On March 31, Xiaomi launched its flagship device Xiaomi Mi 5 in India for Rs. 24999. Xiaomi claims this phone got everything you imagined. This smartphone comes with great design and awesome specifications. With this phone, Xiaomi is gearing to fight with Samsung and Apple. The tagline of the phone is “Fast as light”. No, this phone is not that much of fast but, it is light in weight and fast enough to make you happy with its performance.
Also see: Xiaomi Mobiles
Xiaomi Mi 5 First Impressions
Design
Mi 5 is attractive in terms of design. It comes with metal frame and 3D glass at the back side. 3D glass also got curves at the edges to blend seamlessly into a metal frame. It looks awesome. Glossy curves make it comfortable in hands.
Dimensions of this phone are 144.50 x 69.20 x 7.25 mm.
Even if the battery is of 3000 mAh, the weight of this phone is just 129g. With lightweight and premium design, this phone is one of the most beautiful available in the market. White variant seriously feels like marble. Glass back is also protected with Gorilla Glass 4. Glassy back which makes it an awesome design in terms of looks also makes it slippery.
Xiaomi managed to integrate 5.15-inch large display in this phone without making it bulky in size. It got thinner bezels and smaller cameras. Cameras are also almost flat to the level of phone’s body. There is a 3D ceramic variant as well.
Bezels on sides are thinner, so it got larger frame. It has a physical home button which is also touch sensitive. You can either press it or just touch to perform an action. It also included a fingerprint sensor. On both sides of the home button, it also got touch buttons.
The left side contains sim card slot and right edge contains volume rocker and power button. At below side, it got USB Type-C port with speaker grills. Due this placing for speaker, it is loud and clear.
As the phone is comparatively small and light, it is very comfortable for use. Buttons placings are fine. Only slippery body is a drawback but this is the same thing which makes it an eye-catching device.
Display
Mi 5 comes with a 5.15 inch Full HD display which, seems to be good enough. While you may complain about not getting Quad HD display, the company wanted to keep battery consumption low. This display incorporates 16 energy-saving LED lights within the display and reaches to a maximum 600-nit brightness. The display is also protected with Gorilla Glass 4.
The display is also packed with technologies like Sunlight Display, night display, reading mode, and more.
OS and Software
Xiaomi Mi 5 runs on MIUI 7 based on Android Marshmallow. It comes with lot more themes, wallpapers, improved features and better performance. MIUI puts all apps on home screen. It also offers hidden touch controls for power users. MIUI also comes with useful tools and better privacy control.
Processor, RAM, and Storage
This phone is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 the processor with 3GB LPDDR4 RAM and Adreno 530. While smartphones nowaday come with the octa-core processor, this phone seems to be lower in terms of the processor on papers. But the performance of this phone is very good and it scores surprisingly high on benchmarking. In first impressions, it offers smooth performance and good multi-tasking. This phone delivers great graphics in gaming.
This phone will be available in 32 GB and 64 GB storage variants, but there is no option to expand storage. This may be disappointing for many. It supports USB OTG. So, you will have to find an OTG device with USB Type-C port.
Camera
Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with 16-megapixels rear camera with dual color LED, laser autofocus, Exmor-RS CMOS Sensor, Optical image stabilization, HDR and more. Camera can also record 4K videos. On front, it got a 4-megapixels camera with support to full HD video recording. Both camera seems to be very impressive. In good light conditions, this phone captured awesome photos with good details. With available camera modes and manual control, you can even improve your photography.
It offers 4-axis optical image stabilisation which lets you record good quality but stable videos.
Connectivity and Battery
This device is packed with all latest connectivity technologies. Connectivity features of this phone are 4G, 3G, dual-band Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC and USB Type-C. It supports all Indian 4G bands.
It is packed with 3000mAh battery with support to fast charging. It claims to offer full day usage. It takes around an hour in full charging.
Final words
Overall Xiaomi Mi 5 seems to be very good device. At price of Rs. 24999, it is value for money device for which Xiaomi is popular. While few people are disappointed with pricing, we found this device great and competitor to Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S. People who cannot afford highly priced flagship devices, they can go with this phone to have a premium and powerful device.
In coming weeks, I will also be publishing the full review of Xiaomi Mi 5. So stay tuned for more updates.
