The Redmi Note lineup made Xiaomi the mid-ranger king. With the introduction of Redmi Note 3 (known as Redmi Note 3 Pro globally) back in 2016, the Chinese OEM redefined the sub-$200 category.

Balancing between the budget oriented Redmi series and the premium class Mi lineup, the Redmi Note phones quickly became fan-favorite. In India, Xiaomi was able to swipe away local OEMs as well as big names like Motorola and established a monopoly in the sub-₹15,000 market segment.

redmi_note_3_front_back
Redmi Note 3

2017’s Redmi Note 4 was again a massive hit. Xiaomi wanted to continue the same legacy in subsequent year, but they had to pack more goodies to compete with newer rivals like Asus and Realme.

redmi_note_4_front_back
Redmi Note 4

The management took an effective decision to tackle the scenario. The Chinese giant released two models in India to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Redmi Note lineup. Redmi 5 Plus (codename: vince), which was released earlier in China, was rebranded and launched in India as Redmi Note 5.

redmi_note_5_front_back
Redmi Note 5 / Redmi 5 Plus

On the other hand, they released another model with slightly better configs under the name of Redmi Note 5 Pro (codename: whyred). The ‘Pro’ moniker was helpful to distinguish the upgraded specs.

TBH, Xiaomi’s naming convention is utmost complicated. The same model was launched in China as Redmi Note 5, whereas they marketed it to the global audience as Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera.

redmi_note_5_pro_red_front_back
Redmi Note 5 Pro

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” ?

Xiaomi decided to use old-but-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC with the Redmi Note 5/Redmi 5 Plus, and included a single rear camera to cut the corners. Unlike the Pro variant, it did not support any fast charging mechanism, thus limited to typical 5V/2A (10W) charging.

Although the phones were launched in February 2018, Xiaomi packed Android 7.1 Nougat based MIUI 9 with them. Oreo was released almost 6 months ago, so the decision did not make any sense.

Redmi Note 5 Pro, however, was treated with some extra cares. The phone was quickly upgraded to Android 8.1 Oreo via MIUI 9.5 which unlocked out of the box Project Treble support.

Not limited to that, Xiaomi even included it in their official Android 9 Pie beta testing. This move marked the Redmi Note 5 Pro as the first ever Redmi Note phone to get 2 major Android version update officially.

Redmi Note 5/Redmi 5 Plus, on the other hand, got Oreo OTA much later. The OEM rolled out Android Oreo via MIUI 9.6.5.0 in late August and subsequently delivered stable MIUI 10 at the end of September 2018.

redmi_note_5_india_oreo_ota_thread

Since then, the phone got just one more incremental update in November, which bumped the build number from V10.0.2.0.OEGMIFH to V10.0.4.0.OEGMIFH. The users of this phone are stuck with with older versions of MIUI for some unknown reasons.

https://twitter.com/sheikriyaz55/status/1102792424718458880

Not only end users, but also the moderators for the device specific sub-forums are completely clueless.

redmi_5_plus_no_update_mod
billica is a moderator

Hello Dear,

There is some error in global rom that’s why it is suspended since weeks. Hope update will be resume soon, stay tuned on forum.

Regards

(Source)

redmi_5_plus_no_update_mod_2

The global beta release channel has also been dried up since November 2018.

Interestingly, the same phone is getting constant updates in China (marketed as Redmi 5 Plus in there). Besides regular beta updates, it has recently got MIUI V10.2.4.0.OEGCNXM via stable channel.

redmi_5_plus_china_10.2.4_ota

Flashing China firmware or aftermarket custom ROMs may not a feasible for regular users. Besides, providing updates to an identical model should not be a cumbersome process.

For the sake of transparency, Xiaomi should release an official statement regarding the delay and clarify the situation.

Do you have a Redmi Note 5 (or Redmi 5 Plus)? Frustrated because of the lack of updates? Comment below.

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Tags

Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

Next article View Article

[April 10: Official acknowledgement for recommended videos bug] YouTube Library tab broken and sidebar missing, users say

This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom….. Original story (from 2019) follows: Incoming are reports related to two separate YouTube-related issues. The...
Apr 10, 2020 0 Min Read