At its Redmi Note 3 launch in India on March 3, Xiaomi’s Global VP Hugo Barra had stated that the Mi 5 will be coming to India, soon. As it seems, it indeed has, as against Barra’s initial word that the Mi 5 will be launched “well, well into the year”. The Mi 5 is the much-awaited flagship smartphone that Xiaomi has reportedly been developing for over one year, and finally, it is about to be launched in India today, at 3pm on March 31.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, 2016, and subsequently went up for sale first in China. It comes in two variants — the standard Mi 5 with 3GB of RAM and option for 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, and the enhanced Mi 5 Pro with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Both the smartphones run on Qualcomm’s present generation flagship system-on-a-chipset, the quad-core Snapdragon 820. While the 32GB version of the standard Mi 5 runs on an underclocked version of the Snapdragon 820, clocked at 1.8GHz, the Mi 5 64GB variant and the Mi 5 Pro run on the Snapdragon 820 SoC clocked at 2.15GHz. The enhanced version is also 10 grams heavier than the regular edition. Other features remain the same.
The Mi 5 houses a 5.15-inch IPS-panel LCD display with 1080×1920-pixel resolution. It presents a 16-megapixel primary camera based on Sony’s IMX298 image sensor, with 4-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) and deep trench isolation (DTI) technology. It can also record 4K videos at up to 30fps. The 6-element f/2.0 lens also has a sapphire crystal glass cover. The Xiaomi Mi 5 also houses a standard array of sensors, such as proximity, gyroscope, fingerprint and hall sensors.
The Mi 5 houses a USB-C reversible port based on USB 2.0, and supports a wide range of WiFi bands and audio formats. Xiaomi has provided UFS 2.0 storage modules on the smartphone, and LPDDR4 RAM modules, in fine yet significant optimisations to present flagship-class experience across all of its variants. Other features of the Xiaomi Mi 5 include a 4MP UltraPixel front camera, Sunlight Display, 3000mAh battery pack and approximately 73.4% screen to body percentage to present a compact, ergonomic body. The smartphone also presents 3D Glass on the rear to give it a premium feel.
Mi 5: Premium construction, flagship firepower, mid-range price?
Xiaomi’s previous flagship smartphone, the Mi 4, was launched way earlier in 2014. While Mi fans will rejoice at the prospect of a flagship class device finally being launched after over a year of leaks and rumours, all eyes will inevitably rest upon its pricing. In China, the 32GB variant is priced at 1,999 Yuan (Rs. 20,500 approx.), the 64GB variant at 2,299 Yuan (Rs. 23,600 approx.) and the Mi 5 Pro at 2,699 Yuan (Rs. 27,700 approx.). While the Mi 5 will almost certainly be priced higher in India than direct conversion price points, we speculate that its pricing will begin from under Rs. 25,000. While anything lower than this will make the Xiaomi Mi 5 an excellent bargain, being priced at around the 25k mark should also see the smartphone enjoying significant attention. As of now, smartphones priced at around the 25k mark are either powered by the older generation of flagship Snapdragon (or Helio) processors, or house lower variants of Snapdragon processors.
Will the Xiaomi Mi 5 cash in on its advantage? It all depends on the pricing, which should be announced in less than three hours from now. Watch this space for more updates on the Xiaomi Mi 5, the latest flagship smartphone from Xiaomi.