Redmi Note 5 Trailer

Redmi Note 5 Trailer

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro is available in four colours(Xiaomi)

By Abhishek, Stylzist21

Over the years, Xiaomi has emerged as a dominant force in the Indian smartphone market. It has even gone past Samsung in the last two quarters to become the top smartphone brand in India, according to recent IDC reports. A lot of credit for Xiaomi’s meteoric rise goes to the Redmi Note 4, which became the company’s top-selling phone in India.

This February, almost a year after Redmi Note 4 made its debut in India, Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro. The two smartphones are strategically targeted at the budget category, Rs 10,000-Rs 16,000, to be precise. And just like other Android phones in this bracket, Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro bring a combination of top-of-the-line specifications and aggressive pricing.

While Redmi Note 5 is your usual upgrade, Redmi Note 5 Pro is a far more intriguing smartphone. It packs the Snapdragon 636 processor with RAM variants up to 6GB, vindicating its Pro moniker. Aimed at power users, Snapdragon 636 processor is a top-of-the-line chipset under the Snapdragon 600-series and is 40% faster than the popular Snapdragon 630 SoC.

By the way, Redmi Note 5 Pro is also the first Xiaomi smartphone in the Redmi lineup to boast of 6GB RAM. Well, if well-optimised, 4GB RAM is sufficient to get your power use, but a little bit of RAM never hurts. But that’s a discussion for another time.

We have been using Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro as our primary smartphone for more than a week. Here are our key takeaways.

Design

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro is one of the first smartphones from the company in India to feature an 18:9 display, usually referred as full-screen phones or bezel-less phones. And just like other 18:9 phones out there, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro feels taller in shape.

Sporting a 5.99-inch front, the phone has a fair bit of bezels around the screen. Fortunately, it has mild curved corners that don’t dig deep into your palm. The right edge houses the volume and power/lock/unlock buttons whereas the left edge has the SIM and storage slot.