After a series of many leaks and rumours, Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi on Monday officially announced the launch of its latest entry-level smartphone, dubbed as the “Xiaomi Redmi 5A” in the Chinese tech market. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A is a successor to the company’s previous Redmi 4A smartphone, which was launched in India in March this year with a price tag of Rs. 5,999. However, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A has been launched in China with a price tag of CNY 599 (approximately Rs. 5,600 or $90) and will be available in Champagne Gold, Pink and Grey colours. Carried a such an attractive price tag, the Redmi 5A is now available for pre-order in the country, while the same will be going on sale in China starting from tomorrow at 10 AM local time via Mi.com, Mi Home, Mi Stores, JD.com, Lynx, Suning Tesco, China Mobile Mall and several other retail outlets across the country.
Talking about its design, the Redmi 5A comes with an all-metal unibody design with curved metal edges, giving it an overall premium outlook. The smartphone is quite thin and its slight curves on the edges to make phone sit comfortably in your palm. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A also features a trio of capacitive navigation touch buttons for controlling back, home-screen and multitasking. The volume up-down keys and the power/lock button are all placed on the right-hand edge of the device, while the speaker grilles are situated on the rear end of the device.
Talking about its specifications and features, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A flaunts a 5-inch HD IPS display with a screen resolution of 720 pixels by 1280 pixels. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of native storage, which can be further expanded by up to 128GB via a micro-SD card. On the software front, the dual-SIM smartphone runs company’s proprietary MIUI 9 custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android Nougat operating system. The new MIUI 9 user interface brings an array of smart features including Smart app launcher, Smart assistant, Home screen enhancements, Lock screen enhancements, Split screen multitasking, Image search, Quick reply and notification management.
In terms of photography, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A features a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.2 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF), and an LED flash module. The rear camera is also capable of shooting videos in full-HD (1080p) resolution. Camera modes on the smartphone include Burst mode, Panorama mode, HDR mode, and more. On the front, the smartphone bears a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter for capturing selfies and making video calls.
On the connectivity front, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A supports dual-SIM dual standby using the hybrid SIM (Micro-SIM + Nano-SIM/microSD) slot. That means you can either use this as a dual-SIM phone without memory card option or single-SIM phone with memory card option. Apart from this, the smartphone also offers various connectivity options including 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS/A-GPS, FM radio, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microUSB v2.0 port for charging and other connectivity. Sensors on board the smartphone include an Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, Gyroscope and Proximity sensor. On the battery front, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A comes loaded with a powerful 3,000mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 8 days of standby time on a single charge.
