No Android 10 or Widevine DRM fix for the Redmi Note 8 Pro this year, Xiaomi confirms

The Redmi Note 8 Pro has a lot going for it, as we affirmed in our recent review of the device. However, some handsets have been suffering from DRM issues. While Chinese devices, like our review unit, can only stream DRM protected in SD because of being Widevine L3 certified, European variants should be capable of streaming in HD thanks to L1 certification.

This is not always the case though, as Frandroid reported in October. While the Redmi Note 8 Pro can stream from DRM-protected services like myCanal in HD, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix restrict it to streaming in SD. Xiaomi were apparently assessing what was the best way to solve the issue, but the company has been quiet on the matter in recent months. We now have an answer though thanks to a frustrated Redmi Note 8 Pro owner's plea to the General Manager of Xiaomi Indonesia, Alvin Tse. Tse responded with the following:

We believe this will be fixed in the Android Q update in 2020, working on it

Xiaomi has already pushed Android 10 builds of MIUI 11 to its China Beta program, although these will not contain DRM L1 certification. Stable builds should not be far off now, but it may be telling that Tse would not confirm when next year the Redmi Note 8 Pro would start receiving Android 10 builds of MIUI 11. We are holding out for a Q1 2020 release, but we shall keep you updated with any new information when we hear of it.