Most people look for quality and a fair price when buying a new phone. A brand that manages to blend the two aspects very well, creating phones that are both durable and have very good specs is none other than Xiaomi. Their new phones, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and the Note 5 Pro seem quite similar at first. We’ll be looking at the differences between the two phones and seeing at the end if one is truly better than the other.
The first clear difference that the naked eye sees is the price: the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 is Rs. 9999 while the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro is Rs. 13999. Not a very drastic price point between the two but what makes the Note 5 Pro worth more?
How do they perform?
Right from the start we can see that the two phones do not have the same software. The Redmi 5 Pro has a Snapdragon 625 chipset while the Redmi Note 5 uses a Snapdragon 636. The Redmi 5 Pro is the first smartphone launched on the market that has a Snapdragon 636 SoC. This chipset has more power due to the Qualcomm Kryo cores. What does this mean and how can we better understand this?
Well, the Snapdragon 625 is an older piece of equipment that came out in 2016, while the Snapdragon 636 is better at calibrating battery optimization, graphic performance and large traffic speeds. We’d also like to add that the Note 4 has the same chipset as the Note 5.
When we tested the two phones, we saw that Note 5 Pro performed better and faster when going through email, surfing the web and playing games, things that one does on a daily basis on their phones. However, one of the racing games played crashed after one race but this could just be a software issue. It’s not something that we should be concerned about.
How good are the phones at taking photos?
Here the difference is clearly palpable and it seems that the Note 5 Pro is stealing the show. The phone is equipped with a dual camera in the back (12MP, f/2.2 and 5MP, f/2.0) while the Note 5 only has one camera on its back (12MP. f/2.2).
The Note 5 is able to record 4k videos but the Note 5 Pro is only able to record at 1080p. It seems that what the Note 5 Pro lacks when recording videos it makes up for with the back camera. The Note 5 Pro’s dual camera captures the depth of the photos better than the Note 4 or even the Note 5. The subject captured by the photo is focused, appears to be the center point of the picture, and the background is crisp and clear.
The Note 5 Pro even comes with the option of “image stabilization” when taking photos and the front camera is 20MP with LED flash. The Note 5 does not have this option and its front camera is only an average 5MP.
How long does the battery last for?
If the Note 5 Pro was a stellar candidate and outshined the Note 5 at the software and camera tests, here things get a bit tricky. While they both have a 4000mAh battery they reacted very differently when we put them to the test.
The Note 5 ran for a full 12 hours and 30 minutes until the battery died while the Note 5 Pro quit the game a bit early, the battery dying after 12 hours. Moreover, we put them to another test. After 15 minutes of browsing the internet and watching videos, the Note 5 had 1% of battery ahead of the Note 5 Pro.
We highly suggest that you use fast charging. Otherwise you’re in for a long time of waiting and waiting around for your phone to be fully charged. How do we know this? When we plugged the Note 5 Pro at 15% battery to charge, the phone said it would take almost 6 hours to be fully charged. For someone that is very active during the day that is a very long time to wait!
What is the display like?
Here we have very little to say about the two phones as they are pretty much the same. What we can comment on is that the audio jacks are on different sides of the phone (on top for the Note 5 and on the bottom for the Note 5 pro) and that the Note 5 feels only slightly heavier. Oh, and the cameras are placed differently on the back of the phone.
That’s about it.
What are our conclusions?
They are very similar overall. For the price to quality ratio that Xiaomi offers with these two phones we can only say that either purchase is highly welcomed. However, we’d recommend the Note 5 Pro due to its specs. Feel free to stick with the Note 5 if you want, it’s certainly not a purchase that you will ever regret!
