When Android handset makers started dishing out gaming smartphones a few years ago, they were actually somewhat affordable. Obviously, few years down the road today, that isn’t the case anymore. Thankfully, there’s Poco X3 Pro, a quasi flagship device that is marketed as a gaming phone and now, Redmi K40 Gaming Enhanced Edition.
The K40 Gaming Enhanced Edition joins the K40 Pro and K40 in the new K40 series range. All three devices are outfitted with different chipset. The K40 Gaming Enhanced Edition is powered by MediaTek flagship chip, Dimensity 1200, while the K40 Pro and K40 gets Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 870 (which also powers the Poco F3, btw).
The weirdest decision ever, IMHO. While Dimensity 1200 has higher clock speeds across the board, it apparently fair poorly against SD888 in both AnTuTu and Geekbench tests.
You may think “oh, its alright. Xiaomi probably wants to give consumers a balance between price and performance for a gaming phone.” But the “non-gaming edition” K40 Pro and K40 are running 888 and 870, and so… it really is kind of a duh moment.
However, we shouldn’t take the specs at face value. Like, for example, Dimensity 1200 features Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) and 888 does not. HMP is described as:
“Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) is a more advanced version of big.LITTLE technology. In this setup, a processor can utilize all cores at the same time, or just a single core for low-intensity tasks. This can provide powerful performance or increased battery life respectively.”
In addition, Dimensity 1200 also touts AVX technology that helps speed up calculations in multimedia, scientific and financial apps, et cetera, and AES that aids in speeding up encryption and decryption – both of which are not present in SD888, but will probably see performance bump in real world use. Obviously, those can’t be the only reason Xiaomi decided this move.
Key features of the Redmi K40 Gaming Phone:
• MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset (Cortex-A78, 6 nm, 3 GHz 8-core CPU)
• 9-core ARM Mali 886 MHz GPU
• 6-core APU 3.0 (AI)
• 120 Hz 6.67-inch OLED flexible, non-curved display
• 480 Hz touch sampling rate
• 64 MP tri-camera (64 MP main camera + 8 MP ultra wide-angle + 2 MP telemacro)
• Fancy lighting symbol camera flash
• Camera features innovative ED ultra-low dispersion and optical glass lens
• Pop-up shoulder buttons with real mechanical feedback, rated for 1.5 million presses
• Toggle keys
• Mappable hardware buttons, supports over 100 mainstream games
• Independent gaming antenna setup including dual “waist” antenna layout
• JBL stereo dual speakers
• Support Dolby Atmos audio technology
• 3-microphone game voice
• Redmi-exclusive 11,540 mm2 3D cooling system
• IR blaster
• 5,065 mAh battery with 67 W flash charge, supports QC3+/PD3.0
• L-shape data cable included
• Up to 12 GB LPDDR4x memory and up to 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage
• 8.3 mm profile; 205g
Key features of the Redmi K40 Pro/Pro+:
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 (Kryo 689, 5 nm, 2.84 GHz 8-core CPU)
• Adreno 660 840 MHz GPU
• 6-gen Qualcomm AI Engine (AIE)
• 120 Hz 6.67” Samsung E4 AMOLED display
• 360 Hz touch sampling rate
• X-axis linear motor
• DisplayMate certified A+ rating
• 108 MP pixel night scene camera (Pro+, 64 MP for K40 Pro), Dual Acoustic ISO
• K40 Pro+ cameras (108 MP main + 8 MP ultra wide-angle + 5 MP telemacro)
• K40 Pro cameras (64 MP main + 8 MP ultra wide-angle + 5 MP telemacro)
• Supports Dolby Atmos audio technology
• High-end surround sound quality certified
• Wi-Fi Enhanced Edition
• 4,520 mAh battery with 33 W charging, supports QC3+/PD3.0
• Up to 12 GB LPDDR5 memory and up to 256 UFS 3.1 storage
• IP blaster
• Thin 7.8 mm profile
Key features of the Redmi K40:
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 (Kryo 585, 7 nm, 3.2 GHz 8-core CPU)
• Adreno 650 GPU
• 120 Hz 6.67” Samsung E4 AMOLED display
• 360 Hz touch sampling rate
• 48 MP tri-camera (48 MP main + 8 MP ultra wide-angle + 5 MP telemacro)
• Supports Dolby Atmos audio technology
• High-end surround sound quality certified
• Hi-Res dual certification for wired and wireless headphones
• 4,520 mAh battery with 33 W charging, supports QC3+/PD3.0
• Up to 12 GB LPDDR5 memory and up to 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage
• IP blaster
• Thin 7.8 mm profile
Xiaomi Redmi K40 Gaming Enhanced Edition has a starting price of 1,999 yuan (US$309) while the Redmi K40 Pro/Pro+ and K40 start at 2,799 yuan (US$433) and 1,999 yuan (US$309), respectively.
Images: Xiaomi [CH].
