Redmi Turbo 5 Review: A battery monster with flagship ambitions

The Redmi Turbo series has officially made its debut in India with the Redmi Turbo 5. Over the past few years, the Turbo series has built a reputation outside India for delivering flagship-level power without the price tag of a flagship phone, and the new Redmi Turbo 5 looks set to continue that trend. On paper, I would say Xiaomi has packed quite a lot into this device. There’s the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra chipset, a large 7,540mAh battery with 100W fast charging, a 120Hz AMOLED display and a durable design.  At a starting price of Rs 37,999, the Redmi Turbo 5 comes at a very competitive price, considering the current smartphone landscape.

For obvious reasons, if buyers are spending close to Rs 40,000 on a phone, they would want capable cameras, a premium design, reliable software, and long-term value. For sure, the Redmi Turbo 5 looks impressive on paper; the real question is whether it can deliver a balanced experience that justifies its place among the best smartphones in its segment. After spending a couple of weeks with the Redmi Turbo 5, here’s everything you need to know.

Redmi Turbo 5: Design and build quality

The Turbo 5 features an aluminium frame and a glass back panel that feels premium in hand, while the subtle red accents around the camera module help it stand out. Redmi has also added a Matrix lighting ring inside the camera module that lights up during notifications and media playback, which can be customised in the settings.

While the design isn’t extraordinary, it feels modern and clean. Not to mention, the look is the same as the Poco X8 Pro. Also, if you’re looking for a slim phone, well, this one doesn’t feel as slim or as elegant as some of its peers.

On the durability front, the Redmi Turbo 5 comes with IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K ratings, along with SGS certification.

The stereo speakers are also worth mentioning. With Dolby Atmos support and surprisingly good bass, the mids also come out loud and clear.

Redmi Turbo 5: Display

The Redmi Turbo 5 comes with a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and for the most part, it’s an excellent panel. Animations are smooth, scrolling feels fluid, and touch response remains quick whether you’re browsing social media, gaming, or simply navigating through the interface.

Outdoor visibility is another strong point. During our testing at Digit Test Labs, the display reached 2,860 nits of brightness, making it easy to use even under harsh sunlight. Redmi also supports HDR10, HDR Vivid and Dolby Vision, which gives the Turbo 5 an advantage when it comes to supported HDR formats. Watching content on Netflix, YouTube and other streaming platforms is genuinely enjoyable. Colours look vibrant, contrast levels are strong, and the overall viewing experience feels high-end.

While there are displays in this segment that offer slightly better colour calibration and richer visuals, the Turbo 5’s panel remains one of its strongest features and should satisfy most users.

Redmi Turbo 5: Performance

Powering the Redmi Turbo 5 is the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra chipset, paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage. Before I give you the real-world performance breakdown, here are some benchmark scores.

The Redmi Turbo 5 scored around 2.08 million in Antutu, while Geekbench results reached 1,604 in single-core and 6,359 in multi-core. In the CPU throttling test, the device maintained around 81 per cent of its peak performance. In the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Test, it got an overall score of 4,429.

More importantly, these impressive numbers also reflect in everyday use. Apps launch instantly, multitasking is effortless, RAM management is reliable, and the overall software experience feels consistently fast.

Gaming performance is also impressive. BGMI supports 120 fps gameplay with minimal frame drops. Call of Duty Mobile also runs at 120 fps with consistent frame rates during extended gameplay.

The only issue that I came across while using this phone under load is heat management. During long gaming sessions and benchmark runs, the Turbo 5 Pro gets quite warm. This is to the point that sometimes it becomes uncomfortable to use.

Still, for users prioritising performance, the Redmi Turbo 5 delivers exactly what it promises.

Redmi Turbo 5: Cameras

Camera setup on the Redmi Turbo 5 is pretty straightforward. You get a 50MP Sony IMX882 main camera along with an 8MP ultrawide sensor on the back. Selfies are handled by a 20MP front-facing camera.

Let’s start with the primary camera. The results are generally good. Photos are detailed, colours are vibrant, and images often look social-media ready straight out of the camera. The images have a noticeable amount of sharpness, particularly when capturing human subjects, which can make facial details look slightly artificial.

Exposure control is consistent, while HDR performance isn’t the strongest in the segment, but sometimes it’s like a hit and miss situation.

In portrait photography, the edge detection is great, subject separation is clean, and the images have a pleasing contrast that makes them stand out, but depending on your taste, sometimes the contrast can be too much.

The 8MP ultrawide sensor captures fewer details, and image quality drops in tricky lighting. It gets the job done in good light, but it’s clearly not the highlight of this device.

Selfies are decent, not exceptional. The 20MP front camera captures enough detail for social media uploads, and for video calls, you can rely on it.

Redmi Turbo 5 can record videos up to 4K at 60fps, although the video output is okayish with decent stabilisation.

Redmi Turbo 5: Battery life and charging

Redmi Turbo 5 battery impressed me a lot. The phone packs a massive 7,540mAh battery. In our PCMark battery test, the device lasted 18 hours and 2 minutes, making it one of the strongest contenders in this category. Real-world usage also tells a similar story. The phone was easily getting me through an entire day of heavy use. And if you’re a moderate user, it can easily stretch into a second day before needing to charge.

Speaking of charging, the Redmi Turbo 5 supports 100W fast charging and takes 1 hour and 11 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 per cent.

Redmi Turbo 5: Software

Redmi Turbo 5 runs HyperOS 3 based on Android 16. The interface is feature-rich and offers a lot of customisation options. Like many other smartphones, there are some pre-installed apps out of the box, but most of them can be removed easily.

The overall experience remains smooth and responsive in daily usage; there are no glitches as such, and the animations are also smooth. More importantly, Redmi has committed to 4 years of Android updates and 6 years of security patches.

Redmi Turbo 4: Verdict

Does the Redmi Turbo 5 justify its asking price? I’d say, in the sub-Rs 40,000, the Turbo 5 succeeds because it focuses on the things that matter most to its target audience. It delivers great performance, excellent battery life, a high-quality AMOLED display and strong durability.

Granted, the cameras aren’t class-leading, and the phone does warm up under heavy usage. But, at around Rs 38,000, the Redmi Turbo 5 offers one of the strongest value propositions in the market today.

If your priorities are performance, gaming, battery life and long-term software support, this is an easy phone to recommend. It may not be the most complete high-end experience available, but as an all-round value-focused device, the Redmi Turbo 5 gets a lot right.