The highly anticipated Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship is finally official and it will be the company's first smartphone to launch globally.
After a slew of leaks, teasers, rumors and speculation boosted the hype ahead of the big event, Xiaomi formally introduced its new Mi 5 powerhouse at the Mobile World Congress 2016 on Wednesday.
As expected, the Xiaomi Mi 5 packs an impressive array of top-notch specs and features, aiming to compete at the high end of the smartphone market. It looks great, packs powerful hardware and comes at a fraction of the cost of other flagships with comparable specs.
As former Google and current Xiaomi Global VP Hugo Barra points out, the Xiaomi Mi 5 borrows some design cues from the elegant Mi Note, and will be available in three color options: black, white and gold.
Xiaomi Mi 5 Specs
When it comes to hardware specifications, Xiaomi definitely packed a punch. The Mi 5 sports a 5.12-inch full HD display (1080p), a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, Adreno 530 graphics, up to 4 GB of RAM and up to 128 GB of built-in flash storage.
The keynote spent 10 minutes praising the processor, and for good reason. The Snapdragon 820 brings faster processing with less power consumption and powers the latest and greatest on the mobile market, including Samsung's new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 further features a 3D Glass ceramic back and a sleek metal frame, and comes as the company's very first device to rock a front-mounted fingerprint scanner rather than a rear-mounted one. The Mi 5 also has a physical home button that houses the fingerprint sensor, a USB Type-C charging port, and a 3,000 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 fast-charging technology.
Other specs include a 16-megapixel rear camera with 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), a 4-megapixel front shooter, and VoLTE technology for HD voice and video calls with lower call drop rates.
On the software side, the Mi 5 runs Xiaomi's own MIUI, which is based on Android.
Xiaomi Mi 5 Price And Availability
The new Xiaomi Mi 5 will go on sale on March 1 and will cost $306 for the entry-level model with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. The highest-end version, meanwhile, will cost $413 and offer 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. A middle model with 64 GB of storage will retail for $352.
So far, Xiaomi only sold its devices in China and surrounding Asian countries, but the company plans to change that. After seeing impressive growth in recent times, Xiaomi said it plans to expand its reach and bring its devices to the U.S. and other Western countries. The company has yet to offer a specific time frame for when this will happen, but the new Xiaomi Mi 5 would surely see huge demand if it launches in more markets worldwide. Xiaomi said it will release the Mi 5 in global markets, but failed to mention which.
For now, get a better look at the sleek design of the Xiaomi Mi 5 in the presentation video below.
