Xiaomi has a reputation as ‘The Apple of the East’, but its prices are far below the Cupertino-based company. Although it had no stand at the show, the firm used MWC to launch its new flagship, the Mi 5 smartphone.
MWC 2016 was Xiaomi’s first-ever handset announcement at a truly global event, and the company wasted no time in introducing its new phone. The design appears to be heavily inspired by the Mi Note, with a curved back and thin side bezels. The camera lens is almost flush with the rear of the device, like Samsung’s S7, and it is 7.25mm thick.
A 16-LED backlight has been used to raise display brightness (12 is the standard, said Xiaomi) to 600 cd/m². Sunlight readability has been improved through Sunlight Display technology; this, we heard, adjusts contrast on a per-pixel level.
The phone has a 5.15″ display with an IPS panel, and 1920 x 1080 resolution. A fingerprint reader is hidden in the home button, and a USB-C port is on the base of the phone, along with two speaker grilles.
Two versions of the phone will be available: the Mi 5 and Mi 5 Pro, which will feature more RAM (4GB vs 3GB) and storage (128GB vs 32GB/64GB). It also has a ceramic cover, rather than glass. Interestingly, Xiaomi has elected to use UFS 2.0 flash storage, rather than eMMC: the company claims an 80% speed increase over eMMC 5.0.
While the Mi 5 boasts a larger screen and more powerful camera and chipset than the Mi 4, Xiaomi shaved 20g off of the weight: the phone weighs just 129g.
As for that chipset, Xiaomi is using the new Snapdragon 820 processor, at 1.8GHz (32GB) or 2.15GHz. It runs Android 6.0 and supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology. The battery is 3,000mAh, and can be charged in an hour.
The camera is a 16MP device with a Sony IMX 298 sensor, phase detection autofocus, four-axis optical image stabilisation and an f/2.0 aperture. The 4MP UltraPixel camera – same as the one found on the Mi Note – is on the front of the phone.
As for the price, Xiaomi said that the phone would cost between RMB2,000 and RMB2,700 ($305 – $410). It is already available in China, but there are rumours that this will be the first of Xiaomi’s phones to be launched internationally.
