On the wake of March 14, Xiaomi has released another big announcement, they have introduced the Redmi Note 5 in China. Following the ultra success of the release in India in the form of Redmi Note 5 Pro (check my review here) plus bagging home the MWC 2018 AH Best of MWC 2018 Award for being the first to deploy the awesome Snapdragon 636. Xiaomi made a quick announcement that they will release this same unit in China as well, but of course with some tweaks in it. Redmi Note series normally are released to end a calendar year, but they have debuted the Redmi 5 Plus instead in lieu of the supposed to be Redmi Note 5. Now it left many Redmi Note fans in dismay as they anticipate the release of the Redmi Note Series every single year. Now, they have something to rejoice with.



Color Comparison:

Now I dont just unbox 1, but instead I go for 3 boxes. Good things comes in threes, Behold!
















How lucky can one get, I didnt just nailed 1 unit, but 3 units on opening day of first sale.


I still love the black unit, it makes it looks bezeless, when screenoff, haha!


Gold, Black and Rose Gold in the House!












Looks familiar design, any wild guess?







Redmi Note 5 China Specs Sheet

• 5.99-inch Full HD+ display @ 2160 x 1080 pixels, 403ppi, 84% NTSC Color Gamut, 450 NIT Brightness
  
• 1.8GHz Snapdragon 636 Octa-core CPU Qualcomm SDM636 Kryo 260
  
• Adreno 509 GPU
  
• 3GB / 4GB / 6GB RAM
  
• 32GB / 64GB Internal storage
  
• Expandable via microSD, up to 128GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
  
• 12MP 1.4μm Rear Camera, f/1.9 Aperture, PDAF, single tone flash, face recognition, HDR, AI Portrait Mode, Samsung Sensor
  
• 5MP secondary lens, 1.12μm, f/2.0 Aperture, Samsung Sensor
  
• 13MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 Aperture, AI Smart Beauty with soft flash, 1080p, AI Portrait Mode, Face Unlocking, OV Sensor
  
• Dual-SIM (Nano + Nano)
  
• 4G LTE, 4G+
  
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4G 5G Wifi
  
• Bluetooth 5.0
  
• GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Positioning
  
• Fingerprint scanner
  
• Micro USB Port
  
• 4000 mAh battery
  
• Android 8.1 on MIUI 9
  
• 158.6mm x 75.4mm x 8.05mm
  
• 181grams
  
• Available in Black, Gold, Lake Blue, Rose Gold
  
  
  

Official Trailer:
v.qq.com/x/page/o0606spfghx.html
Whats in the Box:





Manual, Charger, Micro USB Cable, Unit, Sim Ejector Pin, Protection Case






Just an ordinary charger included, you have to buy your own quickcharge charger

Design:

The Redmi Note 5 has revamped its design in front, sporting the 18:9 screen ratio, the bezel has gone way smaller than the Redmi Note 4X, and it is pretty similar to the front screen of the Redm 5 Plus only that some of the sensors above the screen has different placement. I can say that the front was a game changer for the Redmi Note Series and possibly it is going with the trend that the Mi MIX has set in the smartphone industry, as bezeless as possible. Now people can enjoy near bezeless phone without spending as much as the Mi MIX or Iphone X. Beneath the bezel we believe that the capacitive buttons can still fit in but Xiaomi has decided to let it go on screen instead. At the back view, there is no denying that the camera placement plus design is quite similar to the Iphone X, this probably is one of the turnaround in the Redmi Note Series wherein it got a crossbreed of premium look and feel from another flagship in a midrange phone. Not a bad deal right?


We simply loved the way it was presented on front, the near bezeless design that was copied from Mi MIX


The back did get an upgrade, well... thanks to Iphone X


The camera placement and its design really is beautiful




The lower portion still resembles the Redmi Note 4X


The 3.5mm audio jack, micro usb port, mic and louspeaker crowded at the lower portion of the phone


Sim Card trey on the left side of the phone as always


IR and noise cancellation mic on top for this one


Volume Rocker, Power button on the right side of the phone


Sim Card trey can accomodate Nano Sim for SIM 1, Nano Sim or Micro SD Card for SIM 2 Slot.

More shots on the sides of the phone for clearer look.











Official Mitch002 Unboxing Video:


New Features:


One added feature on this phone that we didnt see present in the Redmi Note 5 Pro is the Full Screen Mode, wherein the 3 buttons below are hidden forever, meaning there are other means to access it, check out my photos below.















Another added feature is the Dual 4G mode, this is not present in flagships like Mi 6, and its surprising to see it on the Redmi Note 5 series midrange phone.





Snapdragon 636

The very first to deploy the SD 636, I was able to fully test the power of the Redmi Note 5 to the extent, running games and multitask, in my opinion this unit did a very good job in multitasking, as well as playing some decent games, we even did play Battlegrounds and NBA2k18 and the graphics rendered was quite good on an all screen display phone. We slowly tunned up the graphics from medium to high and you can feel the slight changes in the fluidity of the game, but hey it was pretty good and I was able to enjoy the game.

Surfing, Chatting, Calls and Navigating were all done at the same time and it was quite stable not seeing the unit lag down due to too many task being done at the same time. The Snapdragon 636 did lived up to its hype and for sure I was able to feel the improvement from the overly deployed SD 625.




AnTuTu gave a score of 116,673 points to the Redmi Note 5 6GB RAM 64GB Variant, which is quite a big jump over the Redmi 5 Plus scoring a 63,711 on our review. Also a little higher than the Redmi Note 5 Pro 4GB 64GB variant which scored 112,601 points. Again like I always say in my reviews, benchmarks should not be the determining factor in purchasing the phone, it's the actual experience and performance that matters most. But I can really say that this SoC is really worth the look.

For more specs of the Snapdragon 636, check it out here:
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/qualcomm-snapdragon-636-mobile-platform



Face Recognition

One fun feature that you might probably want to try out on this device would probably trying to unlock your phone with the use of your face. This feature was first deployed on the Mi Note 3, followed by the Redmi Note 5 Pro and I was able to test both units. Face unlock is pretty fast and very snappy, on a dark area it did have a hard time trying to unlock my face in the dark. I wonder if my son will try to unlock my phone and scan my face while I am sleeping, security flaws issues. Hehe
Connectivity

The Redmi Note 5 supports 12 different LTE bands as opposed to just 5 Bands on the Redmi Note 5 Pro, it's easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings and whats good on this unit now is that you can also set 2nd Sim on LTE as well since it now deploys the Dual 4G technology on this unit but it should consume battery faster. We have experienced no problem surfing using LTE or 3G in our home country in the Philippines as well as dual standby mode is working seamlessly. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol as we were able to cast it to the Mi TV 4C, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and GLONASS are all present and working pretty good. We also have a smooth navigation using Google Maps while cruisin in the city using the Redmi Note 5.

Detailed Network Band Supported on Redmi Note 5:

2G: GSM (Band 2/3/5/8)
2G: CDMA (Band BC0)
3G: CDMA EVDO (Band BC0)
3G: WCDMA (B1/2/5/8)
3G: TD-SCDMA ( Bands B34/39)
4G: TDD-LTE (Bands B34/B38/39/40/41 (100MHz))
4G: FDD-LTE (Bands 1/3/5/7/8)

Audio and Video
MP4 M4V MKV XVID WAV AAC MP3 AMR FLAC

Supports H.265/HEVC (Main profile), H.264 (Baseline/Main/High profile), MPEG4 (Simple profile/ASP), VC-1 (Simple/Main/Advanced profile)

Video formats such as PCM, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, AMR-NB and WB, FLAC, WAV, etc.

Camera

Everytime we get our hands on a new phone, its always boils down to the camera. This probably is the most important part of the phone, how good it will capture the memories for you? The camera on the Redmi Note 5 will definitely be a revolution for Xiaomi as this is the first time that the company has deployed Artificial Intelligence for powered object and scene recognition for a smartphone camera.

The camera takes pretty good photos in daylight and in low light areas it has vastly improved from Redmi Note 4X, but the debate now is that the Redmi Note 5's camera is better than Redmi Note 5 Pro's camera? Well, we will make another thread just for that. The best performance is outdoors, taking crisp and great photos. Bokeh / Portrait mode was a good integration on this unit, even the front facing camera can now take Portrait mode, how sweet is that?

The manual mode from the camera, is quite disappointing, it only sported the White Balance and ISO controls. The Focus and Exposure Time is nowhere to be found. Neither can you use the Zoom and Wide Angle lens manually. Thats the limitation I saw in this phone. Watermarks is also present on this camera.




AI Smart Beauty, Make my Eyes bigger please?


Manual Mode Menu


Portrait Selfie!!!


Unedited Shots




















Taken inside a museum, no flash on low light settings.

































Philippines after the War


First President of the Republic of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezon






































Amazfit Stratos Smartwatch












Portrait Shot
















4X Digital Zoom

















Food Shots!








































Shot on Redmi Note 5
Selfie Camera


Do I look Pretty? Look at the wonders the AI Smart Beauty Mode can do


Im not a selfie junkie, but these selfie portait shots are pretty good.








Battery Performance

We were able to achieve a good battery rating for this unit since its a Snapdragon (Qualcomm is known for their battery efficiency), we lasted a day on normal usage without hitting the charging port or power bank. PC Mark Battery Stress Test rated it at 14 hours 1 minute SOT, which is quite impressive already for a new SoC in the market, this is 2 hours more than the Redmi Note 5 Pro which lasted for 12 hours on the same battery stress test. Now we have tested the charging time, we were able to charge from 20% to 100% within 1 hour and 39 minutes as we monitored it closely while charging. The maximum ampere that we have achieved is 2510mAh on a QC 3.0 charger supplied with the Mi 6, therefore this debunks the claim that this unit supports QC 3.0 charging.

























Other Benchmarks:























Conclusion

After playing this unit for several days, I was really quite satisfied with this unit. The camera, the processor was really impressive, as well as my favorite portrait selfie. Now there are many Indian's already crying out loud that Xiaomi is unfair releasing a better Redmi Note 5 in China. Remember the Mi 4i and Mi 4c? Its the same pattern, as Xiaomi released the 4i first in India, then they later released a better version in 4c later in China. This time to be honest, there are really pros and cons on both units, stay tunned as I will make an article on it about the comparison of the Redmi Note 5 China and Redmi Note 5 Pro India. Overall I can really say that Xiaomi has done a pretty good job in upgrading our favorite Redmi Note Series. We can see the improvements every year from plastic body in Redmi Note and Redmi Note 2, they later released the brushed aluminum metal in Redmi Note 3, then later imporved with fingerprint scanner in the Note 4, now its this one. I strongly suggest the 4GB 64GB as most memory hungry games will run on 4GB and up.

Redmi Note 5 Price
3GB 32GB - 1099 RMB
4GB 64GB - 1399 RMB
6GB 64GB - 1699 RMB

Redmi Note 5