Xiaomi Mi 5 review

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PROS

  • Looks great
  • Plenty of high-end specs
  • Lovely screen
  • Quick, detailed camera
  • Super cheap

CONS

  • Have to import it
  • Camera struggles in low light
  • Skin is nothing like Android 6.0

KEY FEATURES

  • 5.15-inch 1080p display
  • Snapdragon 820
  • 4GB RAM
  • 32GB internal storage
  • USB Type-C with Quick Charge 3.0
  • Curved Gorilla Glass back
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • NFC
  • 16MP camera
  • Manufacturer: Xiaomi
  • Review Price: £275.00/3500MAD.

WHAT IS THE XIAOMI MI 5?

The Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and HTC 10 are all great phones. No doubt about it. But, they're also expensive ,But what if you could get a handset with a similar spec for  less? It sounds like the perfect deal. And in many ways it is. The Xiaomi Mi 5 is a fantastic phone, with one major downside. 

XIAOMI MI 5 – DESIGN

If you’ve caught sight of any images of the latest slew of high-end phones from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and Oppo, it won’t come as any surprise that the Xiaomi Mi 5 is a beautifully crafted piece of kit.
Like the Samsung Galaxy S7, the Mi 5 is a mix of aluminium and Gorilla Glass 4. There isn’t a hint of plastic anywhere – antenna lines aside – and it’s an exceptionally well put together device.

The sides of the rear curve slightly – like the Galaxy S7 – and this makes all the difference to how comfortable the phone feels in your palm.
The front is equally sleek, with a reflective "Mi" logo on the top, alongside the front-facing camera, and an elongated home button sitting below the 5.1-inch display. That single button has an embedded fingerprint sensor inside it, which is fast – really fast.


XIAOMI MI 5 – DISPLAY

When you consider that the Xiaomi Mi 5 is mostly fitted out with high-end components, it may be surprising to learn that the 5.15-inch display is merely a 1080p panel rather than the retina-slicing quad-HD variety you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and HTC 10.
Does this make a huge difference on a screen of this size? Not really. The LCD IPS display is impressive, and if I'd been told that it had a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution as opposed to 1,920 x 1,080 then I'd probably have believed it.
Pixels are indistinguishable from each other, and since it's an IPS panel viewing angles are actually far better than the AMOLED of the Samsung Galaxy S7. There’s also no pinkish tinge when you tilt the device to the side, something I found quite common on the HTC 10.





XIAOMI MI 5 – PERFORMANCE


Instead of making only a single model of the Mi 5, Xiaomi is offering a few variations, each with a slightly different internal spec. For instance, the base model on review here comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU paired with a respectable 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage.



Next in line is a 64GB model with the same CPU and RAM, but with a slightly higher clock speed. Finally, there’s the Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro with a beastly 128GB of internal storage, 4GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with an even higher clock speed. Considering the high-end model will still only set you back 4500MAD, it’s a pretty strong deal.

XIAOMI MI 5 – CAMERA

Like much of the Xiaomi Mi 5, the camera outshines what you'd expect at this price.
On the rear of the handset you'll find a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor, coated in sapphire glass and packing optical image stabilisation. In terms of megapixel count, that's more than both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S, and on par with the LG G5.



But how does it perform? Actually, very well. The camera app is super-fast and packs a well-rounded manual mode, while daylight shots are almost universally fantastic. Colours are vibrant and there's plenty of detail.





As you can see in the below image, some of the light sources are wildly over-exposed, and there's just a general blurriness to the snap. It's still quite bright, though, which is down to the wide f/2.0 aperture that allows plenty of light into the sensor.

XIAOMI MI 5 – BATTERY LIFE


Another strong area for the Xiaomi Mi 5 is its battery life. The 3,000mAh non-removable cell tucked under that glass back has managed to easily get me through the day, normally with about 10-15% to spare – even with intensive use.





















That USB Type-C port also utilises Quick Charge 3.0, so even when you do hit the red you’ll jump back to 100% super-fast. It juices up fully in about an hour, but you’ll get to 60% in just over 30 minutes.


OVERALL SCORE

SCORES IN DETAIL

  • Battery Life8
  • Calls & Sound7
  • Camera7
  • Design8
  • Performance9
  • Screen Quality9
  • Software7
  • Value10

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