At an event held in China, Xiaomi has announced the launch of the most awaited Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus smartphones. The new phones, that are an improvement over the predecessor Redmi 4 and Redmi 4 Plus are much awaited in the Indian market as well. Both the new smartphones have an 18:9 Aspect Ratio and both come in a similar design with a narrow bezel metallic uni-body with rounded corners. As this kind of design is usually seen in high end phones and Xiaomi has adopted it in its affordable smartphones along with good hardware, the new Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus looks all set to create a storm in the market.
Both the phones have two variants and will be available in Light Blue, Black, Gold and Rose Gold color options. The Redmi 5 comes in 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage and 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage variants which are priced at CNY 799 (approx. Rs. 7,800) and CNY 899 (approx. Rs. 8,800) respectively. While the Redmi 5 Plus comes in 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage and 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage variants which are priced at CNY 999 (approx. Rs. 9,700) and CNY 1,299 (approx. Rs. 12,700) respectively. The phones will go on sale from 12th December in China however, there is no details about their launch in India yet.
Xiaomi Redmi 5
Talking about the individual specifications, the Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch 2.5D curved screen with HD+ (720×1440 pixels) 18:9 aspect ratio display with 450 nits Brightness and 72% NTSC Color Gamut. It is powered by a 1.8 GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 450 processor paired with Adreno 506 GPU, 2 GB and 3 GB RAM as mentioned above. The Redmi 5 features a 12 MP camera on the rear with 1.25 micron pixels, f/2.2 aperture, PDAF and LED flash. It comes with a 5 MP front facing camera, accompanied by soft-light LED flash and Beautify 3.0.
The Redmi 5 is powered by a 3300 mAh battery, which is promised to deliver up to 12 days of standby time. It runs Android 7.1.2 Nougat based MIUI 9 out of the box. It gets a fingerprint scanner on the back and also includes an Infrared sensor. It measures 151.8 × 72.8 × 7.7mm and weighs 157 grams. Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS.
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus
Now coming to the premium version of the two, the Redmi 5 Plus has more of a similar hardware like the Redmi 5. The major difference among the two phones is the inclusion of a bigger 5.99-inches screen in the Redmi 5 Plus, which comes Full HD+ (1080 x 2160 pixels) 18:9 aspect ratio display with 450 nits Brightness and 84% NTSC Color Gamut. Also, the Redmi 5 Plus is powered by a more powerful 2.0 GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 625 chipset which is accompanied with Adreno 506 GPU. Due to the bigger size, the Redmi 5 Plus gets a bigger 4000 mAh battery.
The Redmi 5 Plus shares the same camera configuration with the Redmi 5 so it has a 12 MP rear camera with 1.25 micron pixels, f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, LED flash and a 5 MP selfie shooter with soft-light LED flash. It also runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat based MIUI 9 out of the box. It measures 158.5 x 75.45 x 8.05 mm and weighs 180 grams. The sensors and connectivity options remain the same like Redmi 5.