Hands on Xiaomi Mi 5 Review

Droidever - Almost two years have made need to have in our hands the new generation of flagships of one of the most important Chinese manufacturers of the time. Xiaomi Mi5 has seen the light for the first time in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress, with a charismatic Hugo Barra as presenter.

After looking at the media preview of the Xiaomi Mi5 in Barcelona, I am sure from various people felt were super excited to get the smartphone. Well for those of you who want to see the full review, can be read here!

Design and Finishing
Xiaomi said that the reason why we had to wait two years to see the successor of Xiaomi Mi4 is precisely the design. According to Hugo Barra, has been a major effort introduce a camera lens in the iPhone 6 (upper back) position so that it does not dominate, and a start button with fingerprint scanner like the Samsung Galaxy S6 (elongated and the front) to reduce the proportion body screen. The result, unfortunately, is a phone with a look somewhere between phones star Samsung and Apple.

It is a little disappointing that a manufacturer that has achieved international attention as large as Xiaomi, and whose efforts in recent years have kept us on the edge of the seat, has fallen into the annoying tendency of imitating the design of its two main competitors. But, in his defense, it is necessary to remember that this phone is probably land in more than one emerging market, where imitations of iPhones and Galaxys may have more room.

One of the most noteworthy features, especially considering the account the time of its presentation, is the incredible like that keeps your back with the Galaxy S7. Crystal 3D (or ceramic 3D for the Pro version) is curved in a manner similar to the of the latest flagship of Samsung, but also binds to the metal frame in an elegant way and without touch just note the junction point.

But probably one of the most remarkable aspects is its weight. 129 grams of the Mi5 makes it one of the lightest flagships presented in recent times. The Galaxy S7 with its 152 grams, or LG G5 with its 159 grams get equal pleasure resulting to keep Xiaomi Mi5 in the hands.

Screen
Xiaomi Mi5 has a 5.15-inch screen that offers Full HD resolution. These numbers offer a more than enough pixel density, showing not a single flaw in the screen. Representative interface MIUI 7 colors are a very good representation on this panel.

While only I could test the phone indoors during the first initial test, does not seem that brightness will cause problems under any lighting condition. In addition to the 600 nits of brightness technology Sunlight Display, which is able to illuminate dark areas of the screen under intense light, but not the whites, to show a good image quality.

In general, the experience of screen goes beyond their technical specifications, and is excellent proportion body screen that has been achieved makes the viewing images or playing multimedia is quite nice.

Special Functions
Xiaomi Mi5 fingerprint sensor has installed this time at home, rather than at the back button, as it appeared in the Redmi Note. Also set the mark for the first time takes a little more than five seconds, and the recognition is carried out fairly quickly.

Software
The Mi5 comes with MIUI 7, the interface of Xiaomi itself. What differentiates this from other more common interfaces is, like so many other Chinese brands, the absence of the applications menu. To download apps, these are located in the start menu, where they can be grouped into different folders, in a manner similar to iOS. So if had the trial version, however, was with all the Google Apps, something that does not usually occur in the phones of the company.

The Android version on which the software is based is none other than Android 6.0 Marshmallow, as expected, so it functions as Doze mode or the management of permissions of applications are present in this model.

Xiaomi boasts of making their software one of the main aspects of the company ("My", finally and after, comes from "Mobile internet") and the truth is that the MIUI has matured much in recent years. The Mi5 has, among other things, with 5 different themes by default, as well as the possibility of personalizing the capacitive buttons.

Swiping finger to the end of any menu, the elements are stretched in an effect similar to the somewhat disturbing encounter in the latest models of LG, rather than personally.

Performance
Gives the performance an 820 Snapdragon Qualcomm, whose quad-core work to 2.15 GHz in the two more expensive variants and 1.8 GHz in the most economical. Flash memory is 32, 64, or 128 GB, more expensive to cheap.

The Vice President of the company has taken advantage of the presentation of the terminal to brag about all the aspects that make a great chip, including an alleged 142.084 score in AnTuTu, something never seen so far 820 of Qualcomm model. However, as it happens in these cases, it was not until the final analysis that we can check if the performance of the Xiaomi Mi5 is at the height of its main competitors.

Camera
Xiaomi Mi5 camera allows you to take pictures with a resolution of up to 16 megapixels. It's a Sony IMX298, the same sensor appearing not only in Huawei Mate 8, but also in the newly presented BQ Aquaris X5 Plus. The final work of camera depends on many other things in addition to the sensor. Even so, experience has shown that in above phones image capture is good, but not reach the quality of the large ship logo, something that you should not expect a phone less than €300.

During the test, the phone has responded quite well. In illuminated interior conditions, Xiaomi Mi5 has been able to take good pictures even when using it with trembling hands, what contributes to its image of 4-axis stabilizer. The phase detection auto focus also responds correctly, both in capturing images, like video, which by the way can be done in 4K.

The software has a manual mode that allows you to adjust the white balance, focus, exposure time and ISO, as well as the typical image filters.

Battery
Given the compact dimensions of the phone, it is surprising to see that Xiaomi has managed to install a 3000 mAh battery. In addition, Quick Charge 3.0 technology by Qualcomm processor has been implemented. This system significantly reduces the loading time, which the company said reaching 80-90% in just one hour, something that we discover when we can spend more time with this smartphone.

Well that's a glimpse of a review or analysis that we can reveal. Hopefully this explanation can be beneficial to you. Xiaomi did no more and no less than what was expected to produce a phone with similar characteristics to the current high-end smartphones, but at a reduced price. Confirms its original design and we have a phone to be a huge innovation.