Redmi Note 8T Review - Introduction: How the NHS made me decide to get a Xiaomi
An introduction to what brought Majid to purchasing a Redmi Note 8T.
Xiaomi has really hit it out of the park over the last few years. Coming from relative obscurity in the West 5-6 years ago, to now being one of the biggest consumer electronics brands in the world. There have been major successes such as the Mi 9T, the Mi A Series, as well as sub-brands like Redmi and Pocophone. They have brought innovation, great features at amazing prices to audiences worldwide.
I have owned a number of Xiaomi devices in the past, from the original Redmi Note to the Mi 9T (Redmi K20). Every time I have been wowed by the design, the features and the value for money.
But… (there is always a but)
MIUI, Xiaomi’s version of Android, is not my favourite android skin (sorry Matteo, I mean distribution). I am not a “Stock” Android purist, I have had many different devices over the years, and things like One UI (from Smasung), LG UX (from, you guessed it, LG), EMUI (from Huawei), and others, each bring their own value and features to each device. I even wrote an ode to Samsung’s old TouchWiz once! (https://www.coolsmartphone.com/2016/08/24/an-ode-to-touchwiz-surprisingly/) and really liked One UI on my (stolen) Galaxy Note 9.
Just for clarification, I say “Stock” in quotes as there is really no such thing: there is the Android Open-source Project (AOSP) on which OEMs build their own experiences, Google included. My personal favourite is Oxygen OS from OnePlus which is fast, configurable and updated regularly.
MIUI is a bit too much for me. It looks and behaves too much like iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system). I think MIUI feels heavy, bloated, and full of unnecessary apps. I couldn’t disable or hide, let alone uninstall, the apps or services I didn’t want in most cases. MIUI 10 on the Xiaomi 9T (Redmi K20) has improved a lot in this space, but basically after using the OnePlus 7 Pro, I just couldn’t deal with MIUI, and so like many of my previous devices it got sold or passed on to someone who would benefit more from it.
I’m not a professional reviewer or influencer at Tech Travel Geeks yet, so companies haven’t sent me stuff to review recently. I have use my hard-earned cash when choosing and purchasing devices. So having made that clear, why did I end up purchasing a Redmi Note 8T?
The reason is my employer, the national institution which is the National Health Service also known as the NHS.
Now before you ask “what in the world of all that is holy in the Linux kernel”, I need to provide you with some context.
The NHS is a cash-strapped organisation, this isn’t big news to nobody. IT support and software vary widely round the country due to the nature of the regional organisation of the NHS and procurement being different and varying between Trusts and Hospitals. This is in part due to limited oversight from the Department of Health when it comes to the day-to-day running of the NHS. In this environment, its not surprising that IT has its challenges. Most machines with desktop operating systems are only just getting updated to Windows 10. Much software in use feels like it could have been written by an 8 yr old with Amiga BASIC, and there are also considerations around legal requirements of Information Governance and patient confidentiality in the mix.
There have been some successes withing the English NHS as well: I would like to give a shout out to Dr Li (https://twitter.com/ywl197) for his work in integrating patient records. There have also been successes in electronic patient observations and even tele-medicine. But these differ from hospital to hospital and do so wildly sometimes.
As a junior doctor, IT support wasn’t really front and centre for me. I was rotating around hospitals frequently, doing night-shifts, all while sitting professional Royal College exams. As long as I could do what i needed to do at work, then that was enough for me. That’s the sort of background to how I got my Lenovo Miix 510 (https://www.techtravelgeeks.com/blog/2018/10/10/the-perfect-travel-laptop-which-doesnt-break-your-wallet) which fulfilled my needs, and I had a desktop computer at home for when i needed to make presentations/write papers and needed a full desktop experience.
Now that I have been a consultant for almost 5 years and am a permanent employee of the NHS, my outlooks on matter have changed. When I look at my friends working in (non-healthcare) companies, i see they get company laptops, company phones, company cars and anything else they need to do their job.
Me? I just have my trusted Lenovo Miix and use whatever phone I own at that point. I could try and get a Trust-certified device, but I’m not sufficiently up the management food-chain for that yet.
I have at many times decided to use multiple devices at once, hence the hashtag #Dr2Phones, but I’m nowhere near our Chief Mobile Opinionist’s levels. This is probably because I’m a tech enthusiast (and seem to have no interest in paying enormous mortgage according to my wife). I like to try out different things and see what form factors and software experiences work for me. Having said that I have never reached the stage where i needed 6 phones (looking at you Matteo).
This all leads me to the situation where my personal phone and SIM card is what I use at work. I’ve always had some reservations about this, but as a Doctor it is what I have been doing for the 17 years. I just get it done. Most of my colleagues are in the same situation, and don’t seem to be having issues around this.
Recently this was now starting to have an impact on my personal life. I found myself replying to work emails when out on a Saturday night with friends or answering clinical queries via a WhatsApp from junior colleagues in the evening.
This situation has ramifications: I find difficulty switching off and detoxing from tech. I also found this was causing disruptions to my family-life and blurring of professional boundaries. Generally, this could have caused trouble.
Therefore at the beginning of this year (and decade), i resolved that it was time to compartmentalise fully. It was time to make a clear separation between my work and personal life. This meant that my personal phone number would be separate from my work number. I tried this on a dual SIM device, but again that was a non-starter as I just kept on getting “dragged back in” as Al Pacino said in The Godfather 3 because notifications still popped up.
I decided it was time for a new smartphone. Unfortunately, my stolen Samsung Galaxy Note 9 had left me severely out of pocket. I could have gone for a carrier provided device and SIM, but I couldn’t seem to find the right fit (is it me or has carrier choice/value in the UK decreased significantly?). Plus I already had another SIM and you always tend to save money buying outright over a couple of years.
As an NHS England Consultant Anesthesiologist what do I need from a work phone? Well, the same things you want from a good travel phone (see what I did there?).
The list is like this:
Good battery life
Descent performance
A reasonable camera (for scanning documents)
A nice screen to facilitate editing files
That’s basically about it. I also want a work device to be inexpensive. I am very conscious that I am lugging around almost £1000 worth of equipment in my bag at work, and security is a problem in some hospitals. I also work in operating theatres where there are communal areas outside the theatres themselves lockers are limited. The whole point of this exercise is to enable me to be contactable, especially in an emergency. There is no point in making the upgrade if your phone is sitting in your tiny locker and not getting used for what it’s for.
I thought of just getting something like the Nokia 1 or current equivalent budget smartphone. Frankly I needed and wanted a bit more horsepower, and whatever I thought of MIUI (Xiaomi’s Android distribution) I knew that Xiaomi was a brand I could trust with quality and security/OS updates rather than other branded devices. Yes I could have gone the whole hog and spent more and got something with enterprise-grade security (e.g. Samsung with Knox, Pixel with the Titan M chip or the recently departed Blackberry KeyNumber device) but the price factor always came back into play. Remmber, this was my own money I was spending.
I shopped around, and came across the Redmi Note 8T. It looked good on paper, the symmetry of having had the first Redmi Note in 2015 and now have the 8th one appealed to my sentimental side… And what I got for £150 astonished me.
This has been a bit of a long intro, thanks for reading all the way here if you made it. I hope the scroll indicator on Tech Travel Geeks caught your eye while you read.
And on that (Redmi) Note (8T), I’ll leave you dangling: Part 2, where I actually review the device, is coming soon to Tech Travel Geeks!
An Optimist's Opinionism about the Huawei News
Matteo, the Chief Mobile Opinionist at Tech Travel Geeks is uncharacteristically positive about what is happening in the mobile industry after Google have had to cut business dealings with Huawei due to the ongoing trade war between the US and China.
OK, by now you’ve already heard the news, even if you are someone who doesn’t normally follow the tech scene: Google has suspended some of its business with Huawei. More specifically, Google has suspended business with Huawei which requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing.
This news was broken by Reuters on Sunday May 19th 2019, just under two days before Huawei’s brand Honor is due to announce and launch their Honor 20 Series of devices globally. I’m writing this piece of rampant opinionism on an easyJet flight to London to attend that very event and cover it for the Tech Travel Geeks website and the Tech Travel Geeks YouTube Channel.
Many more clever and thoughtful commentators have already explained what has happened quite exhaustively and illustrated potential ramifications. I particularly enjoyed Vlad Savov of The Verge’s take and Andrew Martonik of Android Central’s piece.
Both analyses are quite bleak in their outlook for Huawei. Vlad’s piece has a pull quote which paints a chilling protein rich metaphor: “Deprived of Google’s software, Huawei would be selling featherless chickens”.
Andrew on the other hand has a bit more of a pragmatic statement to make: “It simply isn’t reasonable in 2019 for any company to launch a phone outside of China without Google Services.”
While in the short term I agree with both views, I have a different and uncharacteristically positive outlook in the medium and long term.
Huawei is a Chinese business who have been playing the long game in the tech industry for decades. The company has been consistently investing in research and development and building technical and product know-how along the road while slowly surpassing established players both in the networking and smartphone handset industry.
Having operated in the Chinese smartphone market, Huawei have also built up services and platforms that deliver a Googleless Android experience to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of customers.
While many commentator’s Western view that Android without Google is close to a crippling experience, in my view this may not actually be the case. I think we are already moving to an OS or platform agnostic consumer market for smartphones. More and more consumers are switching between iOS and Android because the services which are really important to them are very similar. WeChat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other popular services are all available on multiple platforms. As long as the services are available, the average consumer will be happy, regardless of what underlying service provider is there. Ben Thompson already described this market dynamic back in 2017 when analysing the fruity brand’s performance in China.
Huawei is currently the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and if this ban is implemented, I think in the short term their growth will surely be stifled. My long term view on the other hand is, as I mentioned more positive.
Huawei is a recognisable and strong enough brand to be able to power through this within 3 years thanks to some fundamental market dynamics:
1. The majority of smartphone consumer growth in the next three years will be in regions such as South America, South East Asia and Africa.
2. Huawei’s range of smartphone hardware excels on key features consumers REALLY want: battery life, good cameras and reliable overall device hardware.
3. Huawei can produce, sell and support a Googleless smartphpone experience on their devices in those markets and continue to grow and gain overall smartphone global market share (even if other regions are negatively affected by this ban). This is in part thanks to an established and aspirational brand, existing retail and network partnerships.
This won’t be easy, obviously. Once the critical mass of consumers of Huawei devices is out there, the providers of core services consumers use will be lining up to have a presence on the platform. Just think of the lengths Facebook has gone to have a presence in markets like India, even on non-smartphones.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Huawei are in this for the long game. They can weather a few bad seasons and still remain a relevant and successful player in the smartphone market, maybe introducing another significant smartphone platform on the global stage.
Anyway, this potential future unfolding of smartphone market events is just my Six Pence (you are None the Richer) while the Airbus A320 Neo I am on is starting to descend towards St Ansted.
The bigger issue was well summarised by others, and I’m just putting a few extra words on the Internet. Daniel Bader of Mobile Nations put it nicely when referring to some of the fanperson takes on Twitter delighting in the happenings reported.
I completely agree with Dan here.
What few have mentioned is that as part of this “Trade War” between the US and China we have all been focusing on the US’ move and the consequences and outlooks for Huawei and the smartphone industry as a whole.
What will be more interesting for me to see is what the Chinese Government’s next big move is: think what would happen to the smartphone market if all exports of the autumnal Apple iPhone product release were blocked by China. 2019 could be the first year with no new iPhone since 2007. Short term Apple would truly be crippled though they too can play the long game…
Another thought to leave you with: what if the real loser in this exercise in futility is actually Google who could lose their grip on Android, the operating system they created and fostered.
This was Matteo’s rampant opinionism piece concerning Google suspending some of its business with Huawei. You can read more about it from these excellent sources below. I’ll be in London tomorrow to cover the Honor 20 Series launch. Who knows, maybe my uncharacteristic optimism will change. Keep an eye on the Tech Travel Geeks YouTube Channel and TechTravelGeeks.com for more updates.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/20/18632266/huawei-android-google-ban-phone-business-future
https://www.androidcentral.com/what-losing-google-means-huawei-smartphone-business
We were on the back of the ferry to Kowloon. It was like a ferry-tail...
The back of the Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon.
We were on the back of the ferry to Kowloon. It was like a ferry-tail...
I'm not apologising to anyone for this terrible pun. I can hear you all groaning from behind The Great Firewall.
Hong Kong Skyline as seen from Kowloon at night
Our day trip from Shenzhen to Hong Kong and back was a great experience: we went up Victoria Peak and walked around the hill, took the tram back down and then the ferry to Kowloon.
Hong Kong skyline
I had some great fun with the cameras of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the one on the Google Pixel 3 XL too: from zoom, to wide-angle selfies and night shots inight sense shots.
We will be going into this in a bit more depth soon, but here are some samples to wet your appetites.
This Week in Mobile - Quiet Preparations
The Tech Travel Geeks Chief Mobile Opinionist Matteo covers the week's main mobile news subjects for us.
Welcome to This Week in Mobile, Tech Travel Geeks' weekly column covering what has happened in the world of mobile. If we haven't covered it on Tech Travel Geeks we'll link to the best content on the web.
It has been a relatively quiet week for mobile related news and most of us are still getting over last week where we had some pretty major announcements.
My retail unit of the Huawei P20 Pro arrived and I unboxed it on the Tech Travel Geeks YouTube Channel.
First impressions of the Huawei P20 Pro are good. The device feels great to hold and use, the notch isn't an issue for me and the camera still has to win me over. I'll go more in depth on that later this week, here on Tech Travel Geeks.
I'm packing my bags at the moment as I will be travelling to Dubai to speak at droidcon Dubai, the largest Android developer event in the GCC. My talk will be on the Saturday, and this time I am officially representing my employer, Skyscanner. Expect some great content being published on Tech Travel Geeks in the coming weeks as Lukasz will be in Dubai too and we will be shooting video there.
Lukasz published his video of the Samsung Galaxy S8+ vs the Samsung Galaxy S9+. As usual the production values of his content are amazeballs. I really need to up my game on video to at least try and keep our content consistent.
My Pixel 2 XL received its April Security patch. It continues to be one of my main mobile devices and is coming to Dubai with me.
Until next week, that is all from This Week in Mobile. Let us know if you would like to cover anything specific in the coming weeks.