Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro and Note 5 comparison: Here is how they stand against the competition

Xiaomi India announced the launch of its latest devices in the market, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and the more premium and powerful, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro Image: tech2/Rehan Hooda

Both the devices come in two variants each to replace the Redmi Note 4 that was launched earlier last year. In fact, Note 5 Pro is a new series squeezing its way in the under Rs 20,000 price range to offer more options to the customers.

Xiaomi already has the Redmi Note 4, Mi Max 2, and Mi A1 for the users to choose from the under Rs 20,000 segment. Even if we remove the Redmi Note 4 then the introduction of these two devices makes a total of four devices with two variants each (the Mi A1 only comes in one variant) for users to choose from. This means that a potential smartphone buyer has 7 devices in the price segment from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 from the same company.

This marks a more aggressive stance from the company and the pricing of the Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro point towards it. It also seems like the company is not backing down from the increased competition from Lenovo’s Motorola India and Huawei's Honor India when it comes to new and innovative devices along with cut-throat pricing. Before we jump into the specifications, on the surface level, Xiaomi has upgraded the display with 5.99-inch size, FHD+ resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio for both the new devices along with a front-facing LED flash.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5

Now considering the specifications, it is interesting to note that there is not much of a difference between the Redmi Note 5 and its predecessor, Redmi Note 4 when it comes to hardware changes. The only changes that I can notice is that Xiaomi has removed the 32 GB variant, upgraded the display, changed the back camera from 13 MP f/2.0 to 12 MP f/2.2, upgraded the Bluetooth to version 4.2 and reduced the battery to 4,000 mAh instead of 4,100 mAh.

The Redmi Note 5 Pro packs slightly more changes from the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor with Kryo cores and Adreno 509 GPU to the variants with 64 GB storage and 4 GB RAM along with 128 GB storage and 6 GB RAM. The only other prominent change is that of 20 MP camera on the front of the device for improved selfies.

With the launch of Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro, we thought that it is a good time to pit the device against its competition. So, we selected the existing devices from Xiaomi which include the Redmi Note 4 and the Mi A1 while adding Moto G5S Plus and the Honor 9 Lite from the competition. The reason we selected these smartphones is that almost all of the devices belong to the same pricing segment and pack similar hardware (or the custom-made equivalents). All these smartphones are considered mid-range devices from competing smartphone makers. The reason we selected the older Xiaomi devices is to point out what changes the new device pack in terms of hardware.

Bear in mind that we're still not done testing some of these smartphones, so we're currently comparing them going only by their specifications on paper. A real-world test should follow soon.