The Redmi K60 Pro offers flagship performance, with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 “on board”. K60 and K60E also announced

Xiaomi’s more “budget-friendly” high-end device series, the Redmi K, has been updated for 2023 just days before the end of 2022. The Redmi K60 brings a number of improvements that could position these models to compete with Xiaomi’s high-end 13 models, as they are equipped with comparable hardware. The new series includes three models, with three performance thresholds: the Redmi K60 Pro, the “standard” K60 and a more affordable model, the K60E.

Redmi K60 Pro could be a cheaper alternative to the Xiaomi 13

The Redmi K60 Pro is the new flagship from Xiaomi’s secondary brand and is equipped with the most powerful components available. It integrates a 6.67″ AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution (3,200 x 1,440 pixels), 1,400 nits brightness and 120 Hz refresh rate.

With a screen like this “on board”, it was to be expected that this model would also be equipped with a processor to match: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm’s newest and most powerful chipset. It can be joined by configurations with 8, 12 or 16 GB RAM and up to 512 GB storage.

The camera system is also high-performance, with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX800 sensor with optical stabilisation for the main camera. However, the rest of the camera is rather average, with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide and a 2-megapixel macro. You can see that some compromises were needed to achieve a lower price.

The 5,000 mAh battery is charged to 120W on the cable, thanks to the proprietary Surge P1 charging chip, while wireless charging is also present, with power up to 30W. Redmi says this model also includes advanced charging, with a 5,000mm2-sized vapor chamber.

The base Redmi K60 Pro model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage starts at 3,299 yuan, or €455 in China, and the top model with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage comes in at 4,599 yuan, or €620. It will launch on December 31 in China.

K60 “standard” model comes with previous generation hardware

The “base” K60 model is not dramatically different in design, made with the same QHD+ display and vapor chamber cooling system. Other components get “downgrades” though.

For example, this model uses Qualcomm’s previous Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, along with a 64-megapixel main camera, also stabilized. Fast charging drops to 67W wired, but wireless charging at 30W remains present. Interestingly, however, this model is equipped with a larger 5,500 mAh battery.

The Redmi K60 model starts at 2,499 yuan, or €335, in the base 8+128GB variant, while the top model with 16+512GB goes for 3,599 yuan, or €485.

K60E is the budget variant of the series

Finally, the Redmi K60E adopts a more modest configuration and a slightly different design. It’s based on a similarly high-performance, QHD+ at 120Hz, also 6.67″ screen, but with lower brightness at 1,200 nits. The chipset is a MediaTek Dimensity 8200, and the main camera drops to 48 megapixels. The 5,500 mAh battery still charges at 67W, the same as on the K60, but wireless charging disappears.

Other “downgrades” are UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 RAM, as opposed to DDR5X. This model starts at 2,199 yuan, or €295, in the base version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Unlike the other models, this one has already gone on sale.