Even though the demand for the phone may be high due to the launch offer, we are more interested to know the actual performance of the phone. Can Xiaomi Redmi 5A really become the ‘country’s smartphone’? We got a chance to spend some time with this device. Know how our experience was with the phone when we used it for the first time.
The first feature of Redmi 5A that caught our attention is its lightness. Weighing in at 137 grams, the phone feels very light in the hands. The phone is made of plastic and a little flexibility can be seen in the body when twisted. We don’t think this is anything to worry about, but it would be nice to use a cover. The phone fits well in the hand and the credit for this goes to the 5 inch screen. Due to the curved edges, the thickness of the phone is 8.35 mm.
We received a gold unit for testing, but Xiaomi has also listed dark gray and rose gold color variants. The Gold variant is not yet listed on Xiaomi’s store page and it may be introduced later. There is a plastic finish on the rear and it cannot be mistaken for metal. The gold variant has a white front while the gray variant looks sober with a black front. The interesting thing is that the box of Redmi 5A is of bright red color and there is a small Xiaomi logo in the corner. The company is emphasizing on making Redmi the primary brand.
The screen is quite crisp and has a resolution of 720×1280 pixels but the colors are not vivid. There is a lot of plastic on the top and bottom of the screen. Xiaomi has used non-backlit capacitive buttons for Android navigation which is not a good thing. But this is what is expected at this price. The power and volume buttons on the right side are easy to use. On the left side, there are two trays that can be used for two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. Xiaomi Redmi 5A has a micro-USB port at the bottom and an infrared ammeter at the bottom to control home appliances. The most special thing on the rear is the ‘Made in India’ text written on it. Apart from this, there is a camera and flash in the middle left corner on the rear of the phone while there is a large speaker grill at the bottom.
Redmi 5A runs on Xiaomi’s custom UI MIUI 9. Swiping right from the lockscreen provides quick access to the IR remote app, flashlight and Mi Home app to control Xiaomi home appliances.
MIUI feels good to run provided you like single-layer UI. You will find some additional animations in the list. But in the limited time we did not see any problem in using the phone. You get access to password-protect apps. Apart from this, you can also run two accounts of one app simultaneously. Xiaomi has also provided Amazon Shopping, WPS Office, UC News and Microsoft Office and Skype apps in the phone. Apart from this there is also Google Suite.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor. The phone will have the option of 2 GB RAM / 16 GB storage and 3 GB RAM / 32 GB storage. It is possible to expand the storage up to 128 GB via microSD card. The phone has a 13 megapixel rear camera, but the battery capacity is 3000 mAh so we will have to wait and see how it performs.
We’ll cover the camera and battery performance in detail in our detailed review. Stay connected with Gadgets 360 Hindi for all the information related to Redmi 5A.