This ‘budget specialist’ image has definitely helped Xiaomi to sell many phones, but it has become a bit difficult for the company to sell premium segment smartphones in India. But the company’s second smartphone launched in 2016 is the direct message that the company wants to create a market for premium smartphones in India. Mi5 is the most expensive phone of Xiaomi so far and it presents Xiaomi separately from the ‘budget’ image. This phone with all the top specification Samsung Galaxy S7 (Review) is available at about half the price. Xiaomi Mi 5 has the ability to change the mind of premium buyers. Today we will review this Xiaomi Mi5 and know how much this ‘budget flagship’ meets expectations.
Look and design
Xiaomi has done a great job on the texture and design of the first Redmi Note 3 and now Xiaomi Mi5. The special thing is that from the budget smartphone Redmi Note 3, the company has made the flagship smartphone Mi5 with a completely different design and style. The phone gives a feeling like a premium smartphone and due to its mid-range, there is no compromise on the texture. The phone is also very light and its weight is only 129 grams.
Mi5 will clearly show a glimpse of Samsung’s A and S series smartphones especially Samsung Galaxy A8 (Review). The edge of the phone and the curved rear is exactly the same and the physical home button and the thin border around the screen is the same.
The front of the phone has a front camera, proximity sensor, LED indicator and earpiece while at the top of the left corner. There are capacitive buttons with home buttons. Both capacitive buttons are backlit when touched. Apart from this, during the use of the phone, the home button is also a touch-sensitive that you can switch to your convenience.
The entire frame of the phone is made of metal except the plastic antenna line given above and below. The dull finish with a metal look makes the phone look fantastic and its reflective edges make the phone more beautiful. On the right side is the power and volume button while on the left is a dual-sim tray. The 3.5mm socket and infrared ammeter is at the top and the USB Type-C support and grills are given at the bottom. The right grill has a speaker while the left grille has a microphone.
The rear of Mi5 is a glass panel with curved banks such as Samsung’s premium smartphone. The rear panel is also reflective, however, its surface is of Grim Magnet and it will need to be cleaned continuously. Although the rear panel does not need to be removed, but a small space visible on the edges shows that it can easily get out. We got the review unit white color variant but we feel that the black color variant of the phone looks more beautiful.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 has a 5.15-inch full-HD IPS LCD display with a Dansity 428 PPI. Corning is gorilla glass for protection. However, when the second flagship smartphone has a 1440 pixel high-government screen, Xiaomi says, it was necessary to limit the full-HD resolution screen for screen thickness and to make the phone thinner. The display is quite sharp and we did not see any lack of details in it. Fon’s screen is very bright and due to the most brightness, it can be easily used in sunlight.
Specification and software
Xiaomi Mi 5 is officially the first smartphone available with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor in India. And Samsung is one of the most powerful devices available in the market today with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Age that you can buy today.
The Mi5 smartphone comes with 3 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage, VoLTE support, NFC, an infrared ammeter and Qualcomm’s Qual Charge 3.0 technology. Our review unit was equipped with Quick Charge 3.0 technology but we have been told that the Mi 5 Quick Charge sold in India will be equipped with 2.0. It also gets the phone charge in 90 minutes with 2.0 support charger.
Apart from this, this smartphone has Wi-Fi 802.11 N/AC, Bluetooth 4.2, dual SIM connectivity with 4G support, 3000 mAh battery and USB Type-C port for connectivity and charging. The deficiency in the phone is not to have expandable storage. The phone does not support microSD card, which will only give the user 32 GB inbuilt storage. However, Mi5 is also available in 64 GB and 128 GB variants in China. But in India, these variants are not being sold at the moment and neither any information has been given about their sales in future.
Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with MIUI 7 on Android. It is a single layer but is completely clean and well organized. The design of the icon and menu is good and surely it gives a much better experience than the user interface given by other phone manufacturers in the recent past. The phone also gets frequent updates for user interface. However, user interface stock is not like Android, but it is definitely a better UI.
With many options and control in the setting app, you can set Mi5 according to your needs. There is detailed information about battery consumption and storage in the phone and many things like capacitable button and notification lights, audio enhancements, equalizer tools for headphones can be controlled according to their own. Apart from this, it can also be brought to one-handed mode by toggling from home button.
However, apps like App Permission and Data Use Statistics did not see us in the setting app, but we were able to see these apps in Xiaomi’s Additional Security App. From this app, necessary works like fingerprint/ pattern lock, battery profile configure, scan scan, set SMS blocks and cleaning unwanted data can be done in the selected app.
One of the most special features of the phone is the fingerprint sensor, which can configure up to five fingerprints. This fingerprint can not only unlock the phone, but it can also activate child mode activated and deactivate, file explorer and secure other apps. Among all the fingerprint sensors we have seen so far, the fingerprint sensor of Mi5 works the most accurate and instant work.
Camera
Xiaomi Mi 5 has a 16 -megapixel rear camera with dual LED tone. The phone has a 4 ultrapixel front camera. Video recording can be done from the rear camera while the front camera can record a full-HD video of up to 30 FPS. There is also an optical image stabilization for rear cameras, which helps in recording instant photos and videos.
Xiaomi’s camera app seems very easy to see once but it also has some shortcomings. It is easy to toggle into the video from Still. The camera app has options like HDR, flash and camera switch. Apart from swipe on the right side, many modes like timer, panorama, manual can be seen when swipe from the left side. Settings can also be accessed from here to control resolution and shutter. To access the setting for the video, first you have to go into video mode and then the same process will have to be repeated.
A deficiency that we saw is that slow-motion mode is not available while shooting at the resolution of full-HD or 4. Slow-motion video can be shot if you go to the setting at 720 pixels.
Talking about the camera, we liked its performance very much. In regular lights, photos come shiny, colorful and very sharp. However, you may see a lack of details by zoom. Talk about the focus, there is no shortage of it. And also the pictures are good in dark lights. By keeping the camera on auto-HDR mode, you will get pictures of great quality.
Seeing photos even in low light, there are colorful and good in looking but lack of detailing. Close-up shot and video quality are also fine. 4K video recording gives good results. Selfies are good even in low light. 4-Eltrapixel camera can take better photos with large pixels. Not quality like iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7, but Mi5 can definitely be called a good option for smartphone photography.
Performance
The performance of Xiaomi Mi5, equipped with Snapdragon 820 processor, was amazing. We did not face any problem in unlocking the phone to opening the app and closing the app. Playing heavy games and watching videos in the phone is also easy. However, the Mi5 is slightly warm when doing severe work. And even at the time of charging, you can feel a little warm on the rear of the phone.
Our benchmark test also saw great figures from Mi5.
In our video loop test, the 3000 mAh battery given in Mi 5 supported 13 hours and 5 minutes. In general use, the phone lasts for high screen brightness and Lagatir being on 4G networks. The audio quality coming from the phone’s singer speaker on cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity can be said to be right.
Our decision
Even though Xiaomi is known for making budget smartphones, the company has shown that it also has the ability to make a premium device. Although many people may have trouble with its price and making a premium device of Xiaomi, but we feel that the time has come to move forward and the company needs to honor the honor he deserves. Xiaomi Mi 5 is a better flagship smartphone at this price.
All things like design, brilliant performance, better camera quality and best battery life can be said to be good in Emi 5. But the biggest drawback in the phone is not to come with its expandable storage and it is to come with only 32 GB storage variant in India. Light weight of the phone may also make you feel that this phone is not made for serious work like other metal body phones. Apart from this, another big thing is that the flash-cell model which means that there may be some difficulty in buying Mi5.
If you want better material quality and texture and design and premium feature and brand by spending more money, then you can choose Samsung and other brand smartphones. But Xiaomi Mi 5 is a tremendous smartphone for Rs 24,999. If you manage to buy the phone in a flash cell, then the Xiaomi Mi5 will not disappoint you.