Redmi K50 and K50 Pro offer flagship SoCs and big batteries for under $500

After launching the Redmi K50 Gaming phone, Xiaomi has announced two more flagship devices in the K50 series.

The Redmi K50 and K50 Pro pack MediaTek’s flagship processors. The vanilla K50 gets the Dimensity 8100 SoC, while the K50 Pro features the Dimensity 9000. The former is a more recent chipset with an octa-core layout consisting of four Cortex-A78 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. MediaTek calls it the “little brother” to the top-tier Dimensity 9000 that rivals the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with one Cortex-X2 core, three Cortex-A710 CPUs, and four Cortex-A510 cores.

Besides their powerful processors, the Redmi K50 duo also have other impressive specs to boast. For instance, both phones feature a 6.67-inch AMOLED QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. They also get large batteries, with the standard K50 getting a 5,500mAh battery and the Pro gaining a 5,000mAh battery. Although, the Redmi K50 Pro beats the K50 with 120W fast-charging that Xiaomi claims can top-up the phone in just 19 minutes. The vanilla K50 makes do with 67W charging which is said to fully juice it up in 48 minutes.

The Pro model is obviously the more premium one here and houses a higher-resolution 108MP main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS). An 8MP ultrawide lens and a 2MP macro shooter complete the setup.

Meanwhile, the non-Pro variant handles photography with a 48MP OIS shooter. The other two rear camera sensors are the same.

Both phones have a 20MP selfie snapper.

There’s no in-display fingerprint sensor or a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, you do get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and a USB-C port.

Both the Redmi K50 and Redmi K50 Pro come with MIUI 13 out of the box.

Redmi K50 and K50 Pro: Price and availability

The Redmi K50 and K50 Pro are only available in China. However, Xiaomi is known to rebrand devices in this line and launch them internationally as POCO phones. So it’s highly likely that we’ll see the two Dimensity flagships appear outside of Xiaomi’s home market with different branding and names.

Coming to the pricing, the Redmi K50 costs 2,399 yuan (~$378) for the 8GB + 128GB model. It also has an 8GB + 256GB variant priced at 2,599 yuan (~$409), and a 12GB + 256GB version at 2,799 yuan (~$441).

Meanwhile, the Redmi K50 Pro starts at 2,999 yuan (~$472) for the 8GB + 128GB model and costs 3,299 yuan (~$520) and 3,599 yuan (~$567) for the 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB variants, respectively. You can also get a 12GB + 512GB variant for 3,999 yuan (~$630) if you need a ton of storage.

Xiaomi has also announced the Redmi K40S, starting at 1,799 yuan (~$283). It’s the same phone as the Redmi K40/POCO F3, albeit with OIS on the main camera, a 2MP macro camera instead of a 5MP sensor, and faster 67W charging.