As promised, Xiaomi has unwrapped its new flagship phone for us here at Mobile World Congress. The Mi5 is the long-awaited successor to the Mi 4 from 2014, which took a backseat to the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro last year. The new handset runs on the @Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, a beefy processor that only breached the market in January. Every Mi 5 sports a 5.15-inch 1080p display, but you can choose between the regular model with 3GB of RAM — coupled with either 32GB or 64GB of onboard storage — and the Pro version, which comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of space. Display aside, the latter is an absolute beast of a phone.
The latest flagship from Xiaomi takes to the market in three different versions. The most affordable model costs 1,999 CNY (about US$305) and brings 32 GB of internal storage and a 3D glass rear panel, but has a lower clock speed than the other two models, 1.8 GHz instead of 2.15 GHz.
The middle model has 64 GB of internal storage and a 3D glass rear panel, and will be priced at 2,299 CNY (US$352).
Finally, there’s the Pro version, which will haul along 4 GB of RAM, compared with the 3GB at the disposal of the other two versions, and a 3D ceramic back, all for a price of 2,699 CNY (US$413).
The only problem is that, despite being presented at an event for the international press, the only countries that Mr Barra has confirmed for the device’s release are China and India. The Chinese market is set to receive the device on March 1, India will receive it at a later, as yet unspecified, date.
In an interview with The Verge, Hugo Barra spoke candidly about the global availability of the Mi 5. When given a question about Xiaomi’s relationship with Google, Mr. Barra expanded to talk about the potential availability of the Mi 5 outside of the core market it usually operates in. He said Xiaomi has “other markets on their radar screen” but the “Mi 5 is not launching outside of our core markets but we are starting to keep our eyes open.” This confirms previous speculations by AndroidPIT about the Mi 5’s availability.