Camera is good for the price, but don’t expect miracles

The Redmi Note 5 gets an improved 12-megapixel main camera with a f/1.9 lens plus a 5-megapixel secondary lens with a f/2.0 aperture. That’s an improvement over the Indian version of the device, which should mean better camera performance in low-light.

Before we get to the photos taken by the phone, it’s important to note that we ran into a delayed shutter issue with the phone early in our review process, which resulted in nasty 1-3 second lag when taking photos. It eventually went away on its own, but for full disclosure, we have to tell you guys about it. Now, on to photos.

The improved camera gets better shots indoors compared to a model that only has an f/2.2 lens, though it’s not amazing, per se. There’s detail loss on the image of the flower that we took, though overall the camera performed pretty well considering its price range.

Long battery life, but lack of fast charging is agonizing

The Redmi Note 5 has pretty large battery considering its size. The 4000mAh power pack should keep you going for a while, and we constantly enjoyed around a day and a half of use before having to plug back into a charger.

Once you do plug into a charger though, you’re in for an agonizing wait: the phone doesn’t come with a fast charger, and that big battery pack takes a while to fill once you drain it. Expect to wait around for around two hours for a full charge on the Redmi Note 5.