Xiaomi Mi 5 (India) Hands-on Overview and Second Impressions

Xiaomi has been trying very hard in 2016 to cover for a slow 2015. Hugo Barra, VP - Xiaomi Global , promised “Indian Mi Fans” that their latest flagship will come to India in April 2016. Surprisingly enough, the Mi 5 was just launched in India today. It starts at a very competitive price of Rs. 24,999 but that’s not what we are here to talk about.

We got some good hands-on time with the Xiaomi Mi 5, and here are my initial impressions about the device.

Hands-on Video

But before we begin, as is customary, here’s a look at some key specs of the Xiaomi Mi 5.

Key Specs of Xiaomi Mi5

• 5.15 Inch, Full HD IPS Display with Gorilla glass 4 protection
• Snapdragon 820 Quad-core processor, Adreno 530 GPU
• 3GB/4GB RAM
• 32GB/64GB/128GB Internal Memory without Expandable Storage
• MIUI 7 based on Android Marshmallow
• 16MP Rear + 4MP Front Cameras
• 3000 mAh Battery with Fast Charging
• Dual SIM, 4G LTE, VoLTE, NFC, USB Type-C, Fingerprint Sensor

Build and Design

The Xiaomi mi5 is definitely one of the best designed smartphones from the company. It feels light and sturdy at the same time. The Mi5 carries a similar design to the Mi Note/Pro but with a smaller 5.15” display. The overall design language has also evolved a lot since the Mi Note.

There is quite a lot of improvement in build quality as well. With a curved glass back and metal frame, there is a sense of rigidity to the device, not to mention a premium appeal, which cannot be said about most phones in its price segment. Moreover, even with a 3000 mAh battery and a 5.15-inch display, Xiaomi has been able to keep the weight down to just 129 grams and 7.25mm thickness, that makes a huge difference to how the device feels in hand.

Xiaomi for the first time has also added a home button to the front of the phone which incorporates the fingerprint sensor. Its similar to what Samsung has been doing with its Galaxy and Note line-up, as the fingerprint sensor also doubles up as a physical home button unlike the capacitive options on OnePlus and HTC offerings. Moreover, the fingerprint sensor was swift, and recognized my fingerprints from various angles.

Physical Overview

When we talk about the physical aspects of this phone, the phone both looks and feels premium, as a flagship should be. The back of the phone is glass on the 2 variants (32/64) and on the “pro” model the back is made of ceramic which is said to be one of the most rigid material to be used on a phone. The ceramic variant also gets 128GB of internal storage and a slight increase in weight due to the different back.

The front houses a 5.15-inch 1080p IPS display with Gorilla Glass protection and minimal bezels. Above the display you have the 4MP UltraPixel front camera, proximity and light sensors as well as a notification LED. While below the display you have the physical home button which doubles up as the fingerprint sensor. It has good tactile response and gives a reassuring click.

Flanking the home button are two capacitive keys which are backlight and you can change their functionality as per your liking.

The right side of the phone has the volume rocker and the power button (Xiaomi has stuck to this button placement since the start), the buttons were tactile with nice travel, made of metal, overall felt sturdy without any wobble.

At the bottom of the phone there are 4 + 4 machine drilled holes, the first 4 are for the speakers and the other 4 house the microphone. There is a USB Type-C port there as well for data syncing and charging.

The SIM card tray can be seen on the left, which can hold 2 2G/3G/4G SIM cards and there’s no micro SD card slot. So you will be limited to the memory you buy the phone in.

Moving to the top of the phone there is an IR blaster with which we can control all our electronic devices which are compatible with Infra-Red Port. So you would be able to interact with your TV, Air Conditioner, Etc. with the Mi 5 without the need of additional software. We also have the 3.5mm Head phone jack at the top of the phone alongwith the secondary noise cancelling microphone.

All in all, the device is very well built, looks premium, felt good in hand as the display size and overall build make it a very compact smartphone. Its an almost perfect compromise when it comes to display size and usability.

Display

Xiaomi has tried something innovative with the display, they have used an odd size 5.15-inch panel just to have 16 LEDs to make the backlight brighter. The display goes quite bright but we weren’t able to test outdoor visibility here.

Xiaomi has gone with the tried and tested 1080p IPS panel for the Mi 5 which may seem a cop-out when you compare it with the likes of quad-HD displays on every other flagship from a major manufacturer. But I still hold the view that a Quad-HD display on a smartphone with less than 6-inch display size is really an over-kill. All it needs to is worse battery life without any major noticeable difference in display quality.

Camera

We did try out the 16MP camera sensor on the Mi5 which uses Sony’s IMX 298 sensor with phase-detection autofocus. There is 4-axis OIS also built in which makes for less blurry images and stable videos. We did test out the camera a bit, but were told that the camera software was still unfinished, therefore, I don’t have any samples to share with you.

But from what I gathered with the few shots I took, is that the camera focuses in fast and has excellent shutter speed. Moreover, the images seemed to have good color reproduction, atleast that’s what it seemed like on the display of the Mi 5. We will be reviewing the phone later and check its camera performance as well.

Performance Expectations and Software

The Xiaomi Mi 5 will come with Snapdragon 820, which is back to roots for the hardware giant. After a flat 2015 with the failure of the Snapdragon 810 and similar heating issues with some of the other offerings, Qualcomm is back with one of its fastest and most power efficient chipsets of recent time. The Mi 5 will comes with an under-clocked 1.8 GHz Snapdragon 820 and 32 GB storage while the other variants including the Mi 5 Pro won't be available in India.

Moreover, we haven’t heard of any heating issues with SD 820, which would be a huge boon to the glass and metal body of the Mi 5. With internal memory starting with 32GB most users won’t miss the micro SD card Slot and even though the battery is non-removable here there’s support for Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 which can charge 3000mAh battery by up to 83% in just 30min. There's USB OTG support as well here and a multicolor notification LED.

On the Software front the Mi 5 runs on MIUI 7 which is now based on Android Marshmallow, with which you get better permission management and better battery-life as well.

Conclusion

The Xiaomi Mi 5 has the potential to be a real flagship killer this time around. The competition may not be complacent, but the Mi 5 ticks all the right boxes when it comes to build, performance and overall usability. Pricing has always been the key in the Indian market, and the pricing is a bit more than expected, but its still a very good buy.

But the only issue with Xiaomi devices in India is availability. The 32GB variant of the Redmi Note 3 was available in just 2 flash sales and was scooped up in less than a few seconds.

From what we gather Xiaomi will be able to get enough stock of the Mi 5 to India, in time for the first flash sale which is to happen on April 6. We will try to get Xiaomi Mi 5 asap, so stay tuned to PhoneBunch for our full video review.