For Xiaomi’s debut at MWC 2016, the Chinese tech manufacturer has decided to reveal the company’s flagship for the year, the Mi 5.
Xiaomi’s latest flagship will feature a 5.15″ 1920 x 1080 Full HD panel. Taking a page out of the Mi Note, the Mi 5 has a ceramic glass back that is curved on both sides. Interestingly, the Mi 5 has integrated a fingerprint sensor into the home button, much like Samsung’s own S6/Note 5 smartphones.
For performance, the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, the processor of choice for flagship-level smartphones of the year. For memory, the Mi 5 will have up to 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM as well as up to 128GB of built-in UFS 2.0 storage.
The camera on the Mi 5 isn’t too shabby either as the phone has a 16MP rear camera with a Sony IMX298 sensor. This gives the Mi 5’s rear camera phase detection autofocus ability as well as a four-axis optical image stabilisation. As for the Mi 5’s front camera, the phone will be using a 4MP, 2 micron large pixel camera, which is the exact same front camera that Xiaomi used for its Mi Note.
Quick charging technology will also be available on the Mi 5 as the phone supports Quick Charge 3.0, allowing the phone to be charged to 80% to 90% capacity in just an hour. As for the OS, the Mi 5 will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company’s own MIUI 7 skin. Other features on the Mi 5 includes LTE connectivity and NFC.
Three variants of the Mi 5 will be offered when the device is finally released. The standard Mi 5 variant, with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, will retail for RMB1,999 (RM1,292). The 64GB variant will come with 64GB of storage and 3GB of RAM and will retail for RMB2,299 (RM1,487). Lastly, the Mi 5 Pro variant will come with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. This particular variant will retail for RMB2,699 (RM1,745). The Mi 5 will be launching in China on the 1st of March. For regions outside of China, release dates for the Mi 5 will be announced at a later date.
