The Xiaomi Redmi 8a Dual Camera comes with a large 5000mAh battery with an 18W fast charging system. Those specs are the peak for a budget midrange phone but the main question is can Redmi 8a defeat the versatile phone from Realme given that it has better specs in paper?
| Advantages | |
|---|---|
| Xiaomi Redmi 8a | Fast Charging Offers Large Memory (up to 512GB) Better Protection 3 Colors to choose from Faster Autofocus system |
| Realme 5i | Larger Screen Quad Camera Better Chipset Gyroscope Fingerprint |
There are several things to consider including performance and flexibility. We will make it balance as much as we can. Although performance is what we look first in a phone, clearly Realme 5i wins in paper. Both are 3GB of ram variants. For typical use, Redmi 8a is reasonable but for intensive gaming Realme 5i is better. You should also consider the cooling system of both phones, performance may drop if the device is overheating. Also, the Realme 5i has a Facial unlock feature and fingerprint sensor while Redmi 8a only offers AI facial unlock.
| Redmi 8a | Realme 5i | |
|---|---|---|
| Colors | Sky White Sea Blue Midnight Grey | Blue Green |
| Build | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Plastic Back 188 g Splash Resistant | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Plastic Back 195 g Splash Resistant |
| Connectivity | 4G Dual Sim (nano) Wireless FM radio Bluetooth 4.2 | 4G Dual Sim (nano) FM radio Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Display | IPS LCD 6.22 inches 720 x 1520 pixels 81.8% STB Ratio 19:9 Display Ratio 400nits | IPS LCD 6.52 inches 720 x 1600 pixels 83.2% STB Ratio 20:9 Display Ratio 485 nits |
| Main Camera | Dual Camera 13 MP, f/1.8 (main) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) 1080p@30fps | Quad Camera 12 MP, f/1.8, (main) 8 MP, f/2.3, 13mm (ultrawide) 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) 2160p@30fps 1080p@30fps gyro-EIS |
| Front Camera | 8 MP, f/2.0 1080p@30fps | 8 MP, f/2.0 1080p@30fps |
| Features | AI Face Unlock Compass Proximity Accelerometer | Fingerprint sensor Face Unlock Gyroscope Compass Proximity Accelerometer |
| Performance | Android 9.0 (Pie); MIUI 11 Snapdragon 439 Octa-core Adreno™ 505 GPU 32GB 3GB RAM | Android 9.0 (Pie); Color Os 6 Snapdragon 665 Octa-core Adreno™ 610 GPU 32GB 3GB RAM |
| Battery | 5000mAh Fast charging 18W Type C 3.5mm Jack | 5000mAh Standard charging 10W microUSB 3.5mm Jack |
| Prices | 3GB(32GB) - P5,490 | 3GB(32GB) - P6,990 |
Table of Contents
Design
Realme 5i has a sunrise design that is pretty cool especially when hit by the light. Subjectively, I am a fan of symmetrical and minimal design which you can see in the Redmi 8a. In terms of designs, Redmi 8a got 3 different colors to choose from while Realme 5i only has 2 color variants. Both phones have a good grip the Redmi 8a has Aura XGrip Design plus plastic back and feels compact while the Realme 5i has an anti smudges system due to its rear texture.
READ: Realme 5i vs Redmi 8 Specs Comparison – Enough to beat Xiaomi?
Displays
A larger screen is better, but for some people, they prefer the exact screen size that is comfortable in their hands. Realme 5i wins in terms of screen size and STB – Display ratio. Considering the big bezels at the bottom part of Redmi 8a, it is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 while Realme 5i only has a Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Both have an IPS LCD panel that offers good display viewing angles.
Performance
Realme 5i is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 while Redmi 8a is powered by Snapdragon 439. If we look at the comparisons of CPUs, Snapdragon 665 has 11.76% faster CPU speed compared to 439. But like I said earlier the performance of CPU depends on the memory it has and the cooling system built in the device. You can play PUBG on both devices with decent framerates, although Redmi 8a is not made for intensive gaming, typical browsing and running decent apps is not a problem on this phone.
Camera
There’s no debate here, Realme 5i wins in terms of flexibility and Spec sheets. All you can think about is whether you want the cameras or if you can settle for just two cameras. Redmi 8a has slightly higher megapixel and it has an advantage having dual-pixel autofocus that means faster autofocus compared to Realme 5i. To make things easy, Redmi 8a is a point and click shoot, simple, and fast while Realme 5i is fast, versatile, slight complexity due to the many features it has.
Battery King
So, who is the king between the two? There are so many things to consider and we can’t easily decide, Great power = High battery consumption. Both got a 5000mah battery but Redmi 8a offers fast-charging up to 18W. Both devices got massive batteries, but the question is can you consider having high power but fast consumption and slow charging? or Lower power, less consumption but fast to juiced up.
Overall
It still depends on how you will use the phone and how these two phones will satisfy your needs. Both have great designs and a large battery makes it suitable for your daily needs. Realme 5i is the winner in terms of spec sheets, but Redmi 8a is a choice for simple and effective daily usage considering that it is a budget phone.
READ MORE: Realme C3 vs Realme 5i – Which one you should buy?
Time and time again, Xiaomi’s Redmi are some of the best selling android phones, year in and year out. There’s a reason for that, realme comes in second as usual.