Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A : An affordable all-rounder phone

Xiaomi manufactures budget smartphones and sells them online via flash sales in India. Besides smartphones, the company is also into manufacturing of fitness trackers, TVs, air-purifiers and tablets. Its Note series has been quite popular owing to their aggressive pricing and great specifications. They keep on launching new and latest models with improvised features to strengthen their position in the budget market against the likes of Oppo and Vivo. Redmi Note 5A is the latest addition to the budget and pocket friendly Redmi Note series of the companyThis dual SIM device is the successor of popular Redmi Note 4 and comes with few changes in design so that it looks more impressive. The smartphone comes with a metal body featuring three colour variants, white, black, and gold. It is equipped with decent specifications like 5.5-inch display, great camera and robust configuration. It will be available in three variants- one base variant and two premium variants. The base variant will have 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, 3080 mAH battery whereas the higher variants will come in 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage and 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage options along with upgraded 16MP front selfie camera and fingerprint sensor. The base variant will not have fingerprint reader which is a great disadvantage. It has been already launched in China and will soon arrive in the Indian market as well.

Pros:

• 4G VoLTE enabled
• Sharp and crisp display
• Infra-red blaster and MicroSD card support
• Slim and light weight
• Decent battery life with quick charging
• 16MP front camera in higher variants
• Type-C USB port

Cons:

• Non removable battery
• Hybrid SIM slot which means that it can either take dual SIM at a time or a single SIM and microSD card. Both dual sim functionality and expandable storage cannot be used at the same time.
• No Optical Image Stabilisation
• It is not scratch and water resistant
• No NFC support

Build and Design :

Redmi Note 5A is 7.5-mm thin and weighs light at 150 grams and dimensions of 153 (H) x 76.2 (W) x 7.7 (T) mm. The device sports metallic unibody design with antenna bands at the back, single camera setup and capacitive navigation buttons in the front. The USB Type-C port and dual speaker grilles are situated at the bottom edge, and the 3.5mm audio jack is situated on the top edge. The premium variants have a fingerprint scanner situated at the back. It is available in three colour options- Rose gold, Platinum Silver and Champagne Gold.

Camera and Display :

For imaging department, the phone offers 13 Megapixel autofocus primary camera with CMOS image sensor, LED flash, PDAF and f/2.2 aperture which enables you to capture images and shooting videos in all types of light. The other camera features are face detection, HDR mode, geo-tagging, touch focus, digital zoom, video recording and real-time filters. For video calling and clicking selfies, the phone has 5 Megapixel front facing selfie camera. Its premium variants feature 16MP sensors with 76-degree wide angle lens, soft light flash, f/2.0 aperture and real-time beauty filters. With an upgraded front camera, this device will compete against the likes of Oppo and Vivo smartphones. The device features 5.5-inch HD display with 720 x 1280 pixel resolution and 267ppi pixel density which reproduces bright and vibrant colours, wider viewing angles and an enhanced visual experience at an affordable price. It can record the videos at the maximum resolution of 1080p and will not record slow motion videos. However, the screen is not protected by a Scratch Resistant display.

Performance and Storage :

Redmi Note 5A is equipped with 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset paired with 2GB RAM to ensure smooth working and effortless multitasking. The smartphone does gets hangup while playing heavy and intense games like NOVA or Asphalt so this phone is not suitable for avid mobile gamers. The device comes with 16GB internal memory which can be further expanded upto 128GB using microSD card (hybrid SIM tray) for storing data and apps. The major drawback is that you have to let go of the second Sim slot if you wish to expand the storage memory. Its premium variants with 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage and 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 chipset with octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at a frequency of 1.4GHz along with Adreno 505 GPU. Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor which is an upgraded, efficient and more powerful processor compared to the Snapdragon 626 chipset which was present in many mid-range smartphones of 2017. It is a dual SIM (Nano SIM + Nano SIM) Android smartphone and runs on the latest MIUI 9 version over Android v7.1.1 operating system out of the box. The device will soon recieve an Android 8.0 update. The latest MIUI 9 interface comes with new exciting features like the Energy saving mode which stops the applications running in the background when the battery is low and enables the users to set the password for their notes.

Battery and Connectivity :

The device is fuelled by a 3,080 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery which makes it run uninterrupted for about a day or even more on medium usage and provides approximately 35 hours of talk time and 11 days of standby time to the consumer. With this phone, the company has downgraded the battery capacity as its predecessor Redmi Note 4 had better battery backup with 3780 mAH battery. It is dual SIM device and the connectivity options includes 4G (supports Indian bands), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi direct, Bluetooth v4.2, Mobile Hotspot, GPS with A-GPS, Glonass, USB Type-C port, microUSB v2.0 port and FM Radio functionality. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A is the first Note series device to feature a USB Type-C port. Sensors on board include infrared, gyro, acceleration, distance, ambient light, and compass. Both the SIM card slots support 4G VoLTE connectivity option.

Why should you buy Redmi Note 5A ?

1. 16 Megapixel front camera with PDAF : Its higher variant sports 16MP front camera with 76-degree wide angle lens, soft light flash, f/2.0 aperture and real-time beauty filters to provide improved and enhanced selfie experience to the consumers
2. Quick Charging : The device comes with fast charging support which enables the user to charge the device from zero to 100% in very less time.
3. Powerful chipset : With a latest Snapdragon 425 processsor, it delivers great performance as compared to any other device in this price segment.

Why should you not buy Redmi Note 5A ?

1. Average Display : This 5.5-inch device comes with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and 267ppi pixel density, providing average viewing experience to the user. All the other similar priced phones offer higher 1080p resolution and around 400 ppi pixel density.
2. Lack of NFC support : NFC enables your device to communicate with other devices through various methods like file transfer, excahnging data, reading virtual business cards, making secure electronic payments etc. Almost all new phones launched these days have this feature.

Final Verdict :

Redmi Note series have revolutionized the Indian budget smartphone market. They are offering great devices in all price range. Redmi Note 5A is a great phablet in this price range. It comes with a powerful processor paired with ample RAM ensuring robust configuration and amazing performance. Both the cameras capture beautiful shots and videos. This phone with great features like fingerprint sensor, good cameras and at an affordable Redmi Note 5A price is a worthy buy.