Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 leak hints at 5.5-inch display, Snapdragon 630 and smaller, 3,790 mAh battery

The Xiaomi Redmi Note series has long since established itself as the king of the sub-Rs 15,000 smartphone segment in India. The **Note 3** and **Note 4** both offered incredible value for the price, undercutting more expensive smartphones that sometimes sold at double the price. The latest update to the lineup, which is likely called the Redmi Note 5, is expected soon, and now its specifications appear to have leaked, or so says a report on Android Headlines. The source of the leaks isn’t clear, but GSMArena also appears to have found leaked slides featuring the Redmi Note 5. The slides are in Chinese.  Judging by the slides, it looks like the device will come in two variants, one with powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 and the other by a **Snapdragon 660** . There are also expected to be three storage variants of the device offering a 3/32, 4/32 and 4/64 RAM/Storage (units in GB) combos. These variants are expected to retail at CNY 1,200 (around Rs 11,500), CNY 1,400 (around Rs 13,400) and CNY 1,500 (around Rs 14,300) respectively. Prices in India will vary.  The rest of the specifications suggest an f/2.0 16 MP rear camera with a Sony IMX 234 sensor and a 13 MP selfie camera. Strangely enough, the battery capacity actually comes down from the 4,000+ mAh that the Note series toted in the past to a 3,790 mAh unit. The leaked slides suggest that the device will support the Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 standard over USB-C. The screen seems to be a 5.5-inch, FHD display. It must be noted that the support for QuickCharge 3.0 is rather odd given that the SD630 and SD660 both support the faster QuickCharge 4.0 standard. Of course, these are just leaks and may not represent the specifications of the final product. The current version of the Redmi Note series, the Note 4, boasts of similar specifications, but is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and features a 4,100 mAh battery.  The software seems to be Android 7.1.1 Nougat with an MIUI 9 skin on top. The SD630 platform is supposed to offer about 10 percent more CPU performance and 30 percent more GPU performance over the 625. It also gains support for a faster modem and the QuickCharge 4.0 standard. The Snapdragon 660 is even more powerful and is Qualcomm’s latest high-end mobile platform. The Note 4 did receive some flack at launch for Xiaomi’s decision to go downgrade the performance slightly by going for a weaker 625 platform over the 650 platform used earlier. However, as Xiaomi pointed out, performance in real-world usage remains the same, and you get enhanced battery life. However, that flack might be the reason why Xiaomi is opting to offer two platform options this time around. Again, this information comes to us via leaked slides. The final product may not even resemble the products described in these leaks in the slightest.