Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Xiaomi is no stranger to the budget segment of smartphones, its latest stab at the sub-Rs. 12,000 price point is the Redmi 5. It’s available in three variants — Rs. 7,999 for the Redmi 5 with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage; Rs. 8,999 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage; and Rs. 10,999 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
What makes Redmi 5 a worth buying mobile are its features which includes an 18:9 display with HD+ resolution (720×1440). The device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC making it one of the cheaper smartphone ranges when it comes to smartphones dealing with this SoC. For over a long time Xiaomi phones have been on the hype for the prowess of gaming experience, for which TIW team reviewed Redmi 5 to see if it really meets up to the expectations.
In order to do this, we picked our favourite games that are graphically intensive such as PUBG Mobile, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Asphalt 8, and Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade. If you are wondering why stuff like Candy Crush Saga is missing, it’s because most budget handsets have now evolved to the point where most of them will run them fine anyway. The objective here is to see if the Redmi 5 can be a decent budget mobile gaming option.

First up was PUBG Mobile. The surprise launch of this much anticipated entry in the battle royale genre is not as feature packed as Fortnite, the other popular game in the genre that recently made its journey from the big screen to the small, but since Epic Games’ newest is iOS-only for now, PUBG will have to do. Despite defaulting to the Low preset, PUBG Mobile was fun to play. Granted it doesn’t look as impressive in terms of foliage, environments, weapon models, and vehicles as it does on higher specced devices, but it maintains a solid frame rate even in demanding scenarios like grenade explosions galore and driving in vehicles. Even the demanding opening segment of each match that had us parachute into battle ran smooth enough.
Visually, PUBG Mobile appeared clean on the Redmi 5 with no muddy textures or excessively blurry edges, which made the entire experience rather enjoyable. The Redmi 5 didn’t go beyond feeling mildly warm after two matches spanning over 30 minutes.

By Bismay Mohanty

Bismay Mohanty is a tech-enthusiast and a columnist at TIW. Currently a Computer Science and Engineering Student, his works have been previously published in magazines and journals at several parts of the world.