We put the latest budget smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (P10.5k PH price), into a comparison against the Sony Xperia M5 (P17.9k price ph). Both are mid-range Androids equipped with powerful specs and features comparable to most flagships but in a cheaper price tag. Which is better between the Redmi Note 3 vs Xperia M5? Find out the cons and pros in our display, camera, speaker, battery and performance comparison.
Table of Contents
Pros and cons of Redmi Note 3 and Xperia M5
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 advantages vs Xperia M5
- Larger display, 5.5-inch vs 5-inch
- Cheaper price
- Larger internal storage, 32GB vs 16GB
- Fingerprint sensor
- Metal case
Sony Xperia M5 advantages vs Redmi Note 3
- Sharper, more vivid display
- Waterproof
- Camera shutter key
- Nano SIM
- Better still image quality
- 4K video recording
- Less bloatware / pre-installed 3rd party apps
Related
Design
The Note 3 has a metal back with plastic top and bottom, sides and corners are rounded. The back is a quite a pleasing view, but in the front, it looks like a generic Android smartphone. We are not fun on the design of the capacitive menu buttons neither. Redmi Note 3 is thicker and heavier than Xperia M5.
The Xperia M5 is a waterproof and dust-resistance device, the design is classic Sony with squarish form complete with physical buttons at the right side. Overall, I personally prefer the style and design on Xperia M5, it’s sleeker and more robust.
Display
The Redmi Note 3 features 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD panel and the Xperia M5 with 5-inch 1080p IPS panel. In contrast, Xperia M5 is sharper due to the smaller display size while retaining the same screen resolution. Aside from the sharper screen of M5, colors are more saturated and vibrant on its 5-inch Bravia display with contrast and brightness level being higher too.
Camera in low light, selfies and video shooting
Now on the camera, the Redmi Note 3 features 13MP main and 5MP selfie with video shooting resolution max at 1080p. The Xperia M5 has a 21MP main and 13MP selfie with 4K video shooting. Quality on Xperia M5 is top-notch for a mid-range, images are sharper and more vivid. The Xperia M5 disadvantage is it tends to over saturate a bit while maintaining pleasing colors and white balance.
On night shots, M5 has an advantage, pictures are brighter and has more resolved details. Xperia M5 takes better selfies too with its 13MP front-facing camera.
Video quality on Xperia M5 is also sharper and vivid, and with faster focus speed. Again, only Xperia M5 can shoot 4K or 2160p video at 30fps while Redmi Note 3 is stuck at 1080p.
See sample HD video recording on the video comparison below.
See also: Lenovo Vibe Shot vs Sony Xperia M5 Comparison
Software
In our unboxing and hands-on on the Redmi Note 3, we found that its interface doesn’t impress us. The MI UI felt a bit cluttered and unproductive in our case. But again, that’s just our personal preference. Under the Mi UI is an Android Lollipop OS. On the other hand, Xperia M5 is on Xperia UI that is close to stock Android Lollipop, but with many proprietary apps included.
Performance
Both devices are powered by the same MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core processor and 3GB RAM (2GB RAM on 16GB version of Note 3). Actual performance is really close on both phones, there is very rare stuttering or lags when browsing and multi-tasking.
Benchmark ratings are pretty close too. We got 47k AnTuTu scores on Redmi Note 3 and 45k on Xperia M5. Check out the rest of the benchmark scores below.
Benchmarks rating
- AnTuTu: Note 3 – 47641, M5 – 45433
- Basemark OS: Note 3 – 950, M5 – 880
- Geekbench Single Core: Note 3 – 852, M5 – 794
- Geekbench Multi-Core: Note 3 – 4157, M5 – 3174
Battery life and charging
The Redmi Note 3 packs a 4000mAh battery and on the Xperia M5, we got a 2600mAh. Battery life on Redmi Note 3 is around 2 days with moderate use, 10 hours video and around 5hrs on-screen time. Xperia M5 produced roughly 2 days battery life with 10 hours video and 5 hrs on-screen time.
Charging time on Redmi Note 3 is 2 hours 50 minutes and around 1 hour and 45minutes on Xperia M5.
- Moderate use: Note 3 – 2 days, M5 – 2 days
- Video playback: Note 3 – 10 hours, M5 – 10 hours
- On-screen time: Note 3 – 5 hours, M5 – 5 hours
- Charging time: Note 3 – 2h 50min, M5 – 1h 45min
See also: Quick Battery Test Xperia M5, C5 Ultra, Zenfone Selfie, One Plus 2
Speaker and loudspeaker test
What we don’t like on Note 3 is the back-facing speaker. It’s really annoying that they even positioned it on a flat back. The sound coming from its speaker is loud, but not as clean and crisp as on the bottom speaker of Xperia M5.
Price and verdict
The price difference between the Note 3 and Xperia M5 is quite high, but given that Xperia M5 is overall better in almost all departments, I would still willing to invest some extra cash for M5 for its better camera, sharper display, rugged and decent-looking design, and cleaner Android experience.
The Redmi Note 3 is a bargain for its price, but, of course, with a few sacrifices on experience. I am not sure why people are overrating the Note 3 and other Mi phones, I’m pretty sure both Asus, Lenovo and other brands offer affordable phones too and for sure with better quality than the Mi products. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me that felt the Redmi Note 3 not worth it after all.
Note 3 is priced around P10 500 pesos in the Philippines and P18k on the Xperia M5.
Let us know in the comments on which phones are you interested to see in our next comparison.
Specs and price comparison of Xperia M5 vs Redmi Note 3
| SPECS, PH Price | Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 | Sony Xperia M5 |
| Display | 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD IPS, 401 ppi | 5-inch 1080p Full HD IPS, 441 ppi |
| Size | 8.3mm thick, 164g weight | 7.6mm thick, 142g weight |
| Design | Metal + plastic | Waterproof and Dust resistance, IP68 rating |
| Colors | White, Black | Gold, White, Black |
| Chipset & CPU | Mediatek Helio X10 octa-core | Mediatek Helio X10 octa-core |
| Graphics | PowerVR GT6200 | PowerVR GT6200 |
| Memory | 2/3G RAM, 16/32GB internal, no microSD | 3GB RAM, 16GB internal, microSD card up to 200GB |
| Camera | 13MP, AF, dual LED flash, 1080p video | 21MP, AF, phase detection, 2160p 4K video |
| Selfie | 5MP selfie front-facing | 13MP selfie front-facing |
| Connectivity | WiFi ac, 4G LTE, Bt 4.1, GPS | WiFi ac, 4G LTE, Bt 4.1, GPS |
| Software | Android 5.0 Lollipop, Mi UI 7.0 | Android 5.0 Lollipop, Xperia UI, upgrade to Marshmallow |
| Battery | 4000mAh | 2600mAh |
| Ports, quick charge | microUSB, quick charging | microUSB |
| Release date | December 2015, available in Philippines | October 2015, Available from Sony PH |
| Price | P10,500 ph price 32GB variant | P18,000 PH Price |
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 vs Sony Xperia M5 Camera Review, Comparison
this is just my 2 cents from a dslr shooter , and a sony dslr shooter at that.
the sony photo engine clearly uses fliter on post processing the images.
sharpness ,even over sharpness is very visible and so is vibrance and of course the massive usage of noise reduction on the night photos.
the redmi 3 just brings out what it sees , you can especially see it at the night shots.
for those with dedicated PP softs or apps this may turn out to be better.
inner phone sharpening and saturating are rarely a match for a normal dedicated software. stuff like DXO for instance could in one click make the photos look much more appealing .
Maybe this explains why Xperia cameras are slower than the others – heavy image processing
san makakabili ng m5 na 18k???