Design
- Has a metal based frame, which is rare at this price point, and feels premium in your hand
- The back panel is curved at the sides which make it comfortable to hold
- Thanks to its low weight, there were no fatigue-related issues either
- While the frame is metal, the removable back cover is made of thin/flimsy plastic
- The fingerprint scanner is easy to reach but it isn’t quick to unlock the smartphone
- Face unlock is on the slow side too
Display
- Decent, modern, tall display, with reasonable viewing angles (though visibility isn’t great outdoors)
Software
- Close to stock Android UI keeps things simple
- There are some useful software add-ons like battery saving modes, and 'app clone' feature
- Unfortunately there is also some bloatware preinstalled on the phone which includes Facebook Lite, NewsDog, Facebook Messenger, and a screen capture app among others
Performance
- Sluggish performance, from a very limited Spreadtrum SC9850K quad-core processor, and 2GB of RAM - it can only really handle basic tasks, but bump up its workload and you will see it slowing down - there is sluggishness throughout, apps have a large load time, and multitasking isn’t ideal - even phones like Honor 7S which itself is not the best performer in this price bracket, score better on benchmarks
Camera
- Below-average rear (dual) and front cameras
- The rear cameras, in daylight, fail to capture good details and lack dynamic range, especially in darker areas of a scene - details are often missing - and performance drops drastically in low light as the phone struggles to deliver usable shots - bokeh shots are also ordinary
- The output from the selfie camera is average too and the Mega 5A is also slow when capturing selfies and takes even longer with HDR enabled
- Video recording maxes out at 1080p for both the cameras but there’s no form of stabilisation
Battery
- Average battery life - moderate use will see the phone last about 10 hours, which is far from ideal
More
- On the whole, the Mega 5A fails to deliver a good usable experience on account of it's laggy performance and mediocre battery life - you will be much better off looking at the likes of Redmi 6A, or Redmi 5