Xiaomi Mi5: The Much Awaited Flagship

• Posted By Amritesh
• On April 17th, 2016
• Comments: no responses

The long wait for Xiaomi Mi5 is finally over as it was unveiled in India and went on sale just couple of weeks back. The MI5 is currently available exclusively through flashsale on Mi Portal. The device has been priced at Rs 24,999/- for the base variant and as of now it is only variant available in India.

Xiaomi have already enjoyed huge success this year, after the launch of Redmi Note 3 which has turned out to be an incredible device at an amazing price. Mi5 uses the latest hardware specs and is a very powerful device backed by advanced features.

Let’s take a closer look at the device:-

Build and Design: The build and design seems to have been borrowed from the Mi Note series which not only lends premium feel to the device but also ensures improved end user experience. The 3D curved glass back surrounded by metal frames which fits seamlessly with the design. The ergonomics of the device does make single handed use possible and provides comfortable in hand experience. The phone is relatively slim at just 7.25 mm and weighs just 129 gms making it all the more user friendly.

Hardware and Performance: The phone sports the latest and the most powerful Snapdragon 820 chipset powered by Quad Core Kyro processors along with 3gb Ram and Adreno 530 GPU ensuring lag free experience for the end users.

The powerful chipset does not exhibit any severe heating issues like its preceding generation chipset and delivers smooth end user experience. Even heavy gamers will love the device as it can play any game thrown at it without any lag.  The phone launched in India comes with 32 gb internal storage which is not expandable but will be sufficient for most users in my opinion.

The display is also crisp with pixel density of 428 ppi and color reproduction is also very vibrant on the device.

Impressive Battery Life: The battery life is not as good as the Redmi Note 3, but compared to other flagship devices it is pretty decent. The device will last you through the day on regular usage and a little longer if you use the battery optimization option available on the phone.

Advanced Features: The phone comes with all the advanced features seen or expected of a Flagship device. The phone boasts of a pretty responsive finger Print Scanner along with IR blaster and Qualcomm 2.0 fast charging making it a highly competitive device at this price.

Average Camera: The camera on this device is decent but does appear to be slightly weak when compared with other flagship devices. The rear camera captures decent images for the most part but does struggle in low light conditions. Even the video quality suffers under low lights. However, it does not mean that the camera is poor and does a good job considering the price.

The front facing camera is 4mp with 2 micrometer pixel which is capable of taking decent Selfies for Individuals who are obsessed with Selfies and Groupfies.

Software: This is one aspect where Xiaomi needs to be prompt in providing latest Android OS update. They do roll out upgrades at regular intervals but not necessarily OS updates. This device runs on Android Marshmallow with the custom MiUi 7 on top, which is a decent interface but does take up fair bit of memory. We can hope for faster updates in the future. Custom MiUi 7 does offer a lot of features but is a touch heavy interface and device does face minor optimization issues due to the same.

After Sales Support: Another area of improvement is in the after sales service. I feel they have improved over a period of time but they need to upgrade their support even more to provide the end users with best possible support.

Overall Verdict: The device is offering a lot @ Rs24,999/- and does not face any stiff competition from any other top tier or even Chinese brands at this point  of time. But I expected Xiaomi to be more aggressive with pricing as that would have pushed One Plus to price their latest flagship One Plus 3 even more competitively. The Device is very powerful and capable of delivering top notch performance at most levels and comprises of all the latest features expected on a Flagship device.

Key Specifications are given below:-

Processor	Quad Core Processor Kryo clocked at 1.8 ghz & 1.6 ghz, Snapdragon 820 chipset
Storage	32/64/128 GB (No SD Slot)
Operating System	Android Marshmallow 6.0
Rear Camera	16 mp/4K Video Recording
Front Camera	4 mp /HD Video Recording
Ram	3/4 GB
GPU	Adreno 530
Battery	3000 Mah LiPo
Display	5.15 inch (Corning Glass 4)
Type Sim	Dual Nano Sim/GSM 4G Support
Resolution	1080*1920(428 ppi)
Touchscreen Type	Capacitive
Dimension(mm)/Weight(gms)	144.6 x 69.2x 7.3 mm/129