Redmi Note 4 was the most successful Xiaomi smartphone from last year raising expectations for Redmi Note 5. Well, the Chinese brand has come up with the Redmi 5 Plus, which is believed to be the Note 5 in disguise. The new smartphone is set to launch in India on February 14, and we have its specs and price details.
Launched originally in December 2017, Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is the smaller variant of the Redmi 5 that was announced alongside. 5 Plus bears a 5.99-inch bezel-less display with an 18:9 aspect ratio supporting 1080 x 2160 pixels. It packs Snapdragon 625 SoC octa-core and Adreno 506 GPU. The two storage variants are 3GB+32GB and 4GB+64GB. The microSD expandable slot gets you up to 128GB.
Xiaomi’s new smartphone features a 12 MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, phase detection autofocus, and dual-LED flash. Having a 5 MP front selfie camera. It is powered by a battery of 4,000mAh that’s non-removable. It runs MIUI 9 based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat, although Oreo upgrade is expected.
The handset weighs about 180gm and measures 158.5 x 75.5 x 8.1 mm. The available color variants are Black, Rose Gold, Gold, and Blue. Xiaomi was invited to a press event on February 14 in New Delhi. Xiaomi didn’t reveal any of its other phones to be released at the event, but Redmi India’s tweet with #GiveMe5 and a big “5” in the press material confirms Redmi 5 and 5 Plus.
Additionally, two more Xiaomi devices passed the CCC of China, bearing codenames MEE7S and MET7S. These are expected to be the ‘S’ variants of Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, likely to be two color variants only. Xiaomi has been surprisingly silent in the past few weeks regarding its launches in India, right after they said that their plans include prioritizing Indian markets for selling their smartphones.
Redmi 5 Plus is available for purchase in China: 3GB variant for 999 Yuan or $155 and 4GB variant for 1,299 Yuan or $200. India is expected to see a starting price range of Rs. 9,999.
Root for the Redmi 5 Plus is already available, and so is the TWRP recovery for the device. Before installing the recovery and using the root of Magisk or SuperSU, it is required to unlock the bootloader. The entire process is provided in details here.
Huawei Honor 7X is going to be the main competitor for Redmi 5 Plus, considering the price bracket and the features. Redmi 5 Plus leads in the main specs, but the dual rear cameras with portrait mode feature and the 8 MP front shooter of Honor 7X may seem more attractive to some. It also has one variant, and that’s of 4GB RAM and 32GB internal. Other features are almost similar, with Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus evidently leading in battery and Honor 7X has Kirin 659 SoC as a processor (well!).
Share with us in comments below about your choice of the phones. Stay with us for more updates on latest smartphones from Xiaomi and Huawei.