Review Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus – the best budget smartphone beginning of 2018

You probably noticed that last year in the design of mobile devices there was a real revolution. In place of the traditional format came cinematic 18: 9 with narrow frames and spectacular fillets in the corners of the display.

Almost all large and small companies have already released smartphones, designed for new patterns. Did not stay aside and Xiaomi. Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus came out a bit later than the competition, but this delay was only beneficial for them. The models were so successful that they literally became one of the most popular in their price segment.

In this review, we carefully examined the characteristics and properties of the smartphone Redmi 5 Plus, to give you an answer to a simple question: is it really that good or is it simply the magic of the brand?

Specifications

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, used in Redmi 5 Plus, is one of the most popular and fervently loved by users of chips. It contains a processor with eight cores Cortex-A53, which operate at a maximum clock speed of up to 2 GHz, which is sufficient for most mobile tasks.

The chip is built on the basis of a 14-nanometer process, which ensures excellent energy efficiency of the devices using it. Given this circumstance, as well as the fact that the Redmi 5 Plus uses a battery of 4,000 mAh, we can say that the owners of this smartphone will not have problems with autonomy.

There are no complaints about the memory subsystem either. Of course, 3 or 4 GB of RAM is difficult for anyone to surprise, but this is enough for most users. The new version of MIUI has made a big step forward in terms of optimizing the consumption of system resources, so everything works smoothly and quickly.

Package Contents and Appearance

The phone comes in a standard for this series devices a small red box. The packaging is simple, but it looks bright and stylish.

The Redmi 5 Plus package includes a smartphone, a charger, a connecting cable and a silicone protective case. For him the manufacturer is a special thank you – additional protection from scratches will never interfere. He, by the way, of good quality and sits on the phone like a glove.

The back cover of the smartphone is made of metal alloy, with the exception of plastic inserts from the top and bottom. Their color is slightly different from the color of the main part of the rear surface, which may not like it. But this feature is often found in inexpensive smartphones, including the company Xiaomi, so it remains with her just to accept.

The layout of the controls is traditional: on the right side there is a power button and a volume rocker, on the opposite side there is a tray for two SIM cards, instead of one of which you can insert a memory card. On the lower edge there is a connector for microUSB-cable connection, and to the left and right of it there are microphone and external speaker holes.

But the most notable part of the Redmi 5 Plus is the screen. It has a size of 5.99 inches at a resolution of 2 160 × 1,080 pixels and a ratio of 18: 9. Although the display occupies most of the front surface of the smartphone, it can not be called frameless. The framework is also quite tangible: on the sides about 3 mm, and from above and below their thickness exceeds a centimeter. Nevertheless, this not only does not spoil the appearance of the device, but also makes its use much more convenient, since it is impossible to accidentally click anything on the screen.

For the appearance of Redmi 5 Plus, you can safely put the highest score – the device in any color looks excellent. The new widescreen design looks fresh and attractive, the build quality also does not cause any complaints.

Screen and sound

Although the Redmi 5 Plus is positioned as a fairly budgetary device, when you look at the screen this raises doubts. A bright quality display smartphone with a resolution of 2 160 × 1 080 pixels would look quite appropriate and in much more expensive devices.

The big diagonal did not affect the usability – thanks to the elongated form, the phone is perfectly in the hand. Screen without errors displays the entire color scale, the picture looks contrasting and saturated. For fans of fine settings in MIUI, you can change some of the image settings.

The brightness of the screen varies widely, but in the sun its maximum value seemed to us insufficient for comfortable work. But lovers of night reading can be completely calm for their eyes. The minimum level of brightness in combination with a special reading mode allows you to flip through the pages for several hours.

As for the sound, the Redmi 5 Plus is one of the few smartphones that I do not want to scold about this. Yes, there are claims to the quality of external dynamics, yes, audiophiles can twist their lips and talk about the depth of the bass and the clarity of the high frequencies, but against the background of competitors in this price category this gadget sounds good. Before the real maestro is still not reaching, but irritation when listening to no longer causes.

Performance

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is built on the same platform as the recently visited Mi A1, so the test results are almost identical. Interestingly, even the fact that one of the devices is running pure Android, and the other is installed MIUI, did not have much influence on the results.

We can say with confidence that the owners of this smartphone will not experience any performance problems. Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 easily copes with such tasks as surfing the web, working with images, watching movies, communicating in instant messengers. It’s hard for us to imagine a situation in which the Redmi 5 Plus might have stalled or slowed down.

3 or 4 GB of RAM is enough for smooth operation of the operating system and quick switching between previously running applications. Built-in video accelerator allows you to entertain not only simple kazualks or puzzles, but also quite adult 3D-projects. For example, everyone’s favorite “tanks” on average settings work without problems.

Autonomy

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus smartphone has a battery of 4000 mAh. Someone can say that this is not so much, and pull out of his pocket, “Chinese” with a battery of five or even six thousand.

However, the problem is that not always in Chinese smartphones, the claimed capacity corresponds to the actual capacity. If, of course, this is not the Xiaomi product, which does not go down to such tricks. So the real 4 000 mAh is preferable to the competitors’ figures.

In the battery test PC Mark Battery, which measures the operating time of the device during normal user tasks, the Redmi 5 Plus lasted 12 hours and 40 minutes. This is a decent result, saying that in real life you will recharge the device in about a day.

Camera

Before talking about the camera, you need to look again at the name of the smartphone. All right, Redmi is a line of budget devices that are designed for a wide range of users. Therefore, it is foolish to require smartphones of the same quality of photographs, which are issued by medium-budget or flagship models.

Nevertheless, we will not scold pictures of Redmi 5 Plus. The main camera of the device copes well with its work during the daytime. The quality of night shots is somewhat worse, but not enough to discourage the experiment. Sometimes, when the stars in the sky line up in the right combination, and the hand of the photographer can rely on something solid, you can get interesting photos.

Do not forget that Redmi 5 Plus, like most Xiaomi smartphones, instantly got a whole army of users, who immediately began to look for ways to improve the gadget. Therefore, already now there are active works on screwing the Camera2 API to the phone, porting third-party cameras and other improvements to the standard software. So there is hope that in the future the quality of the images can be improved.

Software

The Redmi 5 Plus smartphone runs under the new version of MIUI 9, which is based on Android 7.1.2. We were sent for review Chinese version of the device, which had only two languages ​​(Chinese and English), as well as a large number of specific software designed exclusively for the local market.

However, after a while, a global version of the firmware was released, to which the phone was safely reflashed. It already has other languages ​​and a Google Play store, so you can easily install all your favorite applications and services.

Now Redmi 5 Plus should initially be sold with this firmware, so most of our readers with similar problems will not encounter. Nevertheless, if you buy a smartphone in Chinese online stores, pay attention to this aspect.

As for MIUI, its fresh version has become even more convenient and beautiful. The shell works quickly and smoothly, applications are launched instantly, the battery charge is not consumed excessively – it’s a pleasure. MIUI fans will be happy, and fans of the usual Android will be able to install one of the alternative firmware, which probably will soon appear.

Outcomes

At the end of the review, we usually list the strengths and weaknesses of the device so that readers can draw a final conclusion about the advisability of buying it. In the case of Redmi 5 Plus, making it easier than ever – this model has no shortcomings.

Budget models of Xiaomi are invariably very popular due to the excellent price-quality ratio. Customers like that for relatively little money they get a reliable device with good performance and a beautiful operating system that has been maintained for several years. All this fully applies to the new Redmi 5 Plus. In addition, it has a large screen and a spectacular modern design.

More for this money is hard to even imagine, so we recommend Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus to buy. The main question in this case is what color and how much memory? Recall that this smartphone is available in golden, pink-gold, blue and black colors, and the price starts from 10,478 rubles for the younger version and reaches 12,807 rubles for a model with an increased memory capacity.

The author thanks the GearBest store for the device provided for testing.