After it was just a Chinese company operating here, Xiaomi Company succeeded in being a company known to most users in Egypt and was able to authenticate its name in the Egyptian market, thanks to the fabulous specifications in return for the price in every smartphone presented by the company. But now and at this time, Xiaomi has exceeded all limits, through launching its new cellphone Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 under the slogan "The Camera Beast" with the strong performance, large screen and excellent cameras, unlike previous Xiaomi cellphone cameras, a matter that qualifies this phone to be a strong rival to the various brands of other mobile phones in the same price category like Oppo F7 and P20 Lite. But, is this phone worthy enough to be acquired? Is it worth the title of the camera beast as it named by Xiaomi? Design and manufacturing materials: The phone design carries the special character of Xiaomi in its medium sizes and as such the smartphone has appeared with a medium-sized design like Redmi Note 4, regardless the rear camera design, which exactly resembles the IPhone X. And despite the design of the phone is not innovative, but it was as a good design as makes you feel like carrying a high-end phone. The phone comes with a new screen, which means that the edges of the phone will be small. Basically, the edges are not as small as the Oppo F7 or Huawei P20 Lite, but it is acceptable, considering the cellphone price and its rivals. The only thing that can be considered a default at the cellphone design is the projection of the rear camera from the cellphone body by some millimetres, a matter that could subject the rear camera to scratching or break, in case the phone be placed into its back. When shifting from design to the manufacturing materials, we find that the phone is, as usual from Xiaomi, completely made of a high-efficiency metal with a face made up from glass. Control and usage: As a result of the relatively large size and heavy weight of the phone, control of the phone is somewhat difficult; a matter that hampers the holding of the phone with one hand and cause exhaustion when it be carried for long hours. At the front panel, there is definitely the screen, occupying nearly 77.4 per cent of the total area of the interface. At the top of the screen is the headset. Found right of the headset are the phone sensors and a LED warning light. Existed left the headset is the 13 megapixel front camera with a LED flash. At the bottom and under the screen, there are the phone control buttons, which are also drawn on the screen.. At the back of the phone and on the far left, there is the dual rear camera, and slightly above the middle of the phone, there is the fingerprint sensor. To the right of the phone, there are audio control buttons and below them directly is the power switch. On the other side, there is a slot for the SIM card and external storage card or two SIM cards without storage card. At the top of the phone, there are an IR port and a secondary microphone to isolate the noise; meanwhile at the bottom of the phone is a USB-Micro port, and at the middle from the right, there is the main handset, so as not to be silenced unintentionally while using the phone. At the left, there is the main speaking microphone and a 3.5 mm jack port. Screen and sound: The phone comes with a massive 5.99-inch IPS, LCD, capacitive touchscreen that supports the multi-touch operation and 16 million, and comes with the new dimensions 18: 9 at accuracy of 1080 x 2160 pixels (FHD +) through a density amounting to 403 pixel per square inch. The screen is secured by a protection layer from a Corning Gorilla Glass type. Screen performance is distinctive in terms of colour saturation and depth, moreover the view angles are clear and as such the screen could be clearly seen from any direction. Also, you can adjust the screen temperature and make it cool or warm if you feel some changes at the screen colours. As for the voice of the phone, it is very good and we do not have any negative views. By contrast, the external telephone speaker is loud, clear and pure and you will not face any problems with the voice of the phone. Camera: In the recent period in which Xiaomi has appeared at the Egyptian market, it was will-known for its unreliable camera at all; moreover the camera was just an accessory with the phone. But with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, which was promoted as "the camera beast" the matter is quite different and it appeared that the company has already made a fabulous effort to improve its reputation, and as such the phone has double cameras, rear and front. The rear camera is 12 megapixels with a Len's slot of F/109 and a pixel size of 1.4. The more the size of the pixel is big the more the camera is able to polarise the light, which means better images. The front camera is a 5-Megapixel accuracy with a Len's slot of f/2.0, and is available to provide portrait mode or insulation mood. The cellphone camera provided excellent physical performance, which makes us say that Xiaomi provided a great camera already; since in high light and sunlight, the images were produced in an excellent manner and full, moreover the colours were sharp and close to nature. Also, in poor lighting or room light, the performance was also good, and that there was no image noise, which had long been known for Xiaomi phones in poor lightings. The rear camera also provided an excellent video shooting at all kinds of lightings with a terrible stability more than Oppo F7 and Huawei P20 Lite, through a quality of shooting ups to 1080, a 30-shoot speed per second. As for the portrait mode, its performance was excellent as well, and the phone camera was isolating the objects accurately without any errors. It is true that the performance has decreased slightly in the weak lighting but it remained acceptable and reliable. The development adopted by Xiaomi has also covered the front-facing camera, and as such the cellphone comes with a 13-megapixel front camera with a Len's slot of f/2.0 that is annexed with a single LED flash and can shoot videos with a resolution ups to 1080p and 30 shoot per second. But it still needs further development in colours, especially skin colours, which were a bit soft. But in any case, the front camera could be reliable on all modes. User Interface: The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 comes integrated with the latest Android Operation System found in a cellphone – Oreo 8.1 – with the latest Xiaomi interfaces - MIUI 9.5. The Xiaomi interface is considered one of the main reasons that let Xiaomi be strong rival, thanks to the great features and easiness of use. One of the key features of the MIUI 9.5 interface or the recent Xiaomi interfaces is the Second Space feature, which is a feature that allows you to have two phones in one time! But how so?, the answer is very simple. This feature provides you with two different accounts on the phone that are completely different from each other in terms of installed applications, themes, lock screen and several other settings. The interface also has the App Twins feature, which allows you to make two copies of any application you have, such as Facebook or WhatsApp and open them at the same time with two different accounts. One of the most important updates on the phone interface is the possibility of canceling the buttons below and replacing them with some wonderful gestures; and as such by dragging from top to bottom, the application closes and by dragging from bottom to top and standing for a few seconds, the phone opens applications will be opened and appeared in the background. Although these gestures were seen before in some smartphones, but the new here is that by dragging from right to left or vice versa, the phone turns back! At the beginning, you may find some difficulty getting used to those gestures, but with time you cannot do without it, and will enable you to use the screen in full size. There is also several other gestures like clicking twice on the screen to wake it or drag by three fingers from the top to the bottom over the screen to Screen Shot. Unfortunately, the phone does not have a Face Unlock feature that allows you to protect your phone with a Face ID, but it is expected that the company will send an update to users bearing this feature. The last thing we tested on the phone was the fingerprint sensor, which seemed very fast and accurate and as such you trust protecting your phone or locking applications through. But, such an application is marred by limited use, and as such you cannot navigate between images in the gallery or download the notification bar or many other features that we see in Huawei phones, for example. Share and delivery methods: The phone supports all global and local networks; moreover it supports GSM, HSDPA and 4G networks with a strong connection. Unfortunately, the phone does not support the installation of two SIM cards and external storage cards at the same time, so you have to do away with the external storage card to use the two SIM cards; but Xiaomi has replaced such a default with a wonderful advantage represented in the possibility of running the two SIM cards on the 4G networks at the same time, a feature that I see for the first time at a smartphone In the Egyptian market, but you have to go for settings to activate this feature as it is not activated automatically. As for the performance of the calls, the headphone was wonderful, and we could hear the caller's voice very clearly; moreover and the secondary loudspeaker has participated in isolating noise, a matter that participated in improving the quality of the communication in an excellent manner and there were no problems. Battery: The phone comes integrated with a 4000 mA, a lithium-polymer, not removable battery that does not support fast charging mode, although the phone processor supports Quick Charge 4.0, but the company did not activate this feature in the phone. The battery performance was as big as its size, since it offered a 9-hour screen-on operation without a need to be recharged more than once a day. And even, if you are among those of averaged use, the battery will last for the set time, by virtue of the phone processor that is made of 14 nm precision, which means it is energy efficient as far as possible. The only negative point in the phone battery was the charging time. And as a result of the lack of supporting the fast charging technology, the battery has been got charged by 27% in half an hour; moreover the battery took a full hour to be got charged by 55%, a matter that means that the phone needs about two and a half hours to be fully charged. These numbers may be considered large, but Xiaomi has replaced such a default by the legendary performance of the battery. Performance: The phone processor is the basis on which the rest of the hardware is built, so Xiaomi has presented the first-of-its-kind processor in a smart phone – the Snapdragon 636 processor, which is the latest version of the previous Snapdragon 625 processor, with a 40% increase in performance. What is anew in the new processor is that it comes with a new design called Kryo 260 and has eight-class cores, four of them work at a frequency of 1.8 GHz Cortex-A73 for the hard work, meanwhile the four other cores work with a frequency of 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 for medium and normal tasks. Added to the aforesaid, the phone has a graphic and video processor of the type Adreno 509; moreover it (the phone) comes in two versions. The first version has a 3-GB Ram and 32 GB internal storage memory and the other comes with a 4-GB Ram and internal storage memory of 64 GB. The Ram in both versions is DDR4, which means more speed during use. Features of Xiaomi Redmi Note 5: * Large screen with the new dimensions and small circular edges * Very special performance with a phone processor avoiding you any distraction or hanging up at any time * A giant battery that lasts for more than a day * A digital rear camera that has exceptional performance on all previous Xiaomi phones * Excellent front camera that you can rely on * The latest Android system with the latest interface for the Xiaomi * Support of running the 4G network on the 2 SIM cards at the same time * Support of the Scoop sensor feature that enables you to turn on virtual reality glasses and watch photos and videos by a 360 degree angle Xiaomi Redmi Note 5's defaults: * Phone weight is somewhat heavy, weighing 181 grams with large terminals of the screen * Does not support the two SIM cards and an external storage card feature at the same time * Does not support NFC technology * Does not support fast charging technology * Does not support Face ID, which allows you to protect your phone through the interface Final Review: Xiaomi's policy in the Egyptian market has become clear to all – leaving all companies to offer their best and then surprised us by the best. We have all been impressed by what Oppo presented on its new phone F7 and also by what Huawei has presented in P20 Lite smartphone, but Xiaomi has offered us its premium phone Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 with almost all the specifications that the Oppo F7 and the Huawei P20 Lite have with a much lower price, and as such we have not lost anything in such a phone. The camera, which has been long known to be the worst in Xiaomi phones, has been developed and as such the screen, the battery and many other features to impose its control over the middle class without doubt, a matter that made me say loudly, there is no smartphone – at the range of up to LE5.000 in price – better than Xiaomi Redmi Note 5.
