When a company claims to be working on a flagship smartphone for close to two years, you expect something spectacular. And Xiaomi's latest lives up to the expectation, especially for the price it comes for.
On paper, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is as powerful as the latest flagship from Samsung and is the first smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor to be launched in India. However, Xiaomi has only launched the 3 GB RAM with 32 GB internal storage variant in India. The review unit I received had some bugs and heating issues, but Xiaomi was quick to replace it. Mi5 is capable of supporting heavy graphic games without heating issues. I shot 4k videos and edited them on the phone itself, without any lag.
For those looking for synthetic benchmark scores, it scored 105526 on Antutu, very close to Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's score of 116495. Xiaomi Mi 5 works on MIUI based on Android Marshmallow. While price tag of under Rs 20,000 would have been great, for Rs 25,000 it is still far superior to what the competition is offering.
Besides the specs, the design, too, is premium. The curved glass rear and the metal frame render it a look similar to the Galaxy S7 Edge. When placed next to each other, some of my colleagues found the Mi 5 to be better looking and lighter (even though it weighs 129 gm). The 5-inch full HD display is super bright.
For once, I opted for auto-brightness over full brightness, as colours appeared rich and text, crisp. It comes with features such as Sunlit display (adjusting to ambient light) and Reading mode (minimise blue lights by turning colour temperature to warmer tones). The camera module at the rear has been neatly placed at the top corner and the fingerprint scanner has been added to the home button, which instantly unlocks the phone.
Complementing the looks and performance is the 16-MP rear camera, which is always ready to capture. The four-axis optical image stabilisation works well when your hands are shaking while capturing a video. The camera does a great job while shooting outdoors and in low light, as the images offer detail and colours look natural.
Xiaomi hasn't cut corners in any way. It has packed a 3,000 mAh battery, USB Type C port along with Quick Charging. While the battery lasts a day with ease, I would suggest you to carry a Type C cable or a microUSB to Type C adaptor, in case of an emergency.
BAG IT OR JUNK IT: The best flagship you can buy under Rs 25,000
RATING: 4.5/5
PRICE: Rs 24,999 for 32 GB
PLUS: Display, performance, camera, battery
MINUS: No expandable storage