Xiaomi Redmi 5A review

An evolutionary update over the Redmi 4A

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Battery life

  • Impressive one day battery life with average usage
  • You won’t have to recharge your phone every night, unless using it aggressively

It comes with a non removable battery

It comes with a non removable battery

It has a 3,000mAh battery, which lasts for the whole day with more than 20% of charge left at the end of the day, on moderate usage. The phone lasted for 10 hours and 27 minutes during our video loop test with brightness at full. 

However, if battery is your primary concern then you can always look at the Redmi 4, which also brings better hardware for just Rs 1,000 over the price of the Redmi 5A. The Redmi 5A is dependable, but the Redmi 4 is better. 

25 minutes of web browsing on WiFi consumes 4% of battery and you lose the same amount of battery after 20 minutes playing Dead Trigger 2.

It took around 90 minutes to charge the phone from 0-90 percent.

Camera

  • 13MP sensor has an average overall performance
  • It can take decent images in good light, but suffers when it comes to indoor conditions

The autofocus and image processing is snappy

The autofocus and image processing is snappy

There's a 13-megapixel setup on the rear of the Redmi 5A with f/2.2 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus and LED flash. PDAF is one of the upgrades in the camera department over its predecessor. It can shoot full HD (1080p) videos at 30fps. There's a 5-megapixel sensor on the front with f/2.0 aperture for selfies and video calls.

Moving on, the Redmi 5A comes with a 5-megapixel camera with f/2.0 wide aperture.

After testing the camera extensively, we have mixed feelings about it. It is obviously not an extraordinary camera, and we didn't even expect it to be either. 

Under this budget, the camera on Redmi 5A is good enough to capture decent daylight shots, but it will let you down in indoor shots. While photos lack details, it still manages to capture well defined colours. 

You can check out the colours and details in the shots below to get an idea.

The key reason why pictures look good though is that competition in this range is anyway poor. It's hard to find a good camera and the Redmi 5A does a fair job. In fact, in my personal opinion a little more than just 'fair'. 

The front camera is just average to get decent daylight shots, but you need to keep your hand steady for that. By decent we mean this camera is worthy for a Rs 6,000 phone.

Sudhanshu Singh

Sudhanshu Singh have been working in tech journalism as a reporter, writer, editor, and reviewer for over 5 years. He has reviewed hundreds of products ranging across categories and have also written opinions, guides, feature articles, news, and analysis. Ditching the norm of armchair journalism in tech media, Sudhanshu dug deep into how emerging products and services affect actual users, and what marks they leave on our cultural landscape. His areas of expertise along with writing and editing include content strategy, daily operations, product and team management.