On March 16, 2018, Xiaomi officially held a press conference to launch the Redmi Note 5. The phone features a 5.99-inch FHD+ screen with an 18:9 aspect ratio and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC. Xiaomi claimed that the Redmi Note 5 would deliver excellent photography performance. Today, we will disassemble this smartphone to explore its internal design and craftsmanship.
First, remove the SIM card tray. The card tray is made of white plastic with a thin metal frame embedded inside. The back cover is not secured either by screw or glue, so I can easily separate it from the phone body. The fingerprint reader module is secured on the body. So there is no need to worry about the fingerprint cable when removing the back cover.
The back cover adopts a three-section design, with a metal framework placed in the middle part. The top and bottom parts of the back cover are made using injection molding, and the cover plate is covered with a graphite sticker.
Most components are integrated on the motherboard and covered with metal shields. After removing the screws securing the metal plate holding the fingerprint module cable, the fingerprint module cable can be disconnected from the motherboard. Upon removing the fingerprint module, a small heat-dissipating copper foil is found underneath it. This shows that Xiaomi has indeed put considerable effort into the thermal management.
Next, disconnect the connectors on the motherboard and remove the screws securing the motherboard, then use tweezers to remove the motherboard. By the way, there is no cable on the back of the motherboard.
The back of the motherboard is covered by grease and copper foil. We have to admit that the phone has an excellent cooling design. In this way, the phone may have excellent heat dissipation performance.
At the bottom of the phone is the sound chamber. You can remove the sound chamber by unscrewing all the screws. There is a small circuit board under the sound chamber, and the Micro USB port and the 3.5mm audio jack are located on the circuit board.
The phone comes with a 4000mAh high-capacity battery. The battery sits slightly higher than the roll cage. We can see the dual-camera module, motherboard, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, and memory.
We have completed the teardown of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. Overall, this phone is relatively easy to disassemble. This phone is expected to deliver excellent thermal performance.