If you’ve ever looked at the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, which is the best smartphone in its class and one of the best bang-for-buck handsets you could buy, and thought “Hey, it’s still not quite worth the money”, there’s good news. Xiaomi Malaysia just dropped the price of their jewel of a budget handset, bringing the entire range below the RM900 mark.
DirectD revealed today that Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 will now be priced at RM869 for the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, with the base model 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant coming in at just RM699 now. That’s a drop of RM70 and RM50 respectively.
While that doesn’t look like that much, it’s a significant savings in the budget handset department. This brings the smartphone directly in line with ASUS’ base-model ZenFone Max Pro M1 (RM699, 3GB RAM/32GB storage), whose biggest strength over the Redmi Note 5 — besides its stock Android experience and larger battery — was its lower price tag.
Now that the playing field has been leveled, it becomes much harder to recommend the ZenFone Max Pro M1 over this handset now. Of course, it still has its strengths in the near-stock Android experience and larger battery, but it falls short in several other aspects.
To recap, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 features a big slim-bezeled IPS display up front that pushes a Full HD+ resolution of 2160×1080 pixels across 5.99 inches. Inside its metal body is a Snapdragon 636 processor and a 4,000 mAh battery that charges via microUSB.
For photos, you’re getting a dual-camera setup at the back that features a 12MP main sensor with an f/1.9 aperture lens and a 5MP secondary sensor for depth effects (bokeh). In front, you’ll be greeted by a 13MP selfie shooter with an f/2.2 aperture lens.
If you want to know more about the Redmi Note 5, check out our full review. If the Redmi Note 5 isn’t your cup of tea and you’re looking for a handset within this price range, be sure to check out our budget smartphone buyer’s guide where we list some of the best phones under RM1,200.
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