Redmi Turbo 5 Review: Does Speed Alone Seal The Deal?

From the moment I unboxed the Redmi Turbo 5 (from the house of Xiaomi), I realised that the Redmi Turbo 5 does what it says on the tin. That means it’s not trying to be more than what it is. It’s fast and furious with a battery life to back it up. To boot, it’s priced to undercut its competition.

The question is this: Is a one-trick pony at a slightly lower price worth it in the market today? Let’s dive in.

The Redmi Turbo 5 is stacked on paper. It’s powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra chipset and is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage.

There’s a 50MP (Sony IMX882) primary camera and an 8MP ultrawide. Under the hood is a 7,540mAh battery with 100W HyperCharge support. Finally, the smartphone runs HyperOS3 (built on Android 16). Looking at the specifications from afar, it seems like this is the smartphone to beat in the under ₹40,000 price range.

The thing is, the smartphone is very similar to the Poco X8 Pro (another sub-brand of Xiaomi), except for the beefier battery that the Redmi Turbo 5 houses.

To that end, I’m not going to do a deep dive into the Redmi Turbo 5, but I'll still tell you everything you need to know.

A Minimalist Design With Durability

With an aluminium frame, a glass back, well-rounded corners, and smoothed edges, the design feels premium through and through. It comes in at 204 grams, but the weight is distributed well enough.

The matte finish on the back panel helps keep fingerprints and smudges away for the most part. The front display has Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection. It has all the dust- and water-resistance certifications you’d need — IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K.

There are two camera rings on the back, which are accented, and a Pixel Matrix housed within them. There are eight built-in colours that are customisable and can be used with any app, or even as a camera status indicator.

Display And Speakers: Bright Enough

I liked the display on the Redmi Turbo 5 but wasn’t blown away. It’s a flat display and can get bright enough for all your outdoor usage. The colours were just about average and not as punchy as I expected.

The display comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, but it can only switch between 60Hz and 120Hz, which is slightly disappointing.

The speakers will suffice while gaming or watching YouTube videos, but for anything more you’d want to put on some headphones.

Camera Is Not The Primary Focus

The cameras are definitely not the Redmi Turbo 5’s strong suit. Yes, the primary camera does a fine job in good daylight conditions, with a great amount of detail and vibrant and punchy colours. Dynamic range is also good.

My only complaint is oversharpening in some images, but I can’t fault it otherwise. Portraits look good, and even low-light images come out as quite usable.

That said, the ultrawide is weak, as is the case with 90% of the smartphones out there. The 20MP front camera, though, surprised me with a good amount of detail and accurate skin tones.

Built For Speed

Where the smartphone excels is performance and gaming. This is a through-and-through gaming smartphone. The MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra can handle any task with aplomb. It’s the same chipset found in the Xiaomi 17T, but it has one trick up its sleeve.

The Redmi Turbo 5 features Redmi’s 3D Ice Loop Cooling system for up to three times better thermal management. This means that throttling is far less and sustained performance is the name of the game.

While playing some of the most popular games like Call of Duty: Mobile, I was able to get 120fps consistently. I had enabled Wild Boost.

Unfortunately, after an hour or two of gaming, the smartphone did get warm and needed a short break. It’s not uncomfortably warm, so you can still play.

Killer Battery Life

A 7,540mAh battery for under ₹40,000? Redmi has you covered. The Turbo 5 easily lasted a day and a half (unless I was gaming for hours on end), and I never had to worry about finding the charger.

With seven hours of screen-on-time (SoT), the smartphone made me forget that battery anxiety was ever a thing.

With the bundled charger, you can juice up the smartphone in about 60 minutes flat.

Verdict: Best Mid-Range Smartphone?

Xiaomi may have rebadged the Poco X8 Pro with a larger battery, but that doesn’t take away from the goodness of the smartphone. Yes, the Redmi Turbo 5 is a powerhouse, and all gamers out there will be thoroughly satisfied.

I was expecting Xiaomi to go a little more aggressive with the pricing, but given the current climate, I don’t think anyone would be surprised. The Turbo 5 is an all-out performance smartphone, and cameras are just an afterthought. So, that’s something to ponder over.

At ₹37,999, I’d wait for the inevitable discounts before diving in and purchasing the smartphone. As for the competition, the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion can be yours for ₹27,239 (as of the current Amazon price), and that’s a fantastic buy. It’ll have better cameras, similar performance (not for gaming, though), and a good in-hand feel.

Still, with all that I’ve said above, the Redmi Turbo 5 will last you a couple of years thanks to its durable design and the 'need for speed'. HyperOS 3 is much more refined, and you’ll be a happy camper with this smartphone.