It would surprise you that actually the world’s best selling Android smartphone is not from Samsung but Xiaomi. The phone we are talking about is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. We at Techjaja were lucky enough to land ourselves on the Note 5A Prime flavor and here are our first impressions, overall thoughts about the device but let’s call it a review to simplify for everyone.
In the box
The Redmi Note 5A Prime comes in a compact box with signature orange and white Xiaomi colours. Packaging is minimalistic and all it carries is the phone , travel adaptor, USB cable, SIM card plucker and some paperwork. That’s all you once you strike the box open.
Design and Hardware
We had the gold version of the Note 5A but we must admit that the phone is lightweight, the precise grams might have skipped our units but Xiaomi puts it at 153g.
Coming from a hefty phablet made me feel shy calling this any heavier or even half the weight of my 5.9” phablet.
Nonetheless, its compact , easy to carry around with stylish gold accents, those borrowed chrome antenna lines akin to the iPhone 6 only that these don’t shout as they maintain a thin profile but yes, they’re still there and very very visible to anyone that dares to stare at your Note 5A Prime.
Beneath them is the fingerprint sensor placed where it should be. The back we mean, for your index finger to reach. Still at the back, there lies the 13MP primary camera accompanied by LED flash and Xiaomi insignia at the bottom half of the phone.
Flipping it over to the front exposes you to an array of sensors that is the selfie 16MP selfie camera, proximity sensors et cetera and stereo speaker. Then the 5.5” 720p screen and the usual combination of Android button at the chin bezel. It’s safe to say that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A Prime front isn’t so 2018 given other phones it’s competing with at this level have at least adopted the now profound 18:9 aspect ratio that shrinks the bezels while the Note 5A maintains the old school 16:9.
However, the Note 5A Prime feels compact in the hands but still will necessitates 2 handed use owing to its massive 5.5” display .
The speaker grills are found at the very bottom with a micro USB charger while the power and volume rockers are on the right grill, dual Nano SIM card and microSD expansion slots are on the left..
The 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top together an an IR blaster since the Note 5A incorporates the Mi Remote as we shall soon find out.
The Note 5A has a plastic feel to it judging by the plastic unibody and overall it can explain the lightness it’s flaunts around.
Then software
Hardware aside, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A Prime runs on Xiaomis custom MIUI 9.1.1.0 atop Google’s Android 7.1 Nougat. The MIUI is a cosmetic makeover of the Nougat Android flavor and you could mistake it for not running Android unless you rush into the settings and you’re told so. But it’s very customisable as was the case with the Redmi Note 3, which we reviewed here.
It carries light bloatware (Hey Samsung) too on top of Google suite of apps. Microsoft office apps are there too,WSP office and Xiaomi’s own MIUI Forum, Mi Remote and Mi Drop for sharing files.
These only take a fraction of the alloted 32GB of ROM found on the Note 5A and it runs smooth once paired with the 3GB of RAM it carries and the Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 processor.
Now that we’ve given you the bare bones of the Note 5A, how about other purchase considerations like cameras,battery and any other business that comes around .
The Camera
Jumping straight to the Camera, the primary shooter is 13MP with an f/2.2 aperture but very bright and similarly the snaps it takes are as bright. It has an easy to use camera interface that anyone can shoot with it minus visiting the camera manual. Similarly the selfie shooter is also bright and both can shoot 1080p video but the primary shoots at 30 frames per second.
Battery
The Xiaomi Note 5A Prime has a 3080 mAh battery that when I forgot about it for 3 days at 100% charge, by the time I reached out for it, it still had a staggering 90% on. The situation was a lot different when heavy usage kicked in, which necessitated charging the phone at least once every day to cope with battery drainage but as we know, battery performance is dependent on ones usage.
The Xiaomi supports 4G and works on the likes of MTN and Airtel plus other connectivity options like WiFi, Bluetooth etc.
Any other business
The Note 5A Prime comes with a headphone jack, has inbuilt background and battery management apps, carries with it heavy customisable options among others.
