As Huawei did with the Nexus 6P, the fact that Xiaomi embraced pure Android with the Mi A1 changed the idea that many of us had of the company. Launching a so-called model to reign in the mid-range could pose a problem of comparative grievance against its new phones with their own personalization layer. The best news of the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is that MIUI does not just make it worse than its brother.
As for available models, the disembarkation of Xiaomi cannot be cataloged but brilliant. With the import prices it managed to gain a foothold in our market, but we just need to take a walk through Amazon to observe that the tyranny of the Chinese company in the middle range continues to grow.
If Lenovo and Huawei/Honor do not launch serious proposals against it, they may lose the category of "recommendable". Xiaomi is playing a stronger economic card than the rest, but without sacrificing anything else to the rest. The phones of these companies do not know what to expect in these ranges. Xiaomi has entered the line of regularity and it seems that it will be difficult to get it out of that path.
The Xiaomi Mi A1 has forever changed the role of Xiaomi. If something was clear in my first hours with the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus that we review today, compared to what happened to me in the last reviews of who they are and who are called mid-range, the balance here is tremendous and that, if the thing was not bad, the remarkable high would not go down. The offensive to reign in such a saturated and difficult market is clear.
Xiaomi is no longer the one that promised much and gave little. Now it is a more honest company, presumes less and gives more. Xiaomi has understood the market as nobody, and not only has options for all but has two proposals that each in its own way, can feel magical. Let's see what it produces here. The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is neither better nor worse than the Mi A1. It's just a matter of what we prioritize.
Finding plastic in a mid-range is becoming increasingly difficult, and certainly not something that happens in Xiaomi. The Redmi 5 Plus comes wrapped in an aluminum case with rounded shapes that feel very comfortable in the hand, and despite not weighing a little, 180 grams, it feels light to be a phone of large dimensions. Of course, this makes it not a phone for everyone.
The curves of its back help it, and nothing in it feels out of place, including the fingerprint reader, which works fast and like a charm. Its thickness is not a record in the market, nor is it necessary. Its 8.1 millimeters are and will be an acceptable figure.
The metallic volume and ignition buttons are on the right side of the Redmi 5 Plus. Unlike what some of their rivals offer, they feel very solid and well integrated, without dancing. On the opposite side, we will find the classic removable tray that allows using double SIM or SIM together with a microSD card.
In the upper part, we find a jack port, which will be welcomed by many and thanks to the Qualcomm DAC, it will produce a normal sound, without more. No frills or equalizers that break the experience. In fact, the Redmi 5 Plus is one of those rare ones that still have FM Radio. It is at the bottom of the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, where we find the also worthy and relatively powerful speaker, where we can start to find the first problems, centered on the charging port.
Xiaomi is still betting on micro USB, and it's not even something we can forgive anymore in the input range. The universalization of what is objectively better in all respects is the only way, but the problem is that this is neither USB-C nor has fast loading, although connected to a charger with such a characteristic if it detects the protocol. If the Xiaomi Mi A1 could with all this, it should also be able to.
However, the point of a battery cannot and should not darken with the details of recharge. It is the best I have lived recently in a smartphone. With normal use, and with normal I mean social networks, messaging, browsing and podcast playback, I managed to get to the two days with nine and a half hours. It is something really incredible. Xiaomi has awarded the Redmi 5 Plus with 4000 mAh that we cannot fail to thank.
With more intense use, use of GPS and shooting more photos, the thing goes down but still at a tremendous level, with six and a half or seven hours of screen time. The magic of the "old" Snapdragon 625 is still working, and we do not want it to leave if the one who replaces it in popularity is not that efficient.
The screen is another of the components that are at a good level, and thanks to the adoption of the ratio 18: 9 and a few generous frames we get 5.99 inches that occupy 77.4% of the front. As for the panel itself, bet on IPS for densities that exceed just 400 pixels per inch is a great idea, and never miss more than Full HD +.
The color representation is what you would expect in an average range, but, unlike others of its kind, the colors do not have a strange white balance that breaks the aesthetics of photos and icons. In fact, it has some saturation that is appreciated, because at no time is excessive. On the street, it behaves well in full light, although his 500 nits do not work miracles either.
In the dark, he faces the problem that his blacks are somewhat poor even talking about IPS. That is, along with a ghosting visible in the scroll on solid colors, its biggest problem, but it will not make anyone take their hands to their heads.
Unlike what happens with other aspects of these phones in the analysis, I do not expect anything from the camera. I have resigned myself to some improvement, but nothing really stands out until 500 euros, or even more. With the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, the photographic experience has been very normal, but not very poor either.
The first thing that is missed, of course, is the double camera and the portrait mode of the Mi A1. Leaving there, we have a 12-megapixel sensor with a pixel size of 1.25 micrometers and a lens with aperture f/2.2. This last point is the first one that could offer more. It seems a limited opening for what we have seen today, and with a wider one could reduce the use of ISO sensitivities as high as it comes to use, type 6400 ISO, which introduces a lot of noise and kill the fine detail.
Everything is managed by a simple application that, unlike that of its Chinese cousins Huawei, if you see the HDR as a function that has to be visible. And we have to give thanks because the dynamic range of the phone is really limited. It is not worth that photos with brightness come out perfect. With HDR not activated, we feel that the shot has very dark or very burned areas.
The problem of HDR is that it slows down the capture and that although its results are good in terms of color and exposure, it often does not link the different captures well, producing halos or visible duplications at the edges. In general, in good light, we take good pictures if there are not many contrasts, but let's not wait for magic either.
At night the low dynamic range is still very limited, and this adds a minimum sharpness. According to tests that I could do comparing both devices, throws less detail than the Mi A1. So there it seems that the system used in the Redmi 5 Plus is inferior. It's 2018 and we continue to justify that the mid-range has this quality. With the ports of HDR + of Google has shown that the cameras are much better than they appear and that it is only a matter of taking the software seriously to take full advantage of the components can give of themselves.
Turning to the part that matters most, the experience, we must praise the work that Xiaomi has put in MIUI 9. I was able to test the system on a Xiaomi Mi4c a couple of years ago, and the thing was scratching. A lot. And above all, the cloak did not feel anything fast. Those, and a too aggressive management of the resources were my main fears, and I can say that after a few days with the Redmi 5 Plus, I have surpassed them by far.
I declare myself a lover of pure Android, not because of features or because it has an unmatched aesthetic, but because few are close in performance to what it offers in all ranges. Hence my love for the Mi A1. However, by making the relevant changes to the system, I have not missed another cleaner layer.
I still do not conceive that today the only launcher that is offered continues to be traced to the iPhone, which I like in iOS with its options, but not in Android. After checking for a few days that the operation of the launcher was very good, I installed the beloved Nova Launcher and, as expected, the thing improved greatly. I was coming to be at home. Only the problem of notifications needed to be fixed, because it exists in MIUI 9.
First of all, in the curtain of notifications, they do not expand just like in pure Android or in many other layers, but you have to go down with two fingers. The grouping also works in another way, making it impossible for us to delete emails in the Gmail app without entering it, if we have, for example, five new unread emails.
The thing gets worse when you discover that the lock screen notifications are not expanding and there is not much to do with them. For the notifications, there is a great solution in the form of an app called Material Notifications, which replaces notifications, quick adjustments, aesthetics of the audio reproduction widget, etc. For the lock screen, there are also style apps, but they have never worked well for me, so I resigned myself.
On resource management, I have little to say. Except for Nova Launcher, which did close the system from time to time, I have not felt that the 4 GB of RAM have fallen short or that the system has made its own. I have made a lot of use of multitasking and unexplained recharges have not been present. I have not stopped receiving notifications for closures in the background, which I missed a few years ago.
There is some duplicity of applications, of course, but I feel that Xiaomi offers along with those of Google are of high quality. We also appreciate inclusions such as Mi Remote, with which, thanks to an infrared sensor, I have been able to control my television. Another great for file transfers between devices is My Drop. MIUI was the element that most doubted in the Redmi 5 Plus before using it. After doing so, the doubts quickly dissipated.
In performance, we know what we can expect. The Snapdragon 625 does not feel like a bullet, but neither is slow. Even coming from a Pixel 2 XL, the sensations are more than satisfactory. Although the most demanding games begin to demand what your Adreno does not have. In any case, we are facing one of the best Qualcomm chips, one of those that, as they did the Snapdragon S4 Pro or the 800, maintain a great performance for years.
The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus has left me feeling that I did not experience in a mid-range for a long time. For the first time in months, I review a phone whose price I cannot criticize because I do not think it is far from what it offers.
My story with the Redmi 5 Plus has restored my confidence to life outside of pure Android. The recent bad experience with the Honor 7X and a Huawei P10 Lite made me have prejudices that the phone of Xiaomi eliminates in a stroke. The Chinese company has not built the best phone but has built two that achieve that crown. Everything is, more than ever, a matter of priorities.
Do you want a mid-range smartphone with Android One, dual-camera with good portrait mode, fast charge? The Mi A1 is your option. Do you want, on the contrary, a bezel-less phone well-taken advantage of, with the best battery of the market without a crazy thickness, an equally good performance and on-screen buttons instead of a capacitive phone? Then your solution is called Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus. It has some shortcomings.
On a daily basis, it has given me more satisfaction than the Galaxy A8. Although that is not a milestone either, it is not a small thing.
