The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is the bigger phone in the trio of Redmi 5 phones that Xiaomi introduced recently. And by big do we mean it; a 6-inch screen at this price is crazy. Priced at roughly Rs. 18,000, the Redmi 5 Plus is perfect for those looking for a phablet but have a tight budget.

Aesthetically Pleasing – more than you’d expect at this price

Let’s get it out in the open. There’s no denying the Redmi 5 Plus is a very good looking phone. With the front of the phone covered in nothing but screen, as is the trend this year, and the slimness at 8.1mm the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus has us sold with its design. Oh and did we mention? The phone is all metal with the front made of glass, unlike the common choice of plastic for phones this cheap.

The front is not entirely screen however. Above the display are the standard sensors, speaker grill and front facing camera. The back of the phone is where the main camera, LED flash, and well placed fingerprint sensor reside, in vertical succession to each other.

Beautiful is not enough to describe this display

Most of the Redmi 5 Plus’s beauty is accredited to its screen. A gigantic 6-inch panel with a resolution of 2160*1080, which equates to a very crisp 403ppi pixel density. In a sea of 720p phones in this phone bracket, the FHD+ resolution is more than welcome. The screen is an LCD one with In Plane Switching (IPS) technology. It makes for better viewing angles and great sunlight visibility.

Cameras are more than good for what you’re paying

While the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is not a camera centric phone, it doesn’t do bad when push comes to shove. The Redmi 5 Plus packs single cameras and not dual ones like most competitors do, but they cost more too. The front camera is a 5MP one with wide angle selfies and video recording capabilities at 1080p.

The main camera on the back is a 12MP sensor and its accompanied by a dual LED flash. The camera has an aperture of f/2.2, pretty standard. Phase detection auto focus is a nice surprise, whereas all the normal culprits like geo-tagging, touch focus and panorama modes are present too.

Upper Midrange hardware in an entry level phone

Surprisingly, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus has really good hardware considering that this is a sub 20k phone. With 2 versions available, one with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage and the other with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage with the option to expand up to 128G via a microSD card. Now that we got the standards out of the way let’s get to the star of the show: the Snapdragon 625. Frankly, we can’t believe that such a price wise budget oriented phone would sport a 600 series Snapdragon processor. A 435 would be more appropriate but it seems like Xiaomi is really packing a punch in this phone.

To top it all off, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus comes with Android 7.1 Nougat on board has a 4000mAh battery powering the phone behind the scenes.

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus pros:

• It has a large and beautiful screen
• It has lots of RAM and storage
• Beautiful Design
• Very cheap
• The Snapdragon 625 is a powerhouse for phones this cheap

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus cons:

• Can’t put our fingers on any.