Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 Pro has become a bestseller phone in India owing to its high-end specifications which come at an equally attractive price point. Because of the high popularity of the phone, each and every time the phone has gone out of stock in the flash sales which happened on Flipkart. However, there is bad news for people who are looking to buy the phone now. Although a substantial amount of people have already bought the phone there might be some buyers who were waiting for some time to have a better look at the reviews of the phone. This could have been a bad move since now the company has decided to raise the price of the phone by Rs 1000. After the price hike, the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant of the smartphone will come at the price of Rs 14,999 starting from 1 May 2018.
The major reason for this hike is the recent changes in tax structure along with the introduction of 10% of custom duty on the PCBA units of the smartphone. That being said, the Indian smartphone market is very sensitive to even minute price hikes and differences, and this move by Xiaomi might push some buyers to look for alternatives to the Redmi Note 5 Pro.
With the phone belonging to the budget segment, there are some devices which come close to cracking the price vs value on Xiaomi’s price point. For the buyers looking for some other alternative after Xiaomi’s price hike of the Redmi Note 5 Pro, we have compiled a detailed list comprising of the smartphones which can take its place.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro alternatives
Honor 9 Lite (starting at Rs 10,999)
The Honor 9 Lite is a phone which has been in some serious competition with the Redmi Note 5 Pro. After the recent hike, this phone is now bound to get some more attention. It comes with a 5.65-inch Full HD+ screen with 1080 x 2160 pixels resolution display with 18:9 aspect ratio and 2.5D curved glass. Under the hood, the phone sports Octa-core Kirin 659 processor which is clocked at 1.7GHz. The processor comes coupled with Mali T830-MP2 GPU for graphics. Presently there are two variants of the smartphone in the market which are of- 3GB of RAM with 32GB inbuilt storage and the next one with 4GB of RAM with 64GB inbuilt storage – both the variants come with the option of expandable storage of up to 256GB via the method of MicroSD. For power, there is a 3,000mAh battery.
On the software front the device boots Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box with Honor’s EMUI 8.0 skin on top. The phone also has a fingerprint scanner on the rear side of the phone. Speaking of the imaging front of the device, the phone sports a dual camera setup with13MP rear primary camera with LED flash, f/2.0 aperture paired with a secondary 2MP sensor with PDAF. For selfies, on the front side there is a 13MP sensor coupled with a secondary 2MP sensor. The dimensions of the device measures to be 151× 71.9 × 7.6mm and weighs 149 grams. For the connectivity, the phone supports 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS / GLONASS, 3.5 mm audio jack and micro USB slot.
Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 (starting at Rs. 10,999)
This new debut by Asus which seems to be getting a lot of attention lately sports a 5.99-inch Full HD+ screen with 2160×1080 pixels resolution. The display is of 18:9 aspect ratio and comes with 2.5D curved glass and offers a sparkling 450 nits of brightness along with 1500:1 contrast ratio and 85% NTSC colour gamut. Under the hood, the phone runs on an Octa-core Snapdragon 636 SoC which is clocked at 1.8GHz and comes coupled with Adreno 509 GPU for graphics. There are three variants of the phone which are - 3GB RAM/32GB inbuilt storage and 4GB or 6GB RAM/64GB of inbuilt storage options. All of the variants come with the option of expandable storage up to 2TB through a dedicated microSD slot. The battery on this device is a massively powered 5,000mAh.
In terms of software, the phone comes with the latest Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. Like most devices in today’s market the Asus phone also comes with a rear fingerprint scanner. On the imaging front, there is a 13MP primary rear sensors with PDAF with1.12?m pixel size, LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture, which comes paired with a secondary sensor of 5MP. For selfies, there is an 8MP sensor on the front with soft LED flash as well as f/2.2 aperture. The dimensions of the device measure to be159x76x8.46mm and it weighs 180 grams. This phone also offers similar connectivity options which include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, GPS + GLONASS, 3.5 mm audio jack and micro USB support. The Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 also ships some additional features like Face Unlock, and a 5-magnet speaker paired with NXP Smart Amp.
Honor 7X (starting at Rs 12,999)
The Honor 7X is yet another phone which can act as a substitute to the Redmi Note 5 Pro. This phone ships with a 5.93-inch Full HD+ screen with a resolution count of 2160 x 1080 pixels. The display is of 18:9 aspect ratio and also ships with 2.5D curved glass. The Honor 7X bases its performance on the in-house manufactured Octa-core Kirin 659 processor which clocks at 1.7GHz and comes with the Mali T830-MP2 GPU for graphics. The battery on the device is a 3,340mAh one. There are two variants to the Honor 7X in the market right now which are- 4GB RAM with 32GB inbuilt storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB inbuilt storage. Both the variants offer expandable storage of up to 256GB via a MicroSD card. The battery on the device is a 3,340mAh one.
The Honor 7X lags a bit behind on software front and boots Android 7.0 (Nougat) out-of-the-box with the EMUI 5.1 skin on top of it. On the imaging front, the camera sports a dual camera setup with a 16MP rear primary sensor which comes with LED flash coupled with a secondary 2MP camera. On the front, there is an 8MP sensor for selfies. The device measures to be 156.5 x 75.3 x 7.6mm and weighs 165grams. For connectivity, the phone comes with 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS/GLONASS, 3.5 mm audio jack and micro USB slot.
Moto G5S Plus (Rs 13,999)
The Moto G5S Plus which seems to be the last alternative to the Redmi Note 5 Pro fashions a 5.5-inch Full HD display which has a 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. The display of the phone is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood, the phone is powered by the Octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC which is clocked at 2GHz and comes coupled with Adreno 506 GPU for graphics. The phone offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage out of which the internal storage is expandable up to 128 GB through a microSD card. On the power front, the phone sports a 3,000mAh battery which also comes with TurboCharge capabilities.
On the software front, the phone boots Android Oreo 8.0 out of the box while on the imaging front the phone sports a dual camera setup which comprises of a 13MP RGB sensor along with a 13MP monochrome sensor. The rear camera module is supported by LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, and 4K video recording support. For selfies, there is an 8MP camera with flash and f/2.0 aperture on the front. The dimensions of the device measure to be 153.5×76.2x8mm and weight measures up to 168 grams. For connectivity, the phone features 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/GLONASS, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) and also NFC. There are also some additional features on the Moto G5S Plus like the water-repellent nano-coating and a bottom-ported loudspeaker.
