The compact powerhouse that would rule the mid-range mobile segment has landed in India. Chinese mobile vendor Xiaomi has launched the next iteration of Redmi series, the Redmi 5 in India. Dubbed as ‘compact powerhouse’, this android smartphone excels in design, performance and functionality.
Xiaomi Redmi 5 will come in three distinct variants. The base model which packs 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage is priced at Rs 7,999. The mid model with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM will retail for Rs 8,999. Whereas, the top-end model of Redmi 5 with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM is priced at Rs 10,999.
All three models will be available to purchase exclusively through Amazon India, Mi official store, Mi home and offline partner stores. The first sale for the mobiles will start at sharp 12 PM on 20th March 2018. For colour choices, you get to choose from Gold, Lake Blue, Black and Rose Gold. Also, the company will be bundling a Clear Soft case for free of cost with the mobile.
Design and Performance
From top to bottom, Redmi 5 has a similar look of the recently launched Redmi Note 5 series, except the smaller display it boasts. The mobile sports a unibody metal structure with rounded corner design, which offers better hand grip and feels. According to the company, Redmi 5 has a reinforced corner design which protects the display when you accidentally drop the phone and the corner hits the ground.
Redmi 5 flaunts a 5.7-inch HD+ (1440 x 720 pixels) LCD display with a 18:9 screen aspect ratio. That’s almost cover the front of the phone leaving too small bezels on the sides. The display also supports Night display mode and Reading mode, which essentially reduces blue light emission.
Powering the Xiaomi Redmi 5 is the 14nm 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 506 GPU. The mobile comes with multiple storages and RAM variants. This includes the 2GB of RAM variant offering 16GB of storage, 3GB RAM variant which comes with 32GB of storage and 4GB RAM variant which packs 64GB of storage.
The phone comes with Hybrid SIM slot, thus allowing you to have either two SIMs or one SIM with microSD card to expand the storage. The mobile runs on Android Nougat based MIUI 9 out of the box.
Camera and Connectivity
On the photography front, the Redmi 5 sports a 12-megapixel rear camera featuring f/2.2 aperture, PDAF and single LED flash support. This camera can also shoot 1080p videos at 30 frames per second. For selfie addicts, the mobile comes with a 5-megapixel front camera. It features LED selfie-light that helps you to shoot in low light conditions. In addition, the Beautify 3.0 mode can automatically enhance facial features for better portraits selfies.
Coming to connectivity, Xiaomi Redmi 5 comes with 4G LTE network that works with every 4G band in India. The phone also supports 4G VoLTE allowing you to make HD voice calls. Other connectivity options include 3G and 2G network support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 and IR Blaster.
Since we have the full-screen design, the fingerprint scanner has been now moved to the back of the device below the camera module. Finally, fuelling the device is a 3300mAh battery which can offer a standby time of 17 days.