Xiaomi Mi 5 real-world image leaks out

posted by Victor H. / Jan 20, 2016, 3:25 AM

Xiaomi Mi 5 prototype out in the wild

Chinese company Xiaomi has quickly grown to become one of the world's 5 biggest phone makers, but this growth is due mostly to its huge presence in Asia, while in the United States and most of the Western world, Xiaomi phones are not even officially sold. Nonetheless, when a company this big is preparing to release its flagship phone, the world watches in interest. Even more so given the fact that after the successful Xiaomi Mi 4, the company went throughout the whole of 2015 without releasing its successor.

The reason for this delay might have had something to do with countless issues with the overheating Snapdragon 810 system chip, but whatever the reason, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is finally ready for prime time: the company has confirmed that it will unveil it officially to the world on February 22nd.

Xiaomi is big in China, but still not likely to sell its phones in the United States

Today, nearly a month before the big announcement, though, a trust-worthy image showing a prototype of the Xiaomi Mi 5 has surfaced in Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblog.

The Mi 5 looks sleek, somewhat reminiscent to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, with its screen curving towards the sides of the phone. We would not, however, necessarily conclude that Xiaomi is copying Samsung. In fact, the Xiaomi Mi Note is a phone that featured similar design and was released a few months before the Galaxy S6 series.

What else does this image tell us? It seems that the phone has a metal frame (you can see there is a plastic stripe at the top, which is necessary on metal phones, so that they have better signal reception), and it looks fairly thin. There is also a physical home key (most likely, with a fingerprint scanner embedded in it), and what looks like an infra-red beamer at the top.

Xiaomi Mi 5 rumored specs

What else do we know about the Xiaomi Mi 5? First, the company is expected to release the phone in two versions that are said to differ in the materials they use. The more affordable model is said to have a metal frame sandwiched between two slabs of glass on the back and the front, while the pricier one is said to have a metal back in lieu of the glass. The more affordable is also said to come with a 1080 x 1920-pixel display resolution and 3GB of RAM, while the costlier one should ship with a Quad HD display and 4GB of RAM.

For all the rest, the two are expected to share similar specs, here is a quick run-down:

Screen: 5.2-inch display

SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820

Platform: Android 6.0 Marhsmallow with MIUI 7.0

Cameras: 16-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixel selfie cam

Battery: 3,600mAh

Other features: Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanner

Renders and leaks of the Xiaomi Mi 5

Xiaomi Mi 5 prices

Finally, it is not yet clear what will the price be for the Xiaomi Mi 5. Initial rumors mentioned a price of $380 (2,500 yuan) for the base model and $455 (3,000 yuan) for the more advanced one, but most recently some have suggested that at least one model could be priced at the rather steep $530 (3,500 yuan). All of those are full retail prices, with no subsidies or contract agreements. Let us once again make it clear that those are the prices for China and China only, as the phone will not be sold officially in the United States.

source: Weibo via NoWhereElse (translated)

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16 Comments

1. promise7

Posts: 894; Member since: Jul 03, 2013

Looks a lot like the Note 5.

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 3:27 AM 5

5. savagx

Posts: 33; Member since: Sep 15, 2015

That's becouse samsung kind of copied xiaomi's mi note designe and Mi5 is following this design language. But the home button clearly resemble samsung. I personally like the design but I understand some people would like their phone to distinguish and not have this samsung like button. It's weird that xiaomi went for this shape.

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 4:13 AM 9

7. neela_akaash

Posts: 1239; Member since: Aug 05, 2014

absolutely! i was waiting for a smaller version of Mi Note Pro.... and here it comes.

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 4:44 AM 1

8. keithtae

Posts: 564; Member since: Mar 25, 2015

Mi note itself is a copy of the note series, hence the name. Also, mi note looks no where like the note 5 or s6 edge. Mi note looks like a note 4 to me more than any other samsung phones

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 5:15 AM 0

10. Guaire

Posts: 893; Member since: Oct 15, 2014

Only with naming and screen size. How you can't see that curved glass and shape of metal frame of the Note 5 has been same with Mi Note? You can't see how Note 5 looks like Mi Note, but Mi Note looks like Note 4 to you. What are you smokin?

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 5:54 AM 0

12. Nathan_ingx

Posts: 4769; Member since: Mar 07, 2012

Must be smoking something like Samijuana! Thought of getting Nexus 6P but it's expensive here...let me wait for this and see how the turns out.

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 6:26 AM 0

15. Rafishant

Posts: 403; Member since: Oct 13, 2015

Don't worry, Both copied Apple's design!

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 11:11 AM 2

2. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

maybe they just want to avoid patent troll's at US o.O btw cant they use bigger battery? since they can put 4000mAh inside their low-end phone :-/

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 3:31 AM 1

3. jan25

Posts: 470; Member since: Feb 26, 2012

they should've put the fingerprint scanner on the back, otherwise it's stunning.

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 3:38 AM 1

4. keithtae

It looks exactly like an s6 edge. Why do these chinese companies have to copy everyone?

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 4:00 AM 5

13. bur60

Posts: 981; Member since: Jul 07, 2014

Go get some glasses, it has some features that look like it but that's it. It looks even slightly better

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 8:27 AM 1

6. mimicryXD

Posts: 175; Member since: Apr 03, 2015

Really looks like a sammy phone, maybe they should put finger print scanner on the back just like they did on redmi note 3

posted on Jan 20, 2016, 4:25 AM 3

9. Guaire

It's beautiful. It's gonna be packed with a good hardware. Most of people wouldn't care if it reminds either a Samsung or Apple phone as long as its price has been half of those phones' price. BTW Mi Note predates Note 5. Xiaomi's game isn't about being absolute best or being unique. It's about being only/best choice at undeniably lower cost.