It would be completely fair to say that the Xiaomi Mi5 makes the list of powerful smartphones that boast exceptional visual appeal. The full aluminum body coated with Gorilla Glass phones makes for a pretty sturdy smartphone. The sides of the phone are provided with intelligent curves that make it quite comfortable to hold the phone.
The Xiaomi Mi5 can be easily used with a single hand. The front of the phone is simple yet pleasing to the eye. The front facing camera is placed on the top corner and a small Mi logo sits right next to it. The 5.1 inch screen houses a home button at the bottom which can double up as the fingerprint sensor.
Little aspects of the phone’s design are what make it exceptional. The fact that the home button can be used a physical button as well as a capacitive button is proof that Xiaomi has given due importance to user comfort and convenience. However, measuring just 129 grams, the phone is extremely light. In fact, it might be too light for some users. The display is quite good considering the price of the phone.
The full HD screen looks almost like a QHD one. Also, at a screen size of 5.15 inches, the lack of a QHD display does not bother much. Obviously, the display in Samsung S7 is quite better compared to the one in Xiaomi Mi5, but at the offered price, the screen quality is satisfactory.
The Xiaomi Mi5 is available in 3 editions that differ in terms of RAM and internal storage. The standard edition features 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The prime edition runs on 3GB of RAM and features 64GB of internal storage. The pro edition boasts 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM. All editions run on the Snapdragon 820 chipset and an Adreno 530 GPU.
Even in the standard edition, performance issues are almost non-existent. However, the sound quality of the phone is not good enough. The illusion of dual speakers vanishes as soon as the user plays a music track because even at low volumes, the sound is distorted.
The phone runs on a customized version of the Android 6.0. However, unlike other Chinese phones, the custom UI incorporated by Xiaomi (called MIUI) is actually nice. It definitely doesn’t look like an ugly rip off of the iOS. Instead, the MIUI brings the best of both worlds. For those who need an app drawer, the google play store is filled with third party launchers that will serve the purpose.
The 3,000mAh battery is large enough to serve the needs of almost anybody. The phone lasts longer than a day after a full charge. The rear camera is a 16-megapixel shooter with an aperture size of f/2.0. A dual-LED flash also sits right next to the slight bulging out camera. The Sony IMX298 sensor captures sharp and detailed images.
The rear camera can record videos with a resolution of 2160p at 30 frames per second. Full-HD recording is also supported at 30 fps and 720p videos can be captured at a frame rate of 120 frames per second. The 8-megapixel front facing camera is also quite good, but one should not have unrealistic expectations.
At such an affordable price, the Xiaomi Mi5 is an excellent device that can even compete with the more expensive front runners in the smartphone market.
Price: AED 1,399
