Xiaomi Mi 5 review

2016 is shaping up to be a great year for smartphones — and the Xioami Mi 5 is an embodiment of many of the best trends. Like Samsung’s Galaxy S7, the Mi 5 is a handsome mix of the latest specs and Android software, and it checks off most of the requisite boxes for a premium mobile device: beautiful display, fast fingerprint sensor, large battery, and the latest LTE modem. But unlike traditional flagships, Xiaomi’s new premier smartphone doesn’t cost upwards of $600.

Xiaomi is one of China’s most popular brands precisely because of its fanatical commitment to having the most aggressive specs-to-price ratio. It sees itself as a mobile internet company first (hence the "Mi" in its product names) and strives to make a profit not by selling hardware but by selling stuff via that hardware. That makes it imperative to create phones that are as cheap and, at the same time, as pleasurable to use as possible, which only serves to benefit Xiaomi’s users. By now, it might be trite to say that premium smartphone features keep trickling down to lower price tiers, but they really are, and it’s companies like Xiaomi that are pushing that trend hardest and fastest.

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First impressions of the Xiaomi Mi 5 are favorable, owing to its glamorous appearance, though they’re offset by some concerns about the handset’s fit and finish. A glossy glass back curves into a metal frame, which wraps around to the front and culminates in a chamfered edge1. Reflections dance prettily across those chamfers and glass to lend the Mi 5 a sophisticated look, which is helped by the almost complete absence of side bezels on the front. Xiaomi makes very efficient use of the space around this phone’s attractive 5.15 inch display, fitting a home button with built-in fingerprint sensor next to capacitive touch controls at the bottom.

The more time I spent with the Mi 5, the more it reminded me of a smartphone by another young Chinese company: the OnePlus X. Both handsets are designed to grab the eye, but both falter in terms of practicality and durability. My initial Mi 5 review unit had a nasty sharp edge at the bottom, and its fit and finish was actually so bad that I was able to pry open its rear case. That’s not a feature Xiaomi advertises because the back is not supposed to be removable — though the good news might be that you can easily reattach it, like any plastic cover. Let’s just say there’s room for improvement in Xiaomi’s quality assurance department.

The Mi 5 has a bigger screen and a higher (1080p) resolution than Apple’s iPhone 6S, but is practically identical in size. Because it doesn’t have a full metal construction, Xiaomi’s phone is also noticeably lighter, and because it’s tailored to the Chinese market2, it has a pair of nano-SIM card slots.

Fingerprints and dust are as much a nuisance on the black Mi 5 as they are on Samsung’s Galaxy S line, and only the white variant will be suitable for people with a low tolerance for blemishes. The Mi 5’s rear is also slippery, which caused the phone to slide off flat surfaces on more than one occasion in my testing. It’s not a problem for handling the phone, which has its buttons in all the right places — volume rocker and power button within easy reach of the right thumb — and is actually a breeze to use with a single hand.