Rumors of the much awaited Xiaomi Mi 5 have been doing the rounds for many months. A real-life picture of the Mi 5 has emerged online, giving a glimpse of how the smartphone may look like.
The Chinese handset maker released the Mi 4 in August 2014 and the mobile phone was welcomed well by smartphone enthusiasts and market gurus. Xiaomi fans were waiting for the company to launch the Mi 5, the successor of the Mi 4, in 2015 but the year has passed and the company was yet to launch the device.
Earlier in January this year, Xiaomi co-founder Liwan Jiang confirmed that the Mi 5 will be launched in February this year. While customers are waiting for the official launch of the Mi 5, a leaked image of the upcoming phone has appeared on Weibo.
The image does not give detail of any hardware specs but based on the appearance, the handset might just have a metal frame.
Rumors claim that the over-heating issues with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor resulted in the delay of the Mi 5. A Xiaomi executive has confirmed that the upcoming Mi 5 will be one of the first smartphones to include the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor.
Speculations are high that Xiaomi will release the Mi 5 in two variants. The standard version of the phone will include 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB internal storage. The higher variant of the device will get 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of onboard storage.
The Mi 5 is estimated to get a 5.2-inch multi-touch curved glass display with 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution. The smartphone may get a 16-megapixel or 20-megapixel primary camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing snappers. A powerful 3,600 mAh battery is expected to fuel the Xiaomi device.
Smartphone makers are including fingerprint scanners or sensors in top-end devices that are used to unlock and make online payments. If rumors are to be believed, then the Xiaomi Mi 5 will have Qualcomm's Sense ID fingerprint scanner.
Google has launched Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, which has made its way only to some select Android devices. The Mi 5 may come running on Google's latest mobile operating system straight out of the box with MIUI 7 OS.
According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, Xiaomi was the fifth largest smartphone vendor in Q3 2015 and shipped 18.3 million units, including the Redmi Note 2, Redmi 2A Prime and Mi 4c. While Southeast Asia, China, Brazil and India are Xiaomi's biggest markets, the company may foray in new markets this year and the Mi 5 may be the ideal device that would attract more customers in the western world.
It has been a long wait for the Mi 5 and customers will have to hold on for another few weeks for the official announcement of the newest Xiaomi phone. Till then, all rumors regarding the Mi 5 should be taken with a pinch of salt.
