Xiaomi Redmi 5A

The leader of budget smartphones, Xiaomi has come out with Redmi 5A in an attempt to meet the growing expectations of the Indian population. It is a revision of Redmi 4A and comes at an unbelievable range starting from Rs. 6,419 for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage capacity variant. A range that will immediately steal the heart of the masses, Xiaomi hits the delicate balance between affordability and great features perfectly.

However, even though it comes with a powerful processor, exceptional battery life, and moderate cameras, it cannot be called a significant upgrade of Redmi 4A. Xiaomi seems to keep playing it safe with their newer models making them a bit redundant which is not an excellent choice for Mi phones, especially considering the ever-improving flagship phone market of today.

Appearance-wise, Redmi 5A seems hardly an upgrade to 4A. Just shrunk in size, it has all the similar features like the earpiece, light sensor, and a front camera. The smooth back and curved edges give it a comfortable grip. The speaker grille covers the lower end of the back, and fortunately, it has a tiny protrusion to prevent audio loss when it’s placed on its back.

Redmi 5A comes with a 5-inch HD IPS LCD with 720×1280 pixel resolution. It is similar to Redmi 4, but the latter has a sharper display. Colours are vibrant and the screen has good sunlight visibility. You also get night mode for a comfortable experience while reading documents or ebooks. The display brings in a whole new standard for ultra-budget phones.

For the price range, Redmi 5A comes loaded with an impressive Snapdragon 425. It is a low-end chipset but is excellent for entry-level phones like 5A. It got the benchmark scores of about 683 and 1,887 for single-core and multi-core which is an impressive achievement. Essential functions like calling, texting and minor web surfing would not struggle. Heavy gaming, however, will create a strain on the phone and result in significant frame drops. There is a noticeable lag if you are switching between apps, which can lead to the dreaded phone freeze.

The 13MP primary camera of Redmi 5A has gone through some upgrades, especially when it comes to the addition of the phase detection autofocus. The autofocus is fast to lock on objects in well-lit conditions and captures reasonably good images in daylight. However, the objects in the image may have a fuzzy border and textures are not properly reproduced. Distant-shots suffers more. There is a severe drop in the quality of images in low-light conditions, capturing fewer details and producing washed-out colours.

However, video recording has been boosted to 1080p that can be captured at 30fps. Considering the price range, this is a reasonably good camera even though it offers mediocre images. However, Redmi 5A stands out because most of the competing flagship cameras in this price range are of poor quality.

The 5MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture is decent, only if you have beautification turned on. Redmi 5A’s beautification is quite aggressive and will make you look artificial. Disable it, and you’ll find that the camera is pretty weak.

Xiaomi comes back with a battery that you can trust. Pitched as ‘desh ka smartphone’, the 3,000 mAh battery is pretty impressive, considering the heavy use it might go through. It passed the HD video loop test with flying colours, running for 11 hours and 9 minutes. Casual use can easily last it through the day with about the 20% remaining stripe chugging on.

At the price range, Redmi 5A is a great phone, but it does not seem like a significant upgrade of Redmi 4A. Redundant design and retaining similar components from its predecessor, Redmi 5A does not seem to stand out against its competitors. However, it is an affordable handset which balances both hardware and software within the given range quite impressively. It is a perfect phone for first-time Android users. But if you exceed your budget a little bit, the previous Redmi 4 is still a much better choice to go for.