Xiaomi on Wednesday unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Mi 5, at an event in Beijing, China. The Chinese company also revealed the Mi 5 at MWC in Barcelona which marked Xiaomi's first official presence at the global event.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 launch comes almost two years after the Mi 4, which was unveiled back in 2014, and the company claims was one of the best sellers so far with sales figures close to 4 million. Considering that a lot rides on the success of the new flagship Mi 5 smartphone, the company has packed some impressive specifications under the hood as well as added some aesthetic improvements. Here are the top five features in Xiaomi's new flagship smartphone.
3D Ceramic body
Xiaomi at the launch of the Mi 5 stressed that the company was looking to experiment with a new build for the new handset and that was when 3D ceramic material for the rear came up. Hugo Barra, Vice President of International for Xiaomi, at the Barcelona briefing added that the ceramic material used on the Mi 5 top-end model is not the kind of ceramic one can find in plates but comprises high-grade nano-ceramic zirconia. "It's durable and resists any kind of abrasion really wall-up to 8H on the Mohs hardness scale; steel is 4 to 4.5 for comparison, while a diamond is at 10," Barra added. He went on to add that the Ceramic build gives the handset the texture of marble.
It's worth noting that the Mi 5 has been unveiled in three versions - standard edition, high, and an exclusive edition. The 3D ceramic body is only found the top model while the other two sport glass back panel.
Fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint scanner has been one of the highlight features of devices unveiled last year. Though, Xiaomi seems to be late in the party. The Chinese company has for the first time on its device has packed a physical home button and has integrated the fingerprint scanner in it.
Quick Charge 3.0
Another improvement over the Mi 4 is the addition of Quick Charge 3.0 on the Mi 5. Quick Charge 2.0 on the Mi 4 was said to accelerate charging reducing charging time by 75 percent. With Quick Charge 3.0, the Mi 5 is said to charge 20 percent faster.
According to the company claims, the Quick Charge 3.0 will allow Mi 5 to be used for 2.5 hours with just 5 minutes of charge while one hour charging will offer 80-90 percent. Xiaomi has also opted for USB Type-C on the Mi 5.
Camera sensor
Xiaomi has been touting sample shots of the Mi 5 even before the official launch. It sports a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 camera sensor with PDAF (phase detection autofocus) and LED flash. The rear camera also sports 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilisation) and sapphire glass protection lens. The Chinese company also compared the OIS feature on the Mi 5 against the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The Mi 5 supports 4K video recording. It also sports a 4-Ultrapixel front camera, with 2-micron pixels. Both cameras feature an f/2.0 aperture.
Xiaomi says that the Mi 5 packs the company's first camera featuring DTI (deep trench isolation) technology, which prevents light leaks. Thanks to the presence of Snapdragon 820, the Mi 5 packs Qualcomm Spectra image processor that allows 4K video recording.
Top-notch processor
When Qualcomm back at CES 2016 revealed that the Le Max Pro will be the first to pack the Snapdragon 820, Xiaomi was one of the first companies to confirm the same chipset for Mi 5. The Chinese company has definitely managed to steal the show as it touts that Mi 5 will be the first handset featuring the Snapdragon 820 to be available in China starting March 1.
Some of the other handsets unveiled at the MWC featuring the Snapdragon 820 are the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge and LG G5.
Xiaomi at the start of its keynote address revealed that the Mi 5 scored an impressive 142,084 on AnTuTu. The company shared details how the Snapdragon 820 was 100 percent faster than the Snapdragon 810 SoC. The company also announced that the Mi 5 packs UFS (Universal Flash Storage) 2.0 which is 87 percent faster for read and write functions and also uses different data architecture than eMMC.
To refresh, Xiaomi's Mi 5 will be available in three versions - standard edition featuring 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage priced at CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs. 21,000); high version featuring 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 64GB storage priced at CNY 2,299 (approximately Rs. 24,000), and exclusive edition featuring 4GB LPDD4 RAM and 128GB storage priced at CNY 2,699 (approximately Rs. 28,000).