Amidst phones that have patriotism in their names like Micromax’s Bharat series and Karbonn A40 Indian, Xiaomi has touted its Redmi 5A as ‘Desh ka Smartphone’. But what the company means by this title is not clear and it could just mean low price, that the phone is Made in India or that it promises great battery life. But the most important thing about this launch is that Xiaomi is offering a discount of Rs 1,000 on its lower-end model, which brings down the price of the Redmi 5A to Rs 4,999 for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant.
We are eager to know what exactly has changed in the new Redmi 5A and what benefits customers will get from the new phone. Let’s find out in our review.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A Look and Feel
If you have used an entry-level Android smartphone in the last year or two, there is not much to say about the looks of the Redmi 5A. It is made of plastic and the design is also typical. However, a slight metallic finish can be seen on the rear. Xiaomi says that the phone will be sold in dark grey, gold and rose gold colours. But only two options are listed for the first sale right now. Our gold review unit has a white front. And we think we would have liked the dark grey with a black front more.
The Redmi 5A has a 5-inch screen but there is a lot of space above and below the screen. The phone is easy to use with one hand. The grip is good despite the thickness of 8.35 mm and the phone weighs 137 grams. Compared to the Redmi 4A, the difference is very less. There is less than 1 mm difference in the length and width of both variants.
There are capacitive navigation buttons below the screen which are not backlit. But that is all you can expect at this price. As usual, Xiaomi has provided a status indicator below the home button which turns on only when the phone is charging, otherwise it seems to be completely missing.
The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone and there are two trays on the left side that can be used for two nano-SIM cards as well as a microSD card. There is an LED flash near the camera on the rear of the phone and the speaker grill of the phone is at the bottom of the rear. There is a micro-USB port on the bottom edge, but you will find a 3.5mm audio jack on the top. A special feature is the IR emitter on the top edge of the phone. This can be used to control home appliances.
In the box, you will get a micro-USB cable and charger but as usual, there is no headset. The special thing is that it seems that the company is focusing more on Redmi branding. There is Redmi branding on the front and back of the box while Xiaomi’s name and logo are written in small letters.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A specifications and software
It is a bit surprising that most of the specifications of Redmi 5A are similar to Redmi 4A. The phone has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor which runs at 1.4 GHz. The 5-inch screen comes with 720×1280 pixel resolution. The phone has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Apart from this, the phone has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM radio and GPS support. Apart from 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage, you get the option of 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. If we compare both the phones, there is nothing different.
The Redmi 5A has a 3000mAh battery which is less than the 3120mAh battery given in the Redmi 4A. The phone has a separate microSD card slot which is better than the hybrid dual-SIM slot given in the Redmi 4A. In the new phone, a nano SIM card can be used instead of a micro SIM card and the capacity of the microSD card has been increased from 128 GB to 256 GB. This is the only difference, some phones are better and some are worse.
Apart from the IR emitter, the phone doesn’t have any other special features. Instead of offering a device with features like a fingerprint reader, front flash, bigger battery, secondary rear camera or an 18:9 screen, Xiaomi has stuck to offering an all-rounder device at this price point.
But there are some new things when it comes to the software. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat based custom MIUI 9. It is a single layer UI with no way to enable an app drawer. And for a first time Android user, it is not bad. We noticed some unnecessary animations on the icons on the homescreen. Apart from this, there is also an option to choose a few themes. You can also download more themes from the Themes app. Along with this, wallpapers, fonts and ringtones can also be downloaded. All these seem to be free right now but Xiaomi may start charging for these downloads in the future.
If you want, you can bring any quick toggle to the notification center. For this, an option is given in the Settings app. For privacy, there is also an option to set a second space user profile, gesture shortcuts and do additional work through Android navigation buttons. The phone also has a dual app function through which you can run two accounts simultaneously for an app. App access can be restricted through app lock. The phone does not have a fingerprint sensor, so you will have to use the unlock pattern.
Xiaomi has pre-installed Microsoft Office apps like Skype Lite, Amazon Shopping, WPS Office and UC News on the phone. Other Xiaomi features on the phone include the Mi Apps app store, Mi Store for Xiaomi products, Mi Community forum app, Mi Drop (a clone of Apple AirDrop) and several custom apps to replace the default Android apps.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A Performance
As entry-level phones are on the rise, Xiaomi is able to strike a better balance between price and performance. The Redmi 5A is a capable device for everyday tasks like web browsing, social apps and messaging. We were also able to play graphics-intensive games on the phone, although the performance was not great. We encountered some lag when we ran heavy tests or played games. Everything else on the phone works fine, but the situation gets worse when the Second Space feature is enabled.
Talking about benchmarks, the device scored well. Our test unit had 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. This means that the variant with more RAM will definitely improve the performance of the phone.
The screen is quite sharp and even small text looks good. Viewing angles are good and the brightness is also sufficient for outdoor use. However, colours don’t pop and look a bit dull while watching videos and playing games. Although the speaker grille is spread across the rear panel, the sound actually comes out from only one spot. The audio on the phone is a bit weak and the sound distorts badly at high volumes.
Swiping right on the Redmi 5A’s lockscreen will take you to a menu with shortcuts to the Mi Remote app and Mi Home. The remote app is basic and will take you a while to get used to controlling home appliances. The phone has IR profiles for Indian TV, set-top box and AC brands as well as private-label store brands. Unlike some other low-cost phones, third-party apps can also use the IR emitter. The Mi Home app can be used to control popular air purifiers such as Xiaomi devices with Wi-Fi capability.
The Redmi 5A’s cameras are average, but once again, we need to balance our expectations from a low-cost phone. Photos don’t have a lot of detail. The edges of objects are often blurry and textures aren’t reproduced very well. We noticed that colours are very pale, and this is true even when viewing images on the phone’s screen. We managed to take some decent close-up shots, but distant shots aren’t great. Image quality deteriorates significantly at night, and we failed to capture anything that wasn’t artificially lit. The phone’s autofocus is fast during the day. Video recording is possible up to 1080p resolution, but we found the clips to look very artificial.
The phone’s front camera has beautification applied by default, and faces tend to look very artificial. The phone has a Pro Beauty mode and a Smart Beauty mode. The Pro mode gives you slim and skin sliders while the Smart mode tries to identify your age and gender. Disabling these makes it clear that the front camera is very weak.
The camera app is pretty basic and you have to double-tap to get to the menu in the default mode. But in some modes, you won’t get a menu.
Xiaomi has been very vocal about the battery life on the Redmi 5A, touting it as the ‘Desh ka Smartphone’. And we were pleased to see that the phone managed to last a full day with normal usage and still had 20 per cent battery left. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted an impressive 11 hours and 9 minutes.
Our verdict
Xiaomi has impressed us again with a low-cost device. However, the Redmi 5A doesn’t bring anything new or different from the Redmi 4A. If you manage to get the 2GB RAM/16GB storage variant for Rs 4,999 as part of the launch offer, you won’t regret it. And even with a regular retail price of Rs 5,999, you won’t find many options that can challenge this phone. This is a great phone for first-time smartphone users. The camera quality is a big drawback and if the camera is important to you, you will have to spend a little more.
The 32GB variant is priced at Rs 6,999 and this is a less attractive deal. There are many other options at this price and you can get more RAM and storage as well as a bigger screen and fingerprint sensor. It is worth noting that the Redmi 4 (Review) and Redmi Y1 Lite are already in this list. And instead, we would suggest waiting for the launch of the more powerful Redmi 5.
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