Introduction
Xiaomi surely took the time to make the Mi 5 worthy of its name. And Xiaomi Mi 5 sets the bar even higher! The Mi 5 was the first Xiaomi phone to be unveiled under the massive spotlight of the world's biggest mobile expo - the MWC in Barcelona. And with its stunning looks and capable performance, the Mi 5 deserved nothing less.
Key specifications
The Xiaomi Mi 5 is instantly likeable - the new flagship comes with unbelievably thin bezels, a sharp profile, a curved back and a lightweight body - all adding to one of the most impressive exteriors a modern smartphones can hope for.
It's key to note that the Xiaomi Mi 5 comes in three variations - 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of internal storage - and each has a chipset configuration of its own. Here's a quick dive into what's what.
- 32GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 1.8 GHz and 2x 1.36GHz cores); 3GB RAM
- 64GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 2.15 GHz and 2x 1.6GHz cores); 3GB RAM - the one we're reviewing
- 128GB model with Snapdragon 820 chipset (2x 2.15 GHz and 2x 1.6GHz cores); 4GB RAM
Display
The Xiaomi Mi 5 features a new 5.15" IPS display of 1080p resolution. Even though most of the rumors suggested an upgrade to QHD resolution, Xiaomi chose to keep the Full HD screen, and we don't mind that. A pixel density of 428ppi is more than respectable and leaves the Snapdragon 820 chip with power to spare on tasks and productivity.
The viewing angles are impressive as well, there is hardly any color shift or contrast loss when looking the Mi 5's display at an angle. It isn't AMOLED grade regarding contrast, but it sure is the next best thing.
When it comes to color rendering, the Mi 5 has an excellent color rendering with an average DeltaE of 3.2 and a maximum deviation of 6.9 in the whites. Anything below 4 is considered calibration level accuracy.
Battery life
Xiaomi Mi 5 has got pretty much the same battery as its predecessor - it's a 3,000 mAh Li-Po unit, sealed, of course. We ran our battery test and the Xiaomi Mi 5 scored a 92h rating, which is a respectable score.
Audio
The Xiaomi Mi 5 delivered great audio output when hooked up to an active external amplifier. The flagship was not only able to match the best for clarity, but it also delivered splendidly high volume for arguably the best performance among the 2016 flagships so far.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with a new single speaker, which turned out to be louder than Mi 4's. It scored a Good mark on our loudness test. The sound produced is pleasant but with an average depth.
Photo camera
Xiaomi Mi 5 features a brand new 16MP camera, equipped with a dual-LED dual-tone flash. It comes with OIS and a Sony IMX 298 sensor, which has phase detection auto focus and deep trench isolation technology, which is Sony's alternative to Samsung ISOCELL sensors, which should deliver lower noise and sharper images at higher ISO levels.
Video camera
The Xiaomi Mi 5 is capable or recording up to 4K@30fps. Oddly, there is no 60fps option for the 1080p video recording. The phone features 4-axis optical image stabilization to help steady both types of videos.
The amount of resolved detail in the 4K videos is high, but not the best we've seen. The colors are accurate, the contrast is high, while the dynamic range is a slightly above the average. The framerate is smooth and consistent at 30fps.
The 1080p videos were rarely properly focused and even when they are, the videos are soft and lack fine detail.
The recorded sound on both type of videos is poor, possibly due to the low audio bitrate.
Software
The Xiaomi Mi 5 is the first MIUI smartphone to come running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. The version of the proprietary launcher is still MIUI 7, so no surprises here.
As usual Xiaomi's customizations run very deep and replace everything including all Google services. In fact, the Mi phones sold in China don't have access to Google's services and those need to be sideloaded one way or the other (some resellers may even do that for you). The models sold officially on markets outside of China come with a preloaded Play Store app (and Play Services).
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