Mi 5 is upcoming flagship device from world’s 4th largest smartphone maker Xiaomi. I know all Mi fans are waiting to hear more about this device and all Indian fans are curious to know about the Release date of Mi 5 In India.
So first I wanted to let u know that the device is going to launch in India very soon as Hugo Barra said very soon means within a month so you can expect that Xiaomi will start selling this device from the first week of April in India.
All Redmi Note 3 Explorer including me attended the Mi India Product launch in New Delhi and Luckily we all got a chance to explore the Xiaomi Mi 5 also. Everyone has limited time to experience the device but I managed to get more time so that I’ll share Mi 5 experience with you guys.
In this post, I’m going to share hands-on experience and basic XIaomi Mi 5 Reviews and opinion based on 20-25 minutes uses of Xiaomi Mi 5. Only white version with 3GB RAM and 32/64GB RAM was available at experience centre.
Key Specification of Mi 5.
- 5.15-inch FHD IPS LED display with 428-PPI & ultra-bright 16-LED backlighting
- Snapdragon 820 processor, Adreno 530
- 3 GB RAM with 32 & 64 GB internal storage
- 4 GB RAM with 128GB internal storage
- Front fingerprint sensor
- 16 MegaPixel camera with f/2.0 aperture, 4-axis OIS, Sony IMX298 sensor, PDAF and DTI technology and dual LED flash
- 4MP camera with 2 µm sized sensor
- Full feature NFC
- 600Mbps 4G+ download speeds, VoLTE
- Dual 4G SIM with dual standby
- 3000mAh battery, Quick Charge 3.0
- MIUI based on Android M 6.0
Design: As the company’s VP mentioned during Mi 5 launch event that they have worked really very hard to make this device look different and unique. Overall the device looks similar to Redmi Note Pro but obviously better than Note Pro. The front and back are covered by glass with beautiful and perfect edge at rear side. On the right side, there is a power button and volume rocker.
Left side of Mi 5 has dual SIM card tray. Bottom of the device has dual speaker grille but don’t get confused with grille, Mi 5 doesn’t have dual speaker among two grilles one is a speaker and other is mic which we have seen in devices like Nexus 5 & OnePlus 2. The type-c charging port is placed perfectly in the middle of both grilles.
Top of the device has 3.5 mm audio port, IR blaster is also placed at the top beside audio port and company is claiming that IR blaster will support almost all remote controllable household products with the help of its inbuilt remote app.
The new 16 Megapixel camera with dual tone flash is on the rear side at the left top corner which is kind of uneasy if u are holding the phone in both hands while taking pictures because within those few minutes I’ve seen that the camera is getting covered by fingers but you will get accustomed to this.
The front portion has a 5.15 inches full HD display, proximity sensor and 4 MP front camera is placed just above the display. The Fingerprint sensor and capacitive hardware navigation buttons are placed below the display.
God knows what convinced the company like Xiaomi to bring physical home button, yeah the fingerprint sensor is also a physical home button like Samsung you need to press them to unlock.
Suppose the device is idle and the display is off, in that case, you need to press the home button or power button to wake up the phone. But if u have already registered your fingerprint then it will directly unlock the device after pressing the home button. Will talk more about fingerprint later in this post.
Display: Xiaomi Mi 5 has 5.15 inches full HD display with resolutions of 1080 x 1920 and 428 PPI pixel density. I really mean it when I’m saying I love the display quality of Xiaomi’s smartphones. With Mi 5 Xiaomi proved again that packing QHD display is not the only option to get a beautiful and high-quality display. The Mi 5 has a far better display than previous Xiaomi devices and other full HD devices.
The display looks stunning in all lights condition tighter low light or bright light, I have tested with my phone’s torchlight to check the display in bright light and it appeared very impressive.
Camera: Xiaomi Mi 5 packs a 16MP Sony IMX 298 sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus and 4-axis optical image stabilization – a brand new technology. I have taken some images with both front and rear camera but sorry I couldn’t manage to transfer those image. Based on few images I can say both cameras are impressive and taking really beautiful pictures but still I haven’t felt it is the best smartphone camera may be I need explore more and need to spend more time on camera.
The company is focusing on and marketing about the camera so It might be very nice. During that short time, I have noticed the images were getting pixelated after zooming above a certain level.
Apart from issues with zooming, it takes nice noise-free images with decent details, perfect white balance & color contrast. 4 MP front camera is also nice and it’s taking images with decent details. u can take Beautiful selfies with inbuilt beautify mode.
4 MP front camera is also good and it’s taking crisp images, you can take Beautiful selfies with inbuilt beautify mode.
Fingerprint Sensor:- Fingerprint is going to be a necessary feature for all upcoming smartphone because this is the most convenient and effective security feature. We have already heard many news that Mi 5 has the smallest fingerprint scanner, So this was the first features I wanted to test in Mi 5.
The fingerprint sensor works super fast and accurate. I have registered my finger and tested continuously for two-three minutes and tried very hard to sweat the fingerprint scanner but it surprised me with accuracy and super speed.
I’m not sure if Mi 5’s fingerprint scanner is faster than iPhone 6S or not but I’m sure it can’t be slower and my bet will be on Mi 5 fingerprint scanner. I’m still thinking why Xiaomi is not highlighting the fingerprint, why they are not even making any statement about fingerprint?
After testing the fingerprint at Mi product launch I think the reason behind not promoting fingerprint scanner is a physical button. Yes !!! Xiaomi trusted that old and weird design after coming this far in design and technology, the fingerprint scanner is embedded in the physical home button and you need to press that button to unlock the device.
This may be convenient for those who like Samsung’s phone because the design of button is same like Samsung smartphone but in Mi 5 if press home button it will scan the fingerprint on the fly and unlock your device. Personally, I hate physical home button and it doesn’t make any sense in touchscreen smartphone when you already have the physical power button to wake up the device if need. I have asked many other Mi fans who has tested the Mi 5 and almost all of them said Xiaomi has made the mistake by adding a physical home button.
Software & Performance: Xiaomi Mi 5 runs MiUi 7 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow so functions such as Doze mode and granular app permissions are present. The Mi 5 has five different default themes and the ability to customize the capacitive buttons.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 packs a Snapdragon 820 processor running at 2.1 GHz. This is supported by 3 GB of RAM in the 32 and 64 GB models, and 4 GB of RAM in the Pro model, which has 128 GB of internal storage. Overall the device runs very smooth and fast, I haven’t seen any bugs and glitches during that short hands on which is expected from MiUI and there was no overheating or sudden crashes.
I”ll post detailed reviews once I’ll get the chance to explore Mi 5 properly.
