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Following the debut in China three months back, Xiaomi’s latest smartphones from the budget portfolio, the Redmi 6 series has arrived in the Indian smartphone market. The new Redmi 6 lineup that includes Redmi 6, Redmi 6A and Redmi 6 Pro, will be available for purchase exclusively on leading e-commerce portals and Mi.com. Notably, the Indian version of the Redmi 6 series will provide dual VoLTE support. Redmi 6, the successor to the popular budget phone Redmi 5, carries a few upgrades over the previous iteration in terms of camera and software. While Redmi 5 came with a single camera lens, Xiaomi added an extra lens on the Redmi 6. However, the new Redmi 6 runs MediaTek Helio P22 processor instead of Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon 450 octa-core chipset found on the Redmi 5. In this article, we have compared the Redmi 6 with its predecessor, Redmi 5 based on their specifications, price and features.
Xiaomi’s previous Redmi model, Redmi 5 had a tall display with curved edges and slim bezels on both sides, the Redmi 6 houses rather chunky bezels on the front fascia. The phone has thick bezels on the front panel as well that makes the device look tad outdated compared to some of the newer phones. However, the difference is visible on the rear side. While Redmi 5 came with a single rear camera module, this time around Xiaomi incorporated an extra lens on the Redmi 6. The dual camera sensors on the new Redmi smartphone are arrayed horizontally and stacked above the top antenna band. Further, the speaker grills now sit at the back panel instead of down-firing speaker grills seen on the Redmi 5. The circular-shaped fingerprint sensor, however, sits at its usual position at the centre of the rear panel.
Coming to the display, Redmi 5 featured a tall 5.7-inch HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 18:9 to offer extra screen real estate. Xiaomi Redmi 6 has display resolution similar as the Redmi 5, however, the company has reduced the screen size with the handset now featuring a 5.45-inch HD+ (1440 x 720 pixels) 18:9 display that translates to a slightly higher pixel density. Redmi 5 has a screen-to-body ratio of 75.9 per cent, while, the Redmi 6 has a 72.7 per cent screen-to-body-ratio.
Xiaomi’s budget smartphone, Redmi 5 came with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor last year. The chipset fabricated on 14nm FinFET technology offered decent performance in day-to-day tasks. It successor, however, now integrates a chipset from the Taiwanese semiconductor company, MediaTek. Xiaomi Redmi 6 runs an octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 chipset manufactured on 12nm process. You will have to wait for our detailed review to know how the new chipset performs.
Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi 5 review: Another sturdy budget smartphone
As we have mentioned, Xiaomi upgraded the imaging department on the Redmi 6 compared to the Redmi 5 putting an extra rear camera lens. Redmi 6 now houses a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 12MP primary sensor and a 5MP secondary depth sensor with f/2.2 aperture, PDAF and LED flash support. In contrast, Redmi 5 has a 12MP single camera sensor at the back that comes with PDAF, HDR mode and LED flash module. As for the front camera, both Redmi 6 and Redmi 5 carry a 5MP camera for selfies and video calls. The front camera on the Redmi 6 offers Portrait mode as well to add bokeh effect to the images.
While Xiaomi Redmi 5 still runs Android Nougat OS with the company’s custom MIUI skin layered on top, its successor Redmi 6 has Android Oreo with MIUI 9 custom ROM. The new Redmi phone comes with face unlock feature which is missing on the Redmi 5. The native camera app on the Redmi 6 integrates AI assistant as well and includes a lift to wake feature.
Read More- Xiaomi Redmi 6 vs Redmi 6 Pro: Price, specifications, features comparison
While the Redmi 5 provided good battery backup, Xiaomi has shrunk the battery capacity on the Redmi 6. The new Redmi 6 smartphone now carries a slightly smaller 3,000mAh battery instead of 3,300mAh battery found on the Redmi 5. Both the phones equip a Micro USB 2.0 port for charging and support USB On-The-Go.
As for the storage, while the Redmi 5 offers three RAM/storage configuration- 2GB RAM/16GB storage, 3GB RAM/32GB storage and 4GB RAM/64GB storage, Redmi 6 comes with just 2 variants – 3GB RAM/32GB Storage and 3GB RAM/64GB storage. There is no 4GB RAM variant of the Redmi 6 currently. The expandable storage support differs on both the handsets with Redmi 6 having expandable storage of up to 256GB (using microSD card), while the Redmi 5 has 128GB expandable storage support.
Redmi 6 has been launched in India today starting at Rs 7,999 for the 32GB variant and Rs 9,499 for the 64GB variant. The company has stated that these are introductory prices for the first two months and may go up later. Redmi 6 first sale will take place on Flipkart on September 10, 2018.
