Xiaomi Redmi Note 5

The Redmi Note 5 seems to be the perfect example of "don't fix it, if it ain't broke" mantra. While the smartphone joins the modern trend of bezel-free displays, its spec sheet is largely identical to its predecessor. That means that you get the same innards, a similar camera setup and similar battery capacity. In a spec-obsessed market like India, that's certainly a risky strategy. But based on our experience with the smartphone for about a week, we believe it has paid off. Here's why we think so.

Xiaomi was the first mainstream brand to make bezel-less displays a reality with the Mi Mix, and now it's bringing them to the budget category. Having said that, the company hasn't played around with the design much. The Redmi Note 5 just seems to be an elongated Redmi Note 3 or Redmi Note 4 with lower width. The Note 5 also is slimmer at 8.1mm as compared to 8.5mm waist of its predecessor. And while it seems to have added 15g weight to tip the scales at 180g, the weight has been well-distributed across the body.

While Android has reached version 8, Xiaomi's proprietary skin MIUI continues to be a step ahead (quite literally) at v9. However, it runs atop the previous edition of Android, i.e. 7.1 Nougat. MIUI is one of the most refined Android-based platforms out there, offering a slew of features on top of Google's OS, while keeping the interface clutter-free. You get a unified homescreen and app drawer, and customised icons. The latest version of MIUI brings a lot of changes behind-the-scenes, such as better app launch times, dynamic resource allocation, cache management, etc. And it totally lives up to its lightning fast tagline. It surely seems to be smoother and more refined than the previous iterations of Xiaomi's proprietary UI. Earlier available for the Mi Max 2 (review), the newest version of MIUI also offers split-screen functionality, allowing you to open two apps together in perfect squares, thanks to 18:9 aspect ratio. 

While the Redmi Note 4 offered a 13MP camera, its successor sports a 12MP camera. However, it has bigger pixels (1.25μm vs 1.12μm), but a smaller aperture of f/2.2 (as compared f/2.0 aperture). It's supplemented by a dual-tone LED flash to assist in low-light conditions. At the front, the phone features an 8MP selfie camera. The camera interface is simple, with just the basic options up front, and the remaining modes hidden under options. These include usual modes such as panorama and manual (you can only tweak ISO and exposure, however), as well as scene detection, tilt-shift, etc.

As aforementioned, the internals of the Redmi Note 5 are exactly same as its previous avatar. While the Snapdragon 625 is a reliable chipset which balances performance and battery efficiency quite well, it's more than a year old and Qualcomm's SD6xx series has already seen newer additions such as the SD630, SD6363 and SD660. As a matter of fact, the Note 5's own sibling, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro draws power from Snapdragon 636 chipset. Having said that, during our use, the smartphone performed quite well, even while playing high-end games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Hitman Sniper. The graphics were smooth and there were no frame drops either, though we did notice slight jitter here and there while racing in Asphalt 8. The good thing however, is the fact that the device maintains its cool even after long sessions of gaming, and using intensive tasks such as GPS.