Xiaomi Mi 5 is now official, running on Snapdragon 820, looking a bit like the Galaxy Note 5

Xiaomi Mi 5 has just been launched in China a little before the global launch at MWC 2016, Barcelona.

There is quite a bit of change when it comes to design with the Xiaomi Mi 5. First and most notable is the new home button in front, which also acts as the fingerprint sensor. In the last few iterations, Xiaomi had used a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Then there's the dual curved back borrowed from the company's own Mi Note Pro line-up.

In terms of specs, the rumors and leaks were spot on. You are getting a 5.15-inch 1080p curved IPS display here (600 nits brightness) running on the Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, Adreno 530 GPU with a choice of getting either the 3GB RAM/32GB or 64GB storage variant or opting for the more performance centric 4GB RAM/128 GB storage variant. Moreover, the Mi 5 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow based MIUI 7, out of the box.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Specs and Photos

The Xiaomi Mi5 is a dual-SIM 4G LTE capable device with support for VoLTE, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS with GLONASS and NFC (for mobile payments.) There's a USB Type-C port at the bottom with Quick Charge 3.0 support for the 3000 mAh non-removable battery. What's cool about the design of the Xiaomi Mi 5 is how thin the company has been able to make the device, its just 7.25mm at its thickest point weighing in a mere 129 grams.

Xiaomi Mi 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Xiaomi is not slouching on the camera front either. So you get a 16MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, Sony IMX298 sensor, PDAF, 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilization) capable of recording 4K and Slow Motion videos along with a 4MP front-facing wide-angle selfie camera with super large 2um pixel size. There in an infra-red sensor onboard as well. 

Pricing and Availability

Xiaomi Mi 5 will come in black, white, gold and rose gold colors priced starting at 1999 Yuan (about Rs. 21,000 or US$300) for the 3GB RAM /32GB storage variant (64GB storage at 2299 Yuan (about Rs. 24000) going up to 2699 Yuan (about Rs. 28,000 or $410) for the 4GB RAM / 128GB storage variant. It will also go on sale starting March 1st in China just like the Mi 4s.