Get an 18:9 display smartphone for under £100

Xiaomi Redmi 5 is here to bring new screens to everybody

After the LG G6 launched the 18:9 display into the smartphone world a slew of others have followed with their phones and now the price just got slashed. The new Redmi 5 from Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi offers the screen for less than £100.

Xiaomi took the wraps off its Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus smartphones which feature 18:9 displays in a minimal bezeled handset with rounded edges. The phone has an aluminium body and features a rear placed fingerprint sensor. All in all this is a good looking handset that really does pass for a premium phone. 

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch HD+ LCD while the larger Xiaomi Plus sports a 5.99-inch Full HD+ screen, both with that 18:9 aspect ratio. 

The Redmi 5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor with 2 or 3GB of RAM while the Redmi 5 Plus goes for the higher end Snapdragon 625 CPU with 4GB of RAM. The Redmi 5 comes with a 3300mAh battery and either 16 or 32GB storage while the Redmi 5 Plus offers a 4000mAh battery and 32GB or 64GB storage options.

The cameras on the phones are not clarified in detail at this stage but do feature 1.25-micron pixels so should be premium. There is also a selfie light for better front-facing photos. Both phones use the more old school micro USB for charging.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 starts at 799 yuan which is about £90 with 2GB of RAM and 16GB, or around £100 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. The larger Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus is around £112 for the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage version or about £135 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage model.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus are available, in China at least, from 12 December.

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Luke Edwards

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.