Xiaomi’s most affordable 5.5″ smartphone now on pre-order in Malaysia

Love the screen size of the Redmi Note 4 but looking for something that’s more affordable? The Redmi Note 5A is coming to Malaysia real soon. Ahead of its availability next week, a couple of authorised Mi Malaysia retailers have started offering pre-orders for the device.

The Redmi Note 5A with official Mi Malaysia warranty is priced at RM549 and it comes in either Grey or Gold. Retailer DirectD and Mobile 2 Go have listed the Redmi Note 5A on their pages with stocks expected to be available on 10-11 October 2017. As a pre-order promo, both retailers are bundling a free Mi Powerbank 10000mAh worth RM85.

The Redmi Note 5A gets a 5.5″ HD 720p display in a thin 7.55mm body. Under the hood, the Redmi Note 5A is powered by a Snapdragon 425 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage. If you need more storage, it has a dedicated microSD slot which you can use simultaneously with 2 SIM cards.

For taking pictures, it gets a 13MP f/2.2 main camera and a front-facing 5MP f/2.0 selfie unit. Juicing up this budget device is a 3,080mAh battery.

At RM549 it is definitely cheaper than the higher-spec Redmi Note 4. However, looking at the specs, it is quite similar to the Redmi 4A (RM469) which has a smaller 5.0″ HD 720p display but it comes with 32GB of onboard storage.

Over in China, there’s a higher spec Redmi Note 5A Prime. That has a slightly better Snapdragon 435 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. On top of that, the Redmi Note 5A Prime has a higher resolution 16MP selfie camera. If you’re interested in this version, you can find import sets (non-Mi Malaysia units) from as low as RM599 over at Lazada Malaysia.