After a long wait of nineteen months, Xiaomi has finally unveiled the Mi5. The company's product portfolio looks a bit confusing now. Xiaomi Mi4S was launched a few minutes ago, and we can't say for sure whether the Mi4's successor is the Mi4S or the Mi5. However, let's go ahead and have a look at the company's flagship smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi5.
The Xiaomi Mi5 brings the same metal-and-glass build with curved edges on the back that's reminiscent from the Xiaomi Mi Note and the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. However, the back is now ceramic, unlike its earlier devices. The biggest addition to the device is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which is one of the fastest mobile chipsets in the world right now.
The Mi 5 (Pro) comes with a 5.15-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and upto 600 nits of maximum brightness. Other new things include a fingerprint sensor in the home button and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. Moreover, the device is water-resistant, just like the Sony Xperia Z5/Z5 Premium and the Samsung Galaxy S7 (and the Galaxy S7 edge).
The device sports 4GB of LP-DDR4 RAM and 128GB of internal storage space. The company went with UFS 2.0 storage instead of eMMC 5.0 for faster transfer speeds. The Xiaomi Mi 5 lacks a microSD card slot, and the company is continuing with providing non-expandable storage on its top-tier smartphone even though brands like Samsung, HTC, LG, and Sony are providing it.
Xiaomi Mi5 Specifications
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based MIUI7
- 5.15-inch IPS LCD display (with Sunlight Display), 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, 600 nits brightness, and 2.5D Curved Gorilla Glass 4
- 16-megapixel primary camera, phase-detection autofocus, dual-LED flash, OIS, and 4K video recording
- 4-megapixel secondary camera, 2.0 micron pixels, and 1080p video recording
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 64-bit quad-core Kyro CPU, and Adreno 530 GPU
- 4GB RAM & 128GB internal storage
- Fingerprint Scanner and Water-Resistant
- Accelerometer, ambient-light sensor, e-compass, gyro-sensor, and proximity sensor
- Dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE-A (with upto 600Mbps download speeds), VoLTE, and GPS (with A-GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou)
- Dual-band Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.1, IR Port, NFC, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack
- 3,000 mAh non-removable battery with Quick Charge 3.0; 144.55×69.2×7.25mm; 129g
On the imaging front, the Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with a 16-megapixel primary camera (IMX298) with phase-detection autofocus, 4-axis OIS, dual-tone dual-LED flash, and 4K video recording. There's a 4-megapixel front-facing camera with large 2.0µm pixels, so the sensor might be the same one that HTC is using in its devices. The primary camera uses DTI (Deep Trench Isolation) technology in its sensor, and it's similar to Samsung's ISOCELL technology.
Connectivity-wise, the Xiaomi Mi5 comes with a dual-SIM card slot with 4G+ connectivity. This is something almost all brands are doing these days, at least in China and India. With the increase in demand for high-end smartphones with dual-SIM card slots, brands like HTC, LG, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony have also released flagship smartphones with two SIM card slots.
There's dual-band Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.1, Infrared port, NFC, USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's a 3,000 mAh removable battery, and Xiaomi has also implemented Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 feature that comes with the Snapdragon 820 processing chipset. The device will be available in Black, Gold, and White colours.
Xiaomi Mi5 Price and Availability:
- Xiaomi Mi 5 (32GB) - Snapdragon 820 (1.8GHz ), 3GB RAM and 32GB storage: CNY 1,999 (Rs. 20,667)
- Xiaomi Mi 5 (64GB) - Snapdragon 820 (2.15GHz), 3GB RAM and 64GB storage: CNY 2,299 (Rs. 23,768)
- Xiaomi Mi 5 (Pro) - Snapdragon 820 (2.15GHz), 4GB RAM and 128GB storage: CNY 2,699 (Rs. 27,904)
We expect the 4GB RAM and 128GB storage variant of the Xiaomi Mi5 to be priced as high as Rs. 30,000 in the country. It will be available in China from March 1, 2016, but the company hasn't revealed anything about its availability in India yet. We will update the story with India-relevant information as soon as we come to know something about it today.
