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Redmi 5 Launched, Redmi 5A and Honor 7X in India, Plus More News This Week

 

It's been another interesting week in tech with a number of launches, one big sale, and some interesting developments in the world of telecom. Xiaomi had some big announcements for us, with the launch of the Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus. The phones were launched in China where they will go on sale from next week, starting at CNY 799 (roughly Rs. 7,800) and CNY 999 (roughly Rs. 9,700), respectively. For now, release plans for other countries has not been revealed.

The Redmi 5 starts with a 2GB RAM/ 16GB storage, and the 3GB/ 32GB variant is priced at CNY 899 (roughly Rs. 8,800). The Redmi 5 Plus starts with 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage, and the 4GB/ 64GB variant is priced at CNY 1,299 (roughly Rs. 12,700). Both phones have bezel-less displays with similar designs, running on MIUI 9, and bearing a 12-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. However, the Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch HD+ display, along with an octa-core Snapdragon 450 SoC, while the Redmi 5 Plus has a 5.99-inch full-HD+ display, and an octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC. The Redmi 5 has a 3300mAh battery, while the bigger Redmi 5 Plus has a 4000mAh battery.

Aside from these two phones, Xiaomi's latest entry-level smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A (Review), finally went on sale in India for the first time. This entry level phone comes in two variants, a 2GB RAM/ 16GB storage model, and a 3GB/ 32GB model, with the former priced at Rs. 5,999, though the first 5 million units are being sold at Rs. 4,999. The Redmi 5A has a 5-inch HD display, a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3000mAh battery. As noted in our review, it's not particularly different from the earlier Redmi 4A (Review), but at its price, it's an incredible value buy, though its camera quality is pretty bad - a common issue for handsets at this price.

Aside from Xiaomi, Honor also had a major phone go on sale in India this week, the Honor 7X (Review). Starting at Rs. 12,999, it is a little more expensive than the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus, and matches the Xiaomi Mi A1. The phone was launched in India this week, and also follows the trend of bezel-less phones. It went on sale on Thursday, and Huawei claims that it was sold out in seconds. It will go on sale again on December 14, and you can register for that sale right now on Amazon India.

As mentioned, the Honor 7X has a bezel-less screen, which is 5.93-inches at a full-HD+ resolution. The phone runs on a HiSilicon Kirin 659 octa-core 2.36GHz processor, and 4GB of RAM. On the back, there's a 16-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and there's an 8-megapixel camera on the front. It starts with 32GB of storage, and there's a 64GB version as well. The Honor 7X has a 3340mAh battery.

As we noted in our review, the phone offers good specs at a reasonable price, but the camera performance isn't really impressive, and battery life could have been a little better too. It's not quite the all-rounder that the Xiaomi Mi A1 is, but it's a more modern looking phone.