While the phone might be in high demand due to the launch offers, we are more interested in knowing the actual performance of the phone. Can the Xiaomi Redmi 5A really become the ‘Desh ka Smartphone’? We got a chance to spend some time with the device. Let’s find out how our experience was with the phone when we used it for the first time.
The first feature of the Redmi 5A that caught our attention is its lightness. Weighing 137 grams, the phone feels extremely light in the hands. The phone is made of plastic and a little bit of flex can be seen in the body when twisted. We don’t think this is anything to worry about, but it would be a good idea to use a cover. The phone fits well in the hand and this is thanks to its 5-inch screen. The thickness of the phone is 8.35 mm due to the curved edges.
We got a gold unit for testing, but Xiaomi has also listed dark grey and rose gold colour variants. The gold variant is not listed on Xiaomi’s store page yet and might be introduced later. The rear has a plastic finish and can’t be mistaken for metal. The gold variant has a white front while the grey variant looks sober with a black front. Interestingly, the Redmi 5A box is bright red in colour and has a small Xiaomi logo in the corner. The company is pushing to make Redmi the primary brand.
The screen is quite crisp and has a resolution of 720×1280 pixels but the colours are not vivid. There is a lot of plastic at the top and bottom of the screen. Xiaomi has used non-backlit capacitive buttons for Android navigation which is not good. But that is expected at this price. The power and volume buttons on the right are easy to use. On the left, there are two trays which can be used for two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A has a micro-USB port at the bottom and an infrared emitter at the bottom to control household appliances. The most important thing on the rear is the ‘Made in India’ text written on it. Apart from this, there is a camera and flash in the center left corner on the rear while a large speaker grill is given at the bottom.
The Redmi 5A runs on Xiaomi’s custom UI MIUI 9. Swiping right from the lockscreen gives one quick access to the IR remote app, flashlight, and the Mi Home app to control Xiaomi home appliances.
MIUI feels good to use provided you like single-layer UI. You will find some extra animations in the list. But in the limited time we did not see any problem in using the phone. You get the facility of password-protected 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 have to wait to see what kind of performance it gives.
We will talk about the camera and battery performance in detail in our detailed review. Stay tuned to Gadgets 360 Hindi for all the information related to Redmi 5A.