Some people don’t need the latest Snapdragon processor or a curved display. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A is a good option for those people. This 5″ smartphone offers everything a basic user needs. It has 16GB of storage but that can be extended by a 128GB Micro-SD card! With the 2GB internal RAM you can use it for the basic tasks, but don’t expect too much.

Introduction & Specifications

This Xiaomi smartphone is a real budget phone. You are not able to play games on it, but if you just want to browse the internet and use WhatsApp and Instagram, this smartphone is all you need. For basic users, this is the smartphone to get and don’t over pay for performance you don’t need.

Specifications
Brand:	Xiaomi
Model:	Redmi 5A
CPU:	Qualcaomm Snapdragon 425
Cores:	1.4GHz, Quad Core
Screen Resolution:	1280 x 720 (HD 720)
Screen Size:	5.0 Inch
Battery Capacity (mAh):	3000 mAh
Sim Card Slot:	Dual SIM, Dual Standby
Sim Card Type:	Nano Sim Card
RAM:	2GB RAM
ROM:	16GB ROM
External Memory:	TF card up to 128GB
Package Size:	16.00 x 8.00 x 5.00 cm / 6.3 x 3.15 x 1.97 inches
Package Weight:	0.2600 kg
Product Size:	14.04 x 7.01 x 0.84 cm / 5.53 x 2.76 x 0.33 inches
Product Weight:	0.1370 kg
Package Content:	Cell Phone 1, English Manual 1, Power Adapter 1, USB Cable 1

Unboxing

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A comes in a red box with the name of the product written on front. On the back we have some minor specifications, but nothing special. When we open the box, the first thing we see is the Xiaomi Redmi 5A itself. It looks good, but the plastic back is a bit of a downside, but considering the price, I can live with it. Furthermore we find a EU charger in the box, a sim tray ejector and a manual.

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Hardware & Design

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A is cheap and you can see that in the materials used. Like the back of the smartphone, is from plastic instead of metal. Which is fine, specially seen the price but it is something to be aware of before buying this smartphone. I like the screen size and it is very easy to hold. It is not too big or too small, Xiaomi did it just right. The buttons are easily clickable and they feel good. I expected them to feel a bit cheap and maybe fail once or twice, but I did not experience that what so ever.

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So we know that the materials used are very cheap, but that is totally fine. You don’t buy this phone expecting the newest and best features. This smartphone meets all my expectations and it does what I hoped it will do.

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Inside the Xiaomi Redmi 5A we find a Snarpdragon 425. This processor will give you 1.4GHz of speed, which is not the fastest, but seen the price this is very acceptable. This 8 core processor should give you the ability to use it for daily light tasks. Xiaomi packaged it all in a 5″ design, which a lot of people want. Let’s hope that this size will make it’s comeback and we are able to enjoy smaller phones again with great hardware.

SIM Cards/Micro SD Card

Also the Xiaomi Redmi 5A is able to have 2 nano SIM cards in the smartphone at the same time. Which is nothing special since a lot of smartphones have that recently, but for this budget smartphone it is worth it to mention.

We see the option of 1 SIM card and/of 1 Micro SD card or SIM card in a lot of phone. Luckily Xiaomi is doing it a little bit different and that means we can fit in 2 SIM card and 1 Micro SD card!

Infrared

This is somewhat old but I love it! I frequently use the infrared sensor on my Xiaomi Mi Note 3 to control my TV or air conditioning. It is not something I need on my phone, but it is fun to have on your smartphone.

Audio Port

The 3.5mm jack is going guys, we need to face it. For those we can not live without, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A still have a 3.5mm jack port! Listen to your music without a converter that you will lose for sure! Just plug and play, like we used to in the good old days.

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Benchmarks

We can not expect the Xiaomi Redmi 5A to perform like a flagship, but what can we expect? What I hope is that it will be consistent and give me enough speed and power to browse the internet, use it for WhatsApp or any other messaging service and stay on for at least a complete day. Let’s have a look if the Xiaomi Redmi 5A is able to meet my expectations!

AnTuTu

With the AntuTu test the Xiaomi Redmi 5A scores almost 44000 points! For the price and the hardware I think they really made a very good performing budget smartphone.

GeekBench

On single core the Xiaomi Redmi 5A scores 675 points and on multi core we get 1865 points. I don’t value the points that much. We only know the speeds when we start to play around with the smartphone. In this case the scores might seem low, but the Xiaomi Redmi 5A does not feel slow at all.

PC Mark

With the third and final test we get a score of 3361. Again this is not a super high score, it is on the lower end of the scores we’ve had so far.

Performance Daily Usage

In the performance with the daily tasks I must say that I like the Xiaomi Redmi 5A for it’s designed purpose. We can’t play PUBG on Medium graphic settings, but for browsing the internet or messaging, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A is perfectly fine. Switching between apps goes quickly and without any lag. Even the “Split Screen” mode is working just fine! Browsing in your Google Photo’s and use the browser at the same time? No problem!

I expected the Xiaomi Redmi 5A to work good using one app and I wasn’t expecting a smooth experience using it with 2 apps at the same time. Overall it performed better then expected.

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Battery

Xiaomi managed to get a 3000 mAh batter inside the Redmi 5A. Running MIUI 10 I hope they maximized the battery performance so we are able to use the Xiaomi Redmi 5A for at least 1 complete day. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A does not support Quick Charge, which is unfortunate, but not the worse. Charging the Xiaomi Redmi 5A is not taking super long. From 0% to 100% it took me around 90 to a 100 minutes, which is not short, but not super long either.

Battery BenchMark Test

Running the PC Mark battery test, we were able to get 8 hours and 16 minutes out of the battery. This is screen on, full brightness and constant processing of data. For me that is fine for the Xiaomi Redmi 5A. It is not the best, but it means that you can almost spend the complete day using the phone without running to the charger. I guess the Redmi 5A is targeted for elderly who will use their smartphone way less then the young

Battery Daily Usage

On a daily base the 3000mAh battery is doing a very good job. With normal usage, WhatsApp, Instagram & some mail, I was able to get 2 days of battery life out of the Xiaomi Redmi 5A. For me that is great, but imagine the battery life of someone who barely uses the smartphone and just periodically sends out a WhatsApp message to their grandchildren? I expect the battery life to last around 3-4 days! That is really good considering the hardware, price and usability of the Xiaomi Redmi 5A.

Camera

The Xiaomi Redmi 5A is a smartphone that is not a replacement for your photo camera. It can take photo’s but we can not expect the best quality from the 13MP rear camera and the 5MP front camera. If you want to shoot a video, you can do that in 1920 x 1080, which I think is really nice thinking of the price of Xiaomi Redmi 5A. Let’s have a look at some photo’s taken from the camera.

Front Camera (Selfie)

We take more selfies and that is why we need a good selfie camera. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A has a 5MP front camera. Let’s have a look at some of the photo’s taken with the Redmi 5A:

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Rear Camera

Xiaomi used a 13MP camera to take photo’s with the Redmi 5A. This is, of course, not the best camera around. But if we consider the price of the Xiaomi Redmi 5A, I can only say that the camera takes reasonable photo’s.

There are good details in the pictures taken, but there is too much light in there as well. I expect that the targeted people for this smartphone are young children or elderly people. In both cases the camera is good enough. For us heavy users and Instagram hero’s, this camera is just not enough and can not expect it for that price.

Have a look at some photo’s taken with the Xiaomi Redmi 5A:

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Conclusion

With the Xiaomi Redmi 5A we need to keep in mind that this is not the fastest smartphone and we can not play games on it. For it’s purpose this smartphone is performing really wel. You can multi task, be online for at least a day and have all the functions we expect on this budget smartphone.

The Snapdragon 425 is doing it’s job and with the 2GB of RAM you have enough for the light tasks. The 3000 mAh battery is enough to get you through the day and maybe even longer, depending on the usage. For me that is enough and I like the Xiaomi Redmi 5A for it’s designed purpose. Don’t expect too much are use it for heavy apps, but for the light works and the people who just want to use it for WhatsApp, this smartphone is perfect.