Xiaomi announced the new Mi 5 at a media briefing at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as in Beijing. This will be the Xiaomi flagship phone for 2016 and will start selling from 1st of March in China. India launch date along with that of other countries weren’t announced at the launch. The Mi5 will be selling for RMB 1999 (Rs 20000 approx) for 32 GB variant, RMB 2299 (Rs 23000 approx) for 64 GB variant. The Mi5 Pro will be selling for RMB 2699 (Rs 27000) approximately. The Mi5 Pro comes with a 3D ceramic cover and 128 GB storage with 4 GB RAM whereas the Mi5 comes with a 3D glass cover and 3 GB RAM with 64 GB storage. Everything else is the same in both the devices.
he Xiaomi Mi5 borrows a lot of elements from its Mi Note series phones and this was confirmed by Barra as well. Xiaomi has refined the 3D glass curve design, making it way more rounded than that seen on the Mi Note. The metal frame merges seamlessly onto the glass back on the edges. The chamfering has a lot more slope. In a word, the Mi5 looks elegant and with just around 7.25 mm thickness and weighing around 129g, it is impressive how it has managed to have the camera flush with the plane of the body and included a 3000mAh battery. There is a 3D ceramic variant available as well.
Going by the price points – Xiaomi has kept it really aggressive. A Twitter poll that was conducted had mixed views with regards to price but majority said that they would buy it. In India the Rs 20k segment has lot of competition so a lot depends on Mi5’s Indian pricing as the LeEco Le Max Pro with Snapdragon 820 has already got a Rs 21000 price point. Not to mention, there’s also the OnePlus 3 launch on the horizon.
