How Xiaomi is going for the kill with Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro
In a little under four years, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has become a major player in the country's fast-expanding smartphone market. Fuelled by the staggering growth in 2017 – the company almost tripled its shipments year-on-year and doubled quarter-on-quarter in the last quarter of the year – Xiaomi recently became the largest smartphone maker in the country.
Much of it was down to the efforts of the Redmi Note 4 which drove the company's sales sky high. And understandably so. The device came with above par specs – Snapdragon 625 SoC, which, to be honest, was a slight downgrade on the 650 SoC found in the Note 3, a mammoth 4,100mAh battery to power the 5.5-inch 2.5D curved glass Full HD display on the phone – all at a price of Rs 9,999-11,999 for the two 3/4GB RAM variants.
However, as the year went by, the charm of the Note 4 started to wane. It was clear Xiaomi was in the need for a new budget segment warrior. And on February 14, it did that, and then some more.
At a launch event in Delhi, the smartphone maker announced not just the Redmi Note 5, but also a more powerful variant of the new phone, Redmi Note 5 Pro. Though both the devices share design scheme and display, it's the latter that is truly an upgrade on the Redmi Note 4. But more on that later. For now, let's take a look at the two phones.
Redmi Note 5
To be honest, the Redmi Note 5 is only an upgrade over its predecessor in letter but not in spirit. The device brings to the table a new 5.99-inch display and slight improvements to the camera, but in terms of internals, it mirrors the Redmi Note 4's spec sheet. Powered by a generation old Snapdragon 625 SoC – with octa-core Cortex-A53 2.0GHz clocked CPU core and Adreno 506 GPU – the Redmi Note 5 with its 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB RAM and storage variants promises similar performance to its predecessor from 2017.
The new phone features 12-megapixel rear camera – down from 13-megapixel in the Note 4 – a 5-megapixel front camera along with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. The phone's battery pack also goes down a 100mAh from the Note 4's 4100mAh battery pack. The phone also comes with the same price tag that the Redmi Note 4 sported at its launch.
Redmi Note 5 Pro
The beefed-up version from this year's Note lineup is slightly costlier than what you'd expect from a budget phone from the series. However, the device more than makes up for the bump in price with its improved internals. As we've said above, the Pro version of the Redmi Note 5 is the true successor of last year's phone, and with its powerful Snapdragon 636, by far the most powerful and energy-efficient phone from the Redmi Note lineup.
However, it's not just the raw power provided by the onboard SoC and bumped up RAM that makes it the phone to own.
Compared to the Redmi Note 5, the device also has a more appealing design and better camera modules.
The device brings with it a dual camera setup at the back, placed vertically like on the iPhone X. The setup comprises a 12-megapixel primary sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 5-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The camera module supports electronic image stabilisation, phase detection autofocus.
Xiaomi also claims that this depth-sensing dual camera setup also makes use of machine learning for greatly improving picture quality.
On the front, Xiaomi has equipped the device with a 20-megapixel selfie camera with a Sony IMX376 sensor, LED selfie light and Beautify 4.0, especially tuned for the Indian market. Another point of difference between the Pro and normal version of the Note 5 is the Face Unlock capabilities.
The feature will be activated later in March via an OTA update, but expect it to be highly popular when it does as the company claims face recognition works faster than the phone's fingerprint reader.
Xiaomi going for the kill
Looking at the two phones – the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 pro – one thing is crystal clear, Xiaomi is going for the kill. With the budget segment becoming increasingly crowded with the introduction of new and capable phones, Xiaomi's decision to bring out a Pro along with a normal version of the phone could turn out to be a masterstroke that could very well see it rounding up the complete budget segment.
In light of the Note 5 Pro, the Redmi Note 5, on paper, may look like a redundancy that could have been done away with. However, the phone — with its really aggressive price tag that dips just below the Rs 10,000 mark for the 3GB RAM variant — could very well see itself becoming a hit with users looking for a capable and good-looking alternative to the likes of the Honor 9 Lite, which had started taking away the Note lineup's share in the crucial segment.
As for those customers looking for more in terms of performance and optics, the Note 5 Pro may well be the answer. Apart from the powerful and energy efficient processor, the phone also comes with faster LPDDR4 RAM and a more than capable dual camera setup.
Though initially the LPDDR4 6GB variant may steal the headlines, in the long run it will be the 4GB LPDDR4 RAM variant that will steal the show in the market. The former sports a price tag of Rs 16,999, while the latter comes at a much more attractive price of Rs 13,999.
Compared to the likes of the Mi A1 and Moto G5s Plus, the Redmi Note 5 Pro thus not only provides more in terms of power and looks but with the 4GB variant would do so by being slightly easier on the pocket.
Overall, the phone — with its price and specs — strikes a delicate balance that will impress with not just price but power too.