The color rendering is noticeably cooler compared to the main camera, but it’s more natural. The dynamic range also worsens, and you get more underexposed areas—whether you’re shooting outdoors or indoors.
The macro sensor is only 2 MPx, so don’t expect miracles. If you manage to get a nice macro shot, it’s more of an exception.
Night mode
On the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition, night mode activates automatically based on the current conditions. However, this preset feature can be turned off, and you can switch on night mode manually via the camera app menu.
Night mode brings more light into photos, higher contrast, but slightly worsens sharpness. When using a wide-angle sensor, the quality is significantly worse and sharpness is weak even without the night mode turned on.
Video and selfie
The selfie camera offers a resolution of 20 MP and features a Sony IMX596 sensor. It automatically applies a subtle so-called Beautify filter to enhance your looks, but it’s almost not noticeable. Video can record at a maximum resolution of 1080p at 60 fps. However, the same resolution is also set at a lower frame rate (30 fps).
The main camera supports a maximum video resolution of 4K at 60 fps with optical stabilization, which is automatically enabled. You can also choose 4K / 30 fps, 1080p / 30 or 60 fps, and 720p / 30 fps. Video quality isn’t the best, and in many cases you can see unwanted noise in the footage.
Using hardware buttons for gaming
The mentioned hardware buttons on the right side of the smartphone are activated by sliding the magnetic latches that sit right next to them. Once you unlatch the buttons, they pop out, but additional settings are required to use them and set what they do.
These are configured via the Game Turbo function panel, which offers several options such as screen recording, adjusting brightness, turning on Do Not Disturb mode, and more. The gaming buttons here have their own menu named “Shoulder buttons”. You can set the function of the left and right button separately.
The setup principle is simple. Just move the circle representing the button to the part of the screen where the control element you want to activate with a button press is located. For example, if you move the right-button object to the display area where you normally control the throttle in a racing game, pressing it will make you add throttle.
Fast 120 W charging
The Redmi K50 Gaming Edition has a 4700 mAh battery and an extremely fast charging system of up to 120 W, which is supported by an increasing number of smartphones across different classes. Once you plug in the charger, the system charges the first 30% at the fastest speed, and then slows down slightly. It also offers the option to speed up charging overall, with a warning about possible overheating. In reality, though, it doesn’t overheat significantly.
You can fully charge the smartphone in just a few minutes, so charging doesn’t get in the way. We personally like this trend a lot, because all you need to do is plug the phone in for a couple of minutes. If there’s no groundbreaking battery tech, at least fast charging is something to be happy about.
| battery capacity | charging time in the fastest mode |
|---|---|
| 20 – 50 % | 3 minutes and 47 seconds |
| 75 % | 7 minutes and 45 seconds |
| 90 % | 10 minutes and 20 seconds |
| 100 % | 13 minutes and 5 seconds |
As for battery life, it’s standard. During testing and everyday use, the smartphone lasted 1 to 1.5 days on a single charge.
MIUI 13 and Android 12
The Redmi K50 Gaming Edition runs on the latest operating system Android 12 with MIUI 13 on top. Our loyal readers already know it well. The newest version also brings an interesting feature: a side panel that enables quick access to selected apps, along with many improvements that optimize the performance of the system and apps.
Since the European version of the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition hasn’t been announced yet, we’re testing the Chinese version of the smartphone. We installed an unofficial ROM from xiaomi.eu, also intended for the POCO F4 GT, which will be the European variant of this gaming phone.
That’s why you might see the name of our model as POCO F4 GT instead of Redmi K50 Gaming Edition in some of our photos. The system worked flawlessly during our intensive testing—smoothly and quickly.
No B20 LTE support
As we mentioned in the introduction, the Chinese version of the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition doesn’t support our 4G LTE band, labeled B20. This band is used mainly outside the city for spreading 4G LTE signal, but all of our operators use it.
My sme smartfón používali najmä v Košiciach, kde sme stále boli pripojení na 2600 MHz 4G pásmo. Znak H+, ktorý symbolizuje 3G sieť sme si všimli v nákupných centrách a v malých mestách mimo Košíc.
We focused on this topic even more while reviewing the Chinese versions of the Xiaomi 12 smartphone series. So if you’re looking for more information, you’ll find it in the mentioned review. In short, we can say that even with a smartphone that doesn’t support the B20 band, we were able to use it without any problems, and we didn’t even realize that some band was missing.
JBL speakers and connectivity
The first Xiaomi smartphone to come with speakers from the JBL brand is the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G. If you’ve read our review, you know we were pleasantly surprised by the audio output. The speakers on the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition also sound good, and we especially appreciate their placement, so they don’t get in the way while gaming.
Wireless connectivity doesn’t miss out either, with Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 6 Plus, and also NFC, which works flawlessly even on the Chinese version of the smartphone with the global Xiaomi.eu ROM.
Redmi K50 Gaming Edition: Final assessment
The Redmi K50 Gaming Edition comes in a special edition created in collaboration with the Mercesed AMH formula team and will please not only motorsport fans. It delivers incredible performance, a beautiful 6.67″ OLED display, JBL speakers, and even a pair of hardware buttons on top.
The smartphone works great—it doesn’t overheat noticeably even during gaming, and honestly, we don’t really know what we could fault it for. The only downsides are probably the absence of the B20 LTE band, the higher price of the limited edition, and a camera that’s very decent but not among the market’s best.
Redmi K50 Gaming Edition (Chinese version without B20)
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
TIPWith Global Priority shipping, you don’t pay any additional fees.
We recommend choosing Global Priority shipping—where you won’t have to pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT will be handled by the seller for you. Shipping can be selected in the cart after you enter the delivery address. Delivery via Global Priority usually takes about 15 days, but it may also take longer.
So if you’re interested in this beautiful gaming smartphone, order it from our favorite partner, Trading Shenzen, which offers customs-free and reliable shipping.
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