Redmi 5 review: Affordable smartphone

Xiaomi is doing great in India and has released an overwhelming number of smartphones. Following the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro, the Chinese manufacturer (and India’s top smartphone brand) recently launched the Redmi 5 in India. Targeting the budget market looking for an affordable smartphone with better than usual performance, the Redmi 5 comes in three price points. The 2GB/16GB version is priced at ¥7,999, the 3GB/32GB version is priced at ¥8,999, and the 4GB/64GB version is priced at ₹7,999. ₹10,999.

Here we have the 3GB/32GB version of Redmi 5. To make your life easier and help you make a decision to buy a new budget smartphone, this is a Redmi 5 review.

Redmi 5 specifications:

Let’s start with the specifications. The Redmi 5 comes with hardware that looks decidedly “low-priced” but includes a lot of flexibility with RAM and storage options. Here is the complete spec sheet for Redmi 5:

What’s inside the Redmi 5 box

First of all, the Redmi 5 comes in a decent box with a sticker that says “India’s No. 1 Smartphone Brand”, probably to let people know that it is part of a family that is growing bigger by the day. It comes in a red-looking box. When you open the box, there are several things inside.

• Redmi 5
• Xiaomi charger
• Micro USB cable (still waiting for USB-C in everything)
• SIM removal tool
• clear case
• There are some flyers that you might not read, but they are there.

First Impressions: Is it Redmi Note 5 Pro?

The Redmi 5 is a confusing looking phone, looking almost identical to the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro from the front, but that’s not a bad thing. The phone has a beautiful-looking 18:9 aspect ratio, curved corners, and slimmer-than-usual bezels that always remind us of the Pixel 2 XL look.

Fun fact, I was taking my Redmi 5 out of my ‘phone cabinet’ this morning and accidentally picked up the Redmi Note 5 Pro since they both looked the same. It was only when I flipped it over that I realized I was staring at the back of my iPhone X. Sorry, Redmi Note 5 Pro, I corrected myself and picked up the Redmi 5.

Construction and Design: Attractive, comfortable, and definitely good-looking

When you pick up Redmi 5, the difference is obvious. This phone feels instantly sleek and comfortable to hold thanks to the curved edges on the back. Add to all this the 5.7-inch, 18:9 display, and this is definitely one of the most usable phones I’ve used. Point out Xiaomi for that.

The back of the Redmi 5 is made of metal, with plastic on the top and bottom, and the tactile buttons are comfortable to use, giving an overall great hand feel. We have no complaints about the build and design of the Redmi 5. It’s well-made (unlike most budget smartphones, which feel weird and plasticky in your hand), well-designed, and very comfortable to use.

Display: Cutting corners…literally

One of the first things I noticed when I turned on the phone was that even though Xiaomi has put a 1440×720 display on the phone, it doesn’t look bad at all. On the contrary, the Redmi 5’s display is very good, especially considering the price of the device. Colors are good and viewing angles are excellent, but it’s still a shame that the company cut corners in this regard. literally.

It made me realize some flaws that I didn’t notice, so I’d like to introduce them here. If you’re like me and suffer from OCD when it comes to such things, it’s best to skip this particular paragraph. Redmi 5 has curved corners, but it’s not actually a display with curved corners. Xiaomi just curved the top glass cover, which actually cuts off the corners of the display, which looks very strange. I can’t explain this very well, but check out the image below.

Camera: Jack of All, Ace of None

The Redmi 5’s rear camera is a 12MP shooter with f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, HDR, and Xiaomi’s Beautify mode (I don’t see the need for it, but hey, it’s a feature). To be honest, the Redmi 5’s rear camera is actually an excellent shooting device. In most situations, the camera takes decent photos. There’s plenty of detail, generally good color reproduction, and decent sharpness. Additionally, I noticed that autofocus was very fast and there was no visible shutter lag in the camera app. Well done!

The front camera of this device is a 5MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture. I don’t know why the aperture of the front camera is wider than the rear camera, but it is so that you can take better selfies. There’s a Beautify mode here as well, which makes a lot of sense for a front camera that’s primarily used for taking selfies.

One place where the Redmi 5 camera struggles is in low light. This is to be expected considering the aperture is narrow at f/2.2 and there is no stabilization of any kind. I’m not blaming the lack of OIS.

At this price, if Xiaomi had included OIS in the phone, it would have been nothing short of a miracle. Low-light images may not be as good as you’d expect, but there are flashes on both sides of the phone, which definitely helps.

Performance: unexpectedly good

The Redmi 5 is powered by a Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor and uses a version with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. I was skeptical about the performance at first, but the Snapdragon 450 doesn’t disappoint. It uses the same Cortex A53 core found inside the Snapdragon 625 (the one Xiaomi uses in the Redmi Note 5), is built on the same 14nm process as the SD625, and is powered by the same Adreno 506 GPU.

The Redmi 5 handles daily tasks effortlessly and is also very good at multitasking, but only up to 3GB of RAM. I’m not sure if the 2GB RAM version is as good at multitasking as the version we have. MIUI 9 is unfriendly and I don’t recommend the 2GB version anyway.

Where this phone really surprised me is in the gaming area. I started with Asphalt 8. Although this is an old game, it’s completely excellent in terms of graphics. Since my Redmi 5 wasn’t showing any signs of being stressed anymore, I switched to PUBG Mobile. The app detected the low settings as the default, but the game looks nice enough and works like a charm, other than the foliage and environments not being as detailed. While playing PUBG on Redmi 5, I didn’t notice any lag (I died at rank 4, but it played very well…but that’s another story).

Modern Combat 5 was a little stressful on my phone, but not so much that I noticed any lag that made it unplayable. However, in PUBG Mobile the phone heated up very slightly, in Asfalt 8 it was almost negligible, and in Modern Combat 5 it got quite hot, so I could tell it was under stress. It got uncomfortable after about 30 minutes of playing the game, but it’s truly amazing how well the Snapdragon 450 handles graphics-intensive tasks.

User experience: MIUI 9 is still great

When it comes to the overall experience, I don’t have much to complain about with the Redmi 5. Xiaomi has found the sweet spot with the 3GB/32GB version of the phone. It comes with MIUI 9, so it has all the great features that Xiaomi’s custom Android flavor brings, and with 3 gigs of RAM, MIUI 9 runs perfectly fine.

The fingerprint scanner works very well. It’s so fast that the time difference between touching your finger on the scanner and unlocking your phone is almost negligible. This is something I’ve become very particular about since using the OnePlus 5, and the Redmi 5 comes very close to that incredible unlock speed.

Battery: Enough

The Redmi 5 is equipped with a 3,300 mAh non-removable battery that Xiaomi claims is a “full-day battery”. That’s a contentious claim. In my personal usage, which involves a crazy amount of gaming, plus lots of browsing on Twitter and Reddit, I was able to last a full day on the Redmi 5 with a little effort. However, in typical use cases for most users, the Redmi 5 will easily last a day with moderate usage.

Xiaomi has dropped a whopping 800mAh on the Redmi 5 compared to the Redmi 4, and the company has done a great job of improving power efficiency using the Snapdragon 450 with 14nm architecture. Redmi 5 doesn’t miss out on the additional 800mAh. That’s saying something.

connectivity

In terms of connectivity, Redmi 5 features a 3-choose-2 hybrid SIM slot that can accommodate either Nano SIM and Micro SIM or Micro SIM + Micro SD card. This phone supports SD cards with a capacity of up to 128 GB, which is definitely quite a lot of storage.

The phone also supports WiFi b/g/n networks, but not the new “ac” standard. However, being an affordable smartphone, I didn’t expect 802.11 ac support. The phone also comes with Bluetooth 4.2, which allows you to connect Bluetooth devices and accessories.

Advantages and disadvantages

It’s clear that there are two sides to this proverbial (and phone-shaped) coin. While Redmi 5 has some great things, it also has some drawbacks.

Strong Points:

• Bezel-less design
• No notch
• selfie flash
• great display
• Above-the-line performance
• Snapdragon 450 works amazingly well
• decent battery life

Cons:

• No USB-C
• There is still a lot of room for improvement in low light performance
• Does not support fast charging
• No Bluetooth 5.0

Conclusion: Surprisingly good for the price

The Redmi 5 is in a price range where people usually expect a regular smartphone that can handle basic tasks as well as some somewhat resource-demanding features. But this phone performs like a beast, all things considered. We can safely say that the Redmi 5 is very close to the performance of a mid-range smartphone at a price that is affordable to a large portion of the Indian population.

If you’re looking to buy a phone under 9,000 yen, the Redmi 5 is the best phone you can get and we’d recommend it right away. However, if you have an extra ₹1000 in your budget, we recommend you buy the 3GB/32GB version of Redmi Note 5 instead. Get a better processor, bigger display, and more battery.

Buy Redmi 5 from Amazon (starting from ₹7,999)