Redmi Note 4 was the bestselling smartphone of last year and it seems that the Redmi Note 5 Pro is going to take that place this year. The handset was launched a couple of weeks ago and is available through flash sales which goes out of stock in less than 5 seconds. I tried 4 times but didn’t get any luck. Anyway, now we have the device and we are going to put it on several mid-range handsets.
The Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with some changes compared to Redmi Note 4. For example it has dedicated Portrait mode (like Mi A1) and dual sensors on the rear that are placed vertically, giving it an iPhone X look-a-like design. It is Xiaomi’s first phone to come with vertically-placed sensors.
Anyway, I really don’t care if the sensors are placed horizontally or vertically. What I really care about is how the camera performs. And to determine whether it is really improved, we are putting it against Honor 7X in a comprehensive camera comparison. Have a look at the specs below:
| Redmi Note 5 Pro | Huawei Honor 7X | |
| Rear | Dual 12MP (f/2.2) + 5MP (f/2.0), PDAF, LED Flash | Dual 16MP (f/2.2) + 2MP, PDAF, LED Flash |
| Front | 20MP (f/2.2), LED Flash | 8MP (f/2.0) |
DAYLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Photos taken under good lighting or daylight condition from Redmi Note 5 Pro are good but not better than the Honor 7X. Have a look above and below:
At first glance, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between them but as soon I zoomed in them to 100 percent, difference was clearly visible. Details and color accuracy is better on Honor 7X’s samples than those on Redmi Note 5 Pro.
Even though the Redmi Note 5 Pro is better in terms of sharpness but it’s completely useless if the details are missing. This section goes in the favor of Honor 7X.
HIGHT DYNAMIC RANGE or HDR PHOTOGRAPHY
With slightly disappointed by Redmi Note 5 Pro in the previous section, I turned on HDR mode hoping that it would definitely bring some changes but it seems that Xiaomi was just exaggerating its camera at the time of launch. Have a look above and below:
With HDR mode turned on, it’s not hard to tell the difference between images produced by these two. Photos of Honor 7X looks sharper and brighter than those of Redmi Note 5 Pro.
Even the Honor 7X defeats Redmi Note 5 Pro in terms of capturing details. Zooming into 100 percent reveals that Redmi Note 5 distorts images and loses color accuracy. Much like the previous section, the Honor 7X takes a lead here too.
DEPTH OF FIELD or BOKEH
Even though the primary cameras of both handsets possesses same aperture size, their production has the difference. Have a look above and below:
The Redmi Note 5 Pro is better than the Honor 7X in terms of blurring the background however, it gets defeated by the latter when it comes to capturing details.
The Honor 7X is also better in terms of capturing realistic colors. Images with bokeh mode enabled on Honor 7X are even sharper than those on Redmi Note 5 Pro. Again, the Honor 7X takes a lead.
DEDICATED PORTRAIT MODE
Following the footprints of Xiaomi’s best mid-range camera phone Mi A1, the Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with dedicated Portrait mode; so does the Honor 7X. As I have seen the performance of this particular feature on Mi A1, my expectations were really high and fortunately, the Redmi Note 5 Pro did well. Have a look below:
The new Redmi device has produced an amazing photo. I truly loved it. From effectively blurring the background to maintain the primary object in focus, the Redmi Note 5 Pro proved that this feature is really as good as that on Mi A1.
The Honor 7X, on the other hand, couldn’t blur the background effectively. It couldn’t even be managed to produce an image as sharper as that on Redmi. This section is won by Redmi Note 5 Pro with flying colors.
LOWLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Lowlight photography is often challenging and I have seen that most of the Redmi series of devices struggle with lowlight shooting. So, will the Redmi Note 5 Pro prove me wrong? Well, we will find out. Look at the samples taken from both devices above and below:
In this section, the Redmi Note 5 Pro has done well. The handset has clicked the satisfactory image with the average amount of details and good color accuracy. I am also satisfied with the sharpness.
The Honor 7X, on the other hand, is not as good as or better than the Redmi Note 5 Pro. It lacks details and sharpness. Even the color accuracy is also not as good as or better than the Redmi Note 5 Pro. An image is noisy.
This section goes in the favor of Redmi Note 5 Pro.
LOWLIGHT HDR
With a slight disappointment from Honor 7X, I turned on HDR mode in order to capture better images. Have a look above and below:
While turning on the HDR mode did well on the Honor 7X, it turned out to be a disappointment on the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Even a little bit of handshake ruins the image. I tried several time and found that HDR mode is nearly useless on the Redmi Note 5 Pro as it is nearly impossible to keep the hand still for 3-4 seconds. Even though it captures details with HDR mode on, images look darker.
The Honor 7X, on the other hand, did well with HDR mode turned on. Images have good details, accurate colors and better sharpness than those on Redmi Note 5 Pro. They look brighter. This section goes in the favour of Honor 7X.
SELFIE
Coming to the selfie camera, both smartphones produce more or less similar photos. Color accuracy, details and sharpness; all these things are identical on both handsets. Even zooming in doesn’t reveal any distinguishable difference. Have a look below:
Both smartphones also come with dedicated beauty mode – the so-called skin brightening or smoothening effect. With beauty mode turned on, both smartphones produce brighter photos compared to normal selfies. Have a look below:
Photos of Honor 7X with beauty mode turned on look very sharp with vibrant colors, though zooming in reveals less details. The Redmi Note 5, on the other hand, uses some kind of whitish filter and smoothens the overall image. Colors look dull and the image isn’t sharp compared to Honor 7X however, it is better in terms of details.
In this section, no one is the winner. It completely depends on you whether you want a natural photo or a beautified one.
OUR VERDICT
The Redmi Note 5 Pro definitely comes with some never upgrades over its predecessor – Redmi Note 4. Its performance isn’t bad, but not exactly what we’d expected from the smartphone. It’s also worth mentioning that Redmi Note 5 Pro is priced similarly to the Mi A, which is one of the best camera smartphones in its segment. So Redmi Note 5 Pro’s performance should have been at least similar to Mi A1.
Our choice is the Honor 7x, which is better than the Redmi Note 5 Pro in almost all departments. Its photos have better sharpness and color accuracy.