Xiaomi is one of the highly popular Chinese smartphone makers in India, which made its name by offering feature-loaded devices at compelling price tags. As far as the company’s flagship offerings are concerned, its previous flagship device the country was the Mi 4, which was released in late January 2015. After launching the Mi 4, the company shifted its focus towards budget offerings under the Redmi series, which have been a tremendous success for the brand in the country. Now the company is expected to unveil its next flagship under the Mi series, the Xiaomi Mi 5, in China. Since India has become one of the most important markets for Xiaomi, we expect the Mi 5 to be released in the country soon after its unveiling in China. If you are a Mi fan and eagerly waiting for the Mi 5, let’s take a quick look on the rumoured features of the handset.
Xiaomi Mi 5: features of the upcoming Mi flagship
Design
Talking about the design first, the Xiaomi Mi 5’s predecessor offered a compact but sturdy design with a metal frame. The device offers a plastic design, but when it was released, it was considered as one of the best looking devices on the market. However, the brand’s new flagship, the Mi 5, as hinted by numerous rumours is expected to bring a new more appealing design than its predecessor with a glass rear panel. Dimensions of the handset are unknown at the moment, but the rumour-mill indicates towards a slim profile.
Display and OS
As for the display, as per a recent listing on an online retailer, the Xiaomi Mi 5 will flaunt a 5.2-inch display bearing 2K resolution (QHD) with a whopping pixel density of 565ppi, which will deliver rich colours and immersive media viewing experience. As far as the software is concerned, Xiaomi is slow at bringing the latest Android builds to its smartphones. So the Mi 5 is expected to run Android 5.1 Lollipop based MIUI 7, which is the brand’s custom user interface over Android with several in house software tweaks.
Configuration
Coming to the performance, the Xiaomi Mi 4 was introduced running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, which is an octa-core SoC. However, its successor on the other hand will reportedly utilise the next-gen much more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. In fact, it will be one of the first phones to utilise this system-on-chip. The performance will be further enhanced by a generous 4GB of RAM. For storage, the phone is expected to be released in 32GB and 64GB internal memory variants. The phone will also pack in a fingerprint sensor for enhanced data security that will be embedded into the square home button, which is said to be the smallest in the world on a phone.
Camera
Talking about camera, as per a recent listing on an online retailer, the Mi 5 will sport a 16-megapixel primary snapper with phase detection autofocus, a dual LED flash and 4K recording. For the selfie lovers, the handset will be equipped with a 13-megapixel snapper. The phone’s camera app is also expected to come pre-loaded with enhanced software tweaks, which will let you alter the captured images the best possible way you want.
Connectivity and battery
Xiaomi is expected to not leave anything out of the box when it comes to the connectivity options of the Mi 5 flagship. The phone is expected to be able to hold two SIMs with dual standby, LTE support for global 4G networks including India, NFC, latest standard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, and A-GPS with GLONASS. As far as the battery life is concerned, the Mi 5 will hide a beefy 3,600mAh unit under the hood. The battery will also support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which is a new charging tech standard from Qualcomm, one of the premium mobile chipset makers in the world, that offers much faster charging capabilities than the regular charging standards.
Conclusion
Coming to the verdict, the Xiaomi Mi 5 will no doubt will be an excellent flagship offering, since it’s been a long time since the unveiling of the brand’s previous Mi 4 flagship. The phone will sport the top of the class display that will also attract the people who like compact-yet-large enough to deliver excellent media viewing experience devices. It will be packed with the latest Snapdragon SoC, a meaty RAM, excellent camera specs, a large battery with fast charging, and a fingerprint sensor for enhanced security. Similar to the Mi 4, its successor is also expected to be offered at a competitive price tag. The Xiaomi Mi 5 is expected to be unveiled on January 21st, and will go on sale in the company’s home market of China after the spring festival.