Friends+Design
- Plastic rear panel - while budget phones typically do come with a plastic rear panel, makers try to give a faux metal finish for a more premium feel, much like the Redmi 5A - the Bharat 5, however, looks a bit cheap
- You'll also start noticing scratches and wear on the back after a week or two
- The glossy rear panel also gets quite smudgy and you'll find yourself wiping it off a few times during the day, if you can't stand the sight of a smudgy phone
- Quite bulky and heavy at 10mm thickness and 170 grams - this makes the phone difficult to handle with one hand despite its small form factor - the bulky build may put people off who are looking for a more sleek and compact budget phone
Display
- Average display - you won't get sharp or vivid colours and the brightness levels are pretty low - it looks average indoors even at its maximum level, and struggles further outdoors and under bright sunlight - the colours are there but feel washed out and dull - compared to the Redmi 5A, which also comes with a 720p display, the Bharat 5 fares poorly, which is quite disappointing at this price point
Performance
- Very ordinary performance - at this price point, keeping only a single gig of RAM is disappointing - the Redmi 5A offers 2GB of RAM for around the same price point, and so does the older Moto C - the Bharat 5 does not handle multitasking well and apps will run slow depending on how many are running in the background - lags and stutters abound while using the handset, especially when browsing heavy websites or quickly switching between apps - you'll also face drops in frame rate even while playing 8-bit games like Crossy Road - there will also be occasional app crashes
Camera
- Decent front camera - with a reasonably good portrait mode - outdoors, the bokehs are bright and capture the subject decently - normal selfies captured look just fine indoors but the camera generally performs better under ideal outdoor lighting
- The rear camera is quite disappointing too - it is slow, especially at night where you'll find it quite difficult to get a steady shot as it suffers from poor focus - while outdoor captures under bright sunlight lets in too much light and you'll find yourself adjusting the brightness for a bit before snapping the photo - the Bokeh Mode here is not what you would expect either - what you get is a circular patch in focus that can be expanded or contracted via the aperture slider, blurring everything else in the background - the problem is that the focused patch will not only capture the subject, but also everything behind it within that circle - for a little more, you'll get a 13-megapixel camera with the Redmi 5A, which is likely to be a better bet as far as cameras are concerned
Audio
- The dual bottom speakers are pretty loud
Battery
- Impressive battery life - you should get about a day and a half on intensive use before you find yourself reaching for the charger
More
- On the whole, the design, hardware and rear camera are underwhelming should make you think twice before purchasing the Bharat 5 - buy it only for its big battery life - for everything else there are better phones in the market in this price segment today
