Manu Kumar Jain, Global VP and MD Xiaomi India, on Thursday posted a teaser on Twitter with the caption, "#CompactPowerhouse is launching on 14th March! Slim, sleek and compact! Yet a true super power house! Guess what this is?" Earlier, while announcing the 32-inch and 43-inch variants of its new Mi TV 4A lineup for India, Xiaomi had teased the launch of a new smartphone expected on March 14. The side profile image of the smartphone, with a camera bump, pointed at a possible Redmi 5 launch in the country.
While the Redmi 5A and Redmi 5 Plus (rebranded in India as Redmi Note 5) are already available here, the Redmi 5 is expected to hit the budget smartphone market as well.
In terms of pricing, the Redmi 4 successor, could be priced below the higher-specced Redmi Note 5 that had arrived in India at a base price of just Rs. 9,999.
The Xiaomi Redmi 5 is a dual SIM (Nano) smartphone that Android Nougat out-of-the-box with MIUI 9 on top. The handset comes with a 5.7-inch HD+ (720x1440 pixels) display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and 282ppi pixel density. The Redmi 5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor and comes in 2GB/ 3GB/ 4GB RAM variants. It sports 16GB/ 32GB of inbuilt storage.
In terms of optics, the Redmi 5 comes with a 12-megapixel rear camera that has features like f/2.2 aperture, PDAF, and LED flash. On the front is a 5-megapixel selfie camera with a "soft-light" flash module. The front camera also features the company's proprietary Beautify 3.0 capabilities. Additionally, the smartphone is fuelled by a 3300mAh battery under the hood. In terms of dimensions, the handset measures 151.8x72.8x7.7mm and weighs 157 grams.