What happened to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5?

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is one of the most popular smartphones not only in China but also in other markets where the Xiaomi brand is popular, including India.

It’s now a year since the Redmi Note 4 launched and even though expectations are high in the Note 4’s camp, we have some bad but not-so-disappointing news for you. Given its popularity, it would only make sense for the Chinese OEM to follow it up with an equally powerful handset at an affordable price tag. However, from the best of our knowledge, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 won’t get a direct successor in the shape of Redmi Note 5, but why? And also why nothing’s wrong with that, because there is indeed a true successor that has been already launched by the company, just under the different name — the Redmi 5 Plus — than the Redmi Note 5.

There is a Redmi Note 5 between us!

Traditionally, the major difference between the Xiaomi Redmi and Redmi Note families has been all about the sheer size and performance specs. Samsung popularized the Note name tag to mean big display size and this is exactly what you get with the Redmi Note 4 – a bigger 5.5-inch display compared to the 5-inch panel used on the Xiaomi Redmi 4. The Note 4 also ships with more powerful hardware specs compared to the Redmi 4.

With the launch of the near bezel-less Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus, it was obvious that Xiaomi is up to something. Where the Redmi 5 succeeds the Redmi 4, both literally and figuratively, there is no such direct successor to its bigger brother, the Redmi Note 4. As there is no release or announcement of the Redmi Note 5. But this doesn’t mean we don’t have a Redmi Note 4’s successor — it may not be a literal successor like Redmi Note 5, but it’s a figurative one, in the Redmi 5 Plus.

Here’s why Redmi 5 Plus is a Redmi Note 5 you want

Looking at the specs and features the Redmi 5 Plus brings to the table in comparison to the Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 4, we believe that this is the would be Xiaomi Redmi Note 5.

If your reasons for looking forward to the release of the Redmi Note 5 are to get a bigger display screen, a more powerful processor, bigger RAM and storage as well as a bigger battery compared to the standard Redmi 5, well, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus has all of these in store. It gets even better when it comes to pricing, where the phone has a similarly affordable price tag compared to the outgoing Redmi Note 4.

As you can see, the major differentiators between the Redmi 4 and Redmi Note 4 are quite evident when it comes to Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus, which can only mean one thing: that the latter pair is here to succeed the former, respectively.

No more naming confusions

Never before has Xiaomi released a Redmi Plus handset with a bigger screen and more powerful specs than its standard Redmi counterpart. Instead, the company opted to use the bigger screen and more powerful specs on a Redmi Note handset. Well, there’s always a first time for everything and it seems this is Xiaomi’s first attempt at creating harmony within its smartphone division, especially when it comes to naming.

You are probably still coming to terms with the idea that there’s no Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. Well, you are definitely not alone. As noted, the popularity of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is reason enough for the company to come up with a worthy successor. However, looking at how confusing Xiaomi’s naming strategy in the budget and midrange market is becoming, it only makes sense that there’s no Redmi Note 5 accompanying the Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus.

While we are confident that the Redmi 5 Plus is the successor to the Redmi Note 4, this is not an official communication from Xiaomi. In case of any changes, which we don’t expect, we’ll be here to let you know.

We wished Redmi 5 Plus had more!

If you compare the specs between Redmi 5 Plus and Redmi Note 4, they are pretty identical except for the display panel. Where a 5.99-inch bezel-less display (18:9 ratio) on top of the Redmi 5 Plus is anytime a direct improvement from the Redmi Note 4’s 5.5-inch panel, the rest of the spec sheet is almost the same: the same Snapdragon 625 SoC, RAM, and storage, even the camera.

And that does leave room for the improvement — and that’s the only reason Xiaomi could still bring us a true Redmi Note 5, that might be even bigger than the Redmi 5 Plus — a little, maybe by 0.2 inches — and may pack in latest processor, which could be either of the Snapdragon 630 (at the least), or the SD635, SD636, or even the SD660 chipset.

No official news on the Redmi Note 5, BTW!

All said and done, Xiaomi is yet to comment on the Redmi Note 5.

Which can be taken as hope, too: if the company fully believed in Redmi 5 Plus as the direct replacement of Redmi Note 5, they would have told us so and so. But they haven’t, which is a shrewd business actually — as they could still release the much-awaited Redmi Note 5 in a while to get one over the competition, precisely after the competition sets have been received already.

And if the Redmi 5 Plus is well received, they could announce this anytime that they don’t have a Redmi Note 5 in plans. Either way, it’s a win-win for them.

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And for what it’s worth, the Redmi 5 Plus comes across the same competition as the Redmi Note 5 would have — the Honor 7X, which is a successor to Honor 6X, that was Redmi Note 4’s main rival for the whole of last year.

So, thoughts?

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