Redmi A5 Review: A Solid Phone at an Affordable Price

The Redmi A5 is an affordable smartphone that delivers a smooth user experience without any unnecessary complexities. It runs on a stock Android operating system, which contributes to its simplicity. Priced just under $100, it presents an attractive option for those looking for budget-friendly performance.

So, what’s the Redmi A5 really like? I had the chance to test it for about three weeks, and here’s my review for Carisinyal readers. Let’s dive into the details.

What’s in the Box

The Redmi A5 comes in a red and white box. Inside the box, you'll find the essentials: a 15W charger, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a SIM ejector, a user manual, and a soft case. While nothing too exciting, it’s typical for a budget phone.

One downside, however, is the 15W charging support. Though I didn’t time the charging process, it’s safe to say it will take over two hours to fully charge. Still, it's worth noting that many smartphones in this price range no longer include a charger, so I do appreciate that this one does.

The included soft case is transparent, but it’s nothing special. In fact, I’d recommend picking up a third-party case for better durability and style.

While the default case offers basic protection, I find it a bit difficult to remove once it's on. However, if you don’t have another case on hand, the included one will suffice for basic protection.

Standard but Attractive Design

In terms of design, the Redmi A5 features a plastic frame and back panel. While it doesn’t have the premium feel of metal or glass, the construction is sturdy and practical for everyday use.

The phone is advertised as splash and dust resistant, though it lacks a specific rating, so I won’t test its water resistance.

Overall, I find the build quality of the Redmi A5 to be solid. It doesn't feel flimsy, and the phone has a reassuringly sturdy body that doesn't give off a cheap vibe.

This makes the phone comfortable to hold, especially with the well-placed power button, which is conveniently located next to the volume buttons on the right side. The power button also houses the fingerprint sensor.

At the bottom, you’ll find a microphone hole, an audio jack, and a USB Type-C port. The inclusion of the audio jack is a plus, considering that many smartphones are omitting this port.

At the top, there are two speaker holes, but keep in mind that the Redmi A5 features a mono speaker. If you’re looking for a more immersive audio experience, using wireless or wired earphones through the audio port will likely provide better sound quality.

On the left side, there’s a SIM tray with three slots, allowing you to use two SIM cards and a microSD card simultaneously.

The Redmi A5 has dimensions of 171.7 x 77.8 x 8.3 mm and weighs 193 grams. The ergonomic design and relatively lightweight feel make it comfortable for extended use.

The slim body (8.26 mm thick) and weight of only 193g make it easy to hold, which is an advantage, especially considering the large 6.88-inch screen.

For a large screen phone like the Redmi A5, the design ensures that it remains comfortable to use. Xiaomi has made sure that despite the sizable display, the phone doesn’t feel unwieldy or heavy.

The Redmi A5 comes in several attractive colors, including Lake Green, Sandy Gold, and Midnight Black for the Indonesian market. The unit I reviewed is the Lake Green variant. Another option you can choose is Ocean Blue color.

If there’s one design flaw, it’s the camera bump. While the bump itself isn’t an issue, it may be misleading, as it appears to house two cameras, yet the Redmi A5 only has one functional camera. It’s unclear what the second "camera" is intended for.

The Screen Supports 120 Hz Refresh Rate and Auto Brightness

The Redmi A5 features a 6.88-inch IPS LCD screen with HD+ resolution (720 x 1640 pixels). The display quality is standard for a phone in this price range, with a pixel density of 260 ppi.

Although this pixel density makes the screen appear a little blurry at times, the color reproduction and wide viewing angles are decent for everyday activities like browsing and social media.

There are three color tone presets to adjust to your preference: Standard (neutral), Warm, and Cool.

While these settings aren’t as advanced as those on flagship phones, they’re helpful for tailoring the display to your needs. I personally prefer the Standard mode because it's not too vibrant.

The brightness level of the screen is 450 nits (HBM 600 nits), which is enough for indoor use. However, under direct sunlight, the screen readability isn’t great. Even at the highest brightness, text and content can appear dim, which may be problematic for those who frequently use their phones outdoors.

One feature I really like is the auto-brightness mode. It’s a feature I rarely find on phones in this price range, and it’s helpful for adjusting the screen brightness according to the lighting conditions. However, you’ll need to access it via the settings menu.

Another perk of the screen is its 120 Hz refresh rate. When set to 120 Hz, scrolling and navigation are smooth, which makes for a pleasant experience. For those who want to save battery life, you can switch to the 60 Hz mode.

Unfortunately, the Redmi A5 lacks an adaptive refresh rate feature, meaning the screen doesn’t automatically switch between 60 Hz and 120 Hz depending on the content. You’ll need to manually adjust it based on your usage.

The screen also supports adaptive brightness, adjusting the brightness based on the environment, and features an Outdoor mode that enhances visibility when used outside, though it turns off automatically when not in use.

Additionally, the display comes with DC dimming and is TÜV Rheinland certified for low blue light and flicker-free performance—an excellent feature for users who spend a lot of time on their phones.

In general, the combination of these features makes reading long articles or chatting more comfortable compared to other entry-level phones without similar certifications.

That said, the screen isn’t perfect—there’s noticeable reflection in certain conditions, and the quality diminishes when viewed from the side, which is somewhat disappointing for an IPS panel.

The biggest drawback, however, is the Widevine L3 support that limits streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ to SD resolution. For those who enjoy HD content, this can be quite disappointing. However, for casual video watching on YouTube or local content, the display is still adequate.

Good Performance, But Limited to 4 GB RAM

The Redmi A5 delivers decent performance for its price range, thanks to the Unisoc T7250 chipset. Built with a 12nm process, this chip features an octa-core CPU, consisting of two ARM Cortex-A75 cores running at 1.8 GHz for heavier tasks, and six ARM Cortex-A55 cores at 1.6 GHz for better power efficiency with lighter applications.

For graphics, the Unisoc T7250 is paired with the ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. On paper, this GPU has two cores and is designed to offer acceptable graphics performance for a budget device.

However, the phone’s performance feels slightly held back. Considering it uses ARM Cortex-A75 cores, the Redmi A5 could have been even more appealing if it came with 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM.

Unfortunately, at the time of this review, the only official variant available in Indonesia features 4 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 GB of eMMC storage.

The Unisoc T7250 is indeed built to deliver solid day-to-day performance without excessive battery drain. Still, by 2025, I believe entry-level smartphones should be equipped with at least 6 GB of RAM. While the Redmi A5 offers a 'memory extension' feature to virtually increase RAM, it doesn’t significantly improve real-world multitasking.

The 4 GB RAM does limit multitasking for users like me who often juggle multiple apps.

While the Redmi A5 can handle opening several apps at once, it does impose a limit: only nine apps can run in the background. Opening a tenth app causes the first app to close automatically — likely a measure from Xiaomi to keep the phone running smoothly. Additionally, switching between apps often triggers app reloads.

If it had more RAM, the overall user experience would certainly be better. Nevertheless, I appreciate that the phone maintains smooth multitasking within these limits, and I rarely experience any noticeable lag.

Testing with Benchmark Apps and Games

No review would be complete without a look at benchmark scores. These numbers provide a measurable reference point, though in my opinion, real-world user experience remains the most important factor.

For comparison, I’m using data from the itel P70, a phone in the same price bracket as the Redmi A5. The itel P70, equipped with a Helio G50 chip, achieved an AnTuTu v10 score of 138,788. On Geekbench 6, it scored 191 in single-core performance and 824 in multi-core.

As for the Redmi A5, it posted an impressive AnTuTu v10 score of 264,784, significantly higher thanks to its performance cores. On Geekbench 6, it scored 439 in single-core and 1,471 in multi-core tests.

From these results alone, it's clear that the Redmi A5 outperforms the itel P70 by a wide margin. The advantage is largely thanks to the performance cores, a feature missing from the Helio G50.

In GPU benchmarks, the Redmi A5 scored 708 on Geekbench GPU tests, 578 on 3DMark Wild Life, and 581 on 3DMark Wild Life Stress.

So how does the Redmi A5 perform when it comes to gaming, especially with only 4 GB of RAM? The answer: it’s still capable, although there are limitations. I tested three games: Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Free Fire.

Genshin Impact can be installed on the Redmi A5, but I was unable to log in for some reason, so I couldn’t test it properly.

In Mobile Legends, the maximum available setting is "Super-Ultra," but gameplay feels sluggish at this level. For the best experience, it's better to set the graphics to "High" with the frame rate also on "High."

In PUBG Mobile, selecting the "Smooth" graphics setting paired with a "High" frame rate results in a comfortable experience. Playing at "Balanced" graphics with the same frame rate is possible, but you may notice some occasional stuttering.

As for Free Fire, the Redmi A5 handles the game smoothly, even with Ultra graphics settings and high FPS mode. There were no noticeable issues during gameplay.

Another positive point: during gaming sessions of up to 30 minutes, the phone never overheated — a significant advantage for prolonged gaming or heavy use.

Camera Performance: Decent in Daylight

The Redmi A5’s rear camera setup includes a 32 MP main sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, accompanied by an additional lens that likely serves as a depth sensor for portrait shots.

Honestly, this secondary lens feels unnecessary. It doesn’t contribute much, and the elongated camera bump would have looked cleaner if Xiaomi had just stuck with a single camera.

The 32 MP sensor uses a 4P lens and comes with features such as LED flash, HDR, Ultra HD, Night mode, Portrait mode, Time-lapse, and Fill-light. With an f/2.0 aperture, the camera should be able to capture sufficient light, especially in well-lit environments.

For video recording, the rear camera supports 1080p at 30fps — standard for phones in this price range and perfectly fine for casual use. That said, don’t expect much in terms of video quality. The footage is fairly average and suffers from noticeable instability, so I won’t dwell too much on this aspect.

Main Camera Performance

Under good lighting conditions, the Redmi A5’s rear camera can produce photos with decent detail and fairly accurate colors. However, its performance drops significantly in low-light scenarios, where noise becomes prominent and fine details are lost.

I tested the main camera in a variety of lighting conditions and capture modes. The results were quite satisfactory for its price class. The photos generally look good, with balanced colors that aren’t overly saturated.

Here are some examples of photos taken with the Redmi A5’s main camera:

In low-light environments, the camera’s limitations become more obvious. Photo quality often dips, though using the Night mode or Ultra HD mode can help — provided there’s still a decent amount of light. In very dim conditions, the camera struggles despite these modes.

Here are some examples of low-light shots:

As you can see, the camera’s performance in darker environments leaves much to be desired.

Front Camera Performance

On the front, the Redmi A5 features an 8 MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture. It also supports HDR, Night mode, Fill-light Portrait mode, and Time-lapse. The Fill-light feature is a nice touch — using the screen as a light source to improve selfies taken in poor lighting.

In good lighting, the front camera delivers fairly sharp selfies with reasonable detail. It’s certainly good enough for social media uploads.

The front camera can also record videos at 1080p and 30fps, which is adequate for video calls and basic vlogging needs. Considering the Redmi A5’s affordable price point, the compromises in video recording quality are understandable.

Here are some examples of selfies taken with the Redmi A5:

For an entry-level phone, the selfie camera performs well in daylight when there is sufficient lighting. However, in low-light conditions, there’s a noticeable amount of noise that affects photo quality, which is to be expected at this level.

Interface: Pure Android Experience with Two OS Updates

At first, I assumed the Redmi A5 would come with Android Go, as many affordable smartphones do. Typically, Android Go versions run lightweight apps like YouTube Go, Gmail Go, and Google Maps Go to keep performance smooth on entry-level devices.

However, after testing the phone, I found that the Redmi A5 does not run Android Go Edition.

Instead, it uses the full standard version of Android. All Google apps on the device are the regular versions, not the "Go" variants. Out of the box, the Redmi A5 runs Android 15.

Unlike most Xiaomi phones that come with MIUI — now evolving into HyperOS — the Redmi A5 sticks to a pure Android experience, similar to what you find on Google Pixel and some Nokia devices. This "vanilla" Android experience means the interface is clean, unmodified, and free from heavy customization.

One major benefit of pure Android is that it uses less storage. On initial setup, the system occupies just 21 GB, leaving around 109 GB free for other apps and media.

I previously used the Redmi Note 8, which offered many features through MIUI. However, it came with downsides such as heavier performance and ads scattered throughout the system. Even HyperOS still includes ads on some Xiaomi models, especially in the Redmi lineup.

The Redmi A5, by contrast, is almost ad-free. While it does come with some pre-installed Xiaomi apps like Mi Browser, Mi Video, and Mi Themes, these apps don’t show ads during normal use. Mi Video, however, goes beyond being a simple video player and also hosts short video content similar to TikTok.

For a better media experience, I would recommend installing a third-party video player like VLC.

That said, the phone isn’t entirely clean — there are a few pre-installed apps related to hotel bookings and e-commerce. Fortunately, these apps aren’t intrusive.

What is slightly more annoying is the presence of "Get Apps," Xiaomi's alternative app store, which sometimes suggests apps or ads. Fortunately, it can be disabled by navigating to Home Settings and turning off "Personalized search."

Overall, I really enjoy the Redmi A5's user experience. The system feels lightweight, fast, and uncluttered. Android 15’s built-in features are more than enough to meet everyday needs without any additional bloatware.

I was a bit surprised during a system update when the phone mentioned "MIUI" — but this seems to be just a label. In practice, the Redmi A5 still delivers a pure Android experience.

Best of all, Xiaomi promises two major OS updates for the Redmi A5, meaning it will eventually be eligible for Android 16 and Android 17.

Incomplete Sensors, Good Connectivity, and a Mono Speaker

Now, let’s move on to the sensors featured on the Redmi A5. Starting with the fingerprint sensor — as mentioned earlier in the design section, the Redmi A5 uses a physical fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button on the side. This design has become quite common and is generally reliable.

In daily use, the fingerprint sensor works reasonably well but is not the fastest. If my finger isn't placed correctly, it sometimes takes two attempts to unlock the phone. In comparison, the face unlock feature is noticeably quicker and remains effective even in low-light conditions.

As for additional sensors, the Redmi A5 comes equipped with an accelerometer, a light sensor, and a compass. Thanks to the light sensor, the auto-brightness feature functions properly, although it needs to be checked in the settings to ensure it’s enabled by default.

So, why is the Redmi A5 considered lacking in terms of sensors? Because it only uses a virtual proximity sensor, rather than a physical one.

Moreover, the device does not support a gyroscope, infrared blaster, or NFC. While the absence of a gyroscope and infrared sensor is understandable for a phone at this level, the lack of NFC is a slight letdown — especially since some similarly priced competitors have already adopted it.

On the connectivity side, things are as expected. The Redmi A5 supports 4G networks, which remains standard for entry-level smartphones.

When it comes to audio, the Redmi A5 is fitted with a single speaker and a mono microphone. The sound quality is basic, which is typical for phones in this segment, and it’s consistent with what you would find on other entry-level models.

Equipped with a Long-Lasting 5200 mAh Battery

At first glance, the Redmi A5’s 5200 mAh battery might seem fairly standard. These days, a 5,000 mAh battery is considered the norm, so I didn’t expect anything extraordinary from the Redmi A5 in terms of battery life.

However, real-world use tells a different story. This phone turned out to be impressively durable. I tested it by playing a 4K video offline using VLC Player, with brightness and volume both set at 50%, and all wireless connections — mobile data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth — turned off.

Starting from a full charge, after 10 hours of continuous playback, the battery still had 43% remaining. That means roughly 57% of the battery was consumed.

This is a very good result, especially when compared to similarly priced devices. For instance, the Tecno Spark 30 Pro was left with just 23% battery after the same test, while the itel P70 managed only 22%. It's clear that the Redmi A5 benefits from effective software optimization.

That said, charging is one area where compromises are evident. The Redmi A5 only supports 15W charging. In my testing, a 15-minute charge restored 14% battery from zero, while one hour of charging brought it up to 31%.

A full charge took about 164 minutes — just under three hours — which feels rather slow by today's standards.

Conclusion

The Redmi A5 is a strong contender in the entry-level segment. Thanks to its clean Android experience, the phone offers a smooth and responsive user experience without the burden of heavy customizations or unnecessary ads. It's a comfortable device for everyday tasks and light gaming.

Using this phone feels enjoyable, especially with its 120Hz refresh rate that ensures fluid scrolling and animations. While the display itself isn’t the sharpest — offering only HD+ resolution — this is understandable given its affordable price.

In fact, the combination of a lightweight operating system, an HD display, and an efficient chipset significantly contributes to the phone’s excellent battery life.

The camera delivers decent results under good lighting conditions, though performance drops off in low-light environments — something typical in this price range.

Overall, the Redmi A5 provides a pleasant everyday experience, although naturally, it comes with a few limitations worth noting.

Here’s a quick overview of what to consider before purchasing:

Pros of the Redmi A5:

• The large 6.88-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate offers smooth scrolling and animation.
• The 5200 mAh battery provides excellent all-day endurance.
• Solid build quality and an attractive design for its class.
• Comfortable to hold, with a slim 8.3 mm profile and light weight at 193 grams.
• Pure Android system ensures a clean, responsive experience without unnecessary bloatware.
• Promised support for two OS updates.
• Dedicated microSD slot supporting expansion up to 1TB.
• Includes a 3.5mm headphone jack for users who prefer wired audio.
• The 32 MP rear camera produces good photos under adequate lighting.

Things to consider:

• The Unisoc T7250 chipset handles basic tasks and light gaming but struggles with heavier games.
• Limited multitasking capabilities, with only 4 GB of RAM and a cap of nine apps running simultaneously.
• HD+ resolution (720 x 1640 pixels) feels less sharp on a large 6.88-inch screen.
• Display brightness is average, and Widevine L3 certification restricts video streaming to SD quality.
• The refresh rate is not adaptive, impacting efficiency.
• Camera performance drops significantly in low-light conditions.
• 15W charging speed is relatively slow for the size of the battery.
• Missing features include NFC, a gyroscope sensor, and a physical proximity sensor (virtual only).
• Fingerprint sensor is slower compared to facial recognition.

The Redmi A5 is a great choice for budget-conscious users who mainly need a phone for basic communication, light social media browsing, and casual gaming. However, it may not be ideal for those looking for a device capable of intensive multitasking or heavy gaming.