Xiaomi Mi 5 - Review 2022

When the Xiaomi Mi3 launched in Malaysia a couple of years ago, it had been, for lack of a meliorate word, a veritable phenomenon; a Full HD smartphone with the blistering, at the time, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 for under RM1,000 is truly unheard of. As expected, need became so smashing that the get-go flagship smartphone for Xiaomi routinely sold out.

It seemed like anybody and his uncle either had one or is clamouring for i. Xiaomi had seemingly crashed the proverbial political party, sending their rivals into a rethink. In the intervening couple of years between then and the launch of their new flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 5, the mural has changed quite a bit: 'Flagship killers' grow, all of which boast loftier-end specs for a fraction of what they used to toll.

Can the this new entrant maintain Xiaomi'due south momentum equally it transitions from upstart into a mainstay?

Design: Metallic Compromise

Wrapped in an aluminium shell, the Xiaomi Mi v ticks most boxes when it comes to high-end smartphone pattern. Its curved edges interruption the monotomy of most boxy designs and makes it looks very similar to Samsung's Galaxy S7. Where they differ though, is Xiaomi's decision to make information technology more of a slant rather than a simple curve, resulting in a chassis that can be rather difficult to hold with confidence.

As I was usually only holding a small surface surface area of the phone, it always felt like it was going to sideslip out of my hands. Still, usability bated, information technology'due south certainly a beautiful phone to behold and will attract its fair share of attention.

The volume rocker and power push button are easy to depress and provide skilful tactile feedback. Nested within the physical dwelling house button is besides a finger print reader like one found on the Apple iPhone. Still, Xiaomi'south application leaves a little to be desired; non only does the narrow push button consistently fail to identify my fingerprint, it also hangs for some time before it recognises a second input, leading me to just central in the PIN virtually of the fourth dimension.

It too requires the button to exist depressed for the fingerprint reader to be activated, a motility that is far less efficient than the round back-facing fingerprint reader found on other smartphones similar the Google Nexus 6P or ASUS ZenFone 3.

At the very least, it rocks a USB Type-C port. That is a must for flagships now.

Performance: Red Hot Literally

Similar most flagships, the Xiaomi Mi 5 packs the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, promising lightning fast speeds and smoothness. Unfortunately, unlike other markets, we'll only be getting the lower spec variant, clocking in at 1.8GHz compared to the full bore processor at two.15GHz. Predictably, benchmarks exercise accept a sizable hit, with Geekbench 3 only delivering 1904 for the unmarried core score and 4664 for the multi-core.

This compares poorly against the international benchmarks of around 2300 for the Single-Cadre and 5300 for the Multi-Cadre. Thankfully though, full general performance of the Xiaomi Mi 5 remains snappy; applications open up swiftly, multitasking was a cakewalk and the Adreno 530 made short piece of work of even the latest games.

Strangely, though, despite the lower clock speed of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, the Xiaomi Mi 5 became really hot fifty-fifty doing pocket-sized things such as web browsing. Occasionally, the phone would start called-for upwards as it simply sits in my pocket. While the heat didn't bear upon the performance of the device much, it is disappointing that the temperature management is a existent issue here. Unlike previously, I'd expect nigh users volition at present exist forced to get a case to deal with it.

Display: Vibrant Plenty

Despite only packing a Full HD brandish compared with the 1440p resolution of something like a LG G5, the 5.15in IPS console here is absolutely gorgeous, with great brightness, detail and contrast being punched out. At this screen size, pixelation is more or less non-existent and most people will be very happy with it. In terms of colours, it errs towards a more vivid template like a Samsung panel every bit opposed to more than muted, realistic colours you get on the Apple tree iPhone.

Additionally, while the top and lip of the phone however sport sizable bezels, the sides of the display are almost border-to-edge, leading to a truly immersive viewing experience when watching videos or playing games.

Sound: Falls Short

Unfortunately, the user immersion is broken down past the sub-par speakers found on the Xiaomi Mi 5. Bad enough that it is down-firing, the single speaker, which is barred upward with a single grill slice, barely passes the mustard when it comes to audio allegiance, with overly abrupt highs and muddy mids.

The bass is pretty much absent as well, leading to a hollow sounding experience. Thankfully, the Xiaomi Mi five still packs a 3.5mm audio jack, so you can quickly plug in a good pair of cans. Different an upcoming flagship from Cupertino.

Photographic camera: Commendably Usable

With a 16MP, f /two.0 rear facing camera, the Xiaomi Mi 5 comes loaded with a shooter that is more or less par for the course specs wise. Still, when compared to the kings of the colina, it can't lucifer-up just yet. Make no mistake; this new Xiaomi flagship is definitely a decent shooter.

Most at ease in a brightly lit surround, the Xiaomi Mi v chief camera is perfectly capable of producing images with decent colours and details. HDR also worked pretty well, though yous'll need some very stable easily to get clear shots.

Where it tends to suffer a piffling is when the ambience lighting starts getting dark. The software tends to aggressively bump the ISO up, resulting in some pretty grainy images that hurt the overall clarity. While not truly perfect, it'll definitely do in a pinch.

On the flip side, its front end camera will certainly satisfy the selfie taker in nearly of users as it comes with a wide enough bending lens to get well-nigh of subjects in the moving-picture show. Information technology also helps that the shots produced are clear and total of item.

Decision: It Delivers as Promised

Xiaomi may still be a juggernaut in the sub-RM1,000 (~Usa$250) smartphone segment, simply as a flagship model budgeted the psychological RM2,000 mark, the Xiaomi Mi v isn't such an easy choice.

With competitors similar OPPO and OnePlus, the Xiaomu Mi 5 needs to distinguish itself a bit more. It's certainly a capable smartphone, merely there are other options out there that might tempt even the most hardcore of Xiaomi fans effectually the block.