Readers regularly asked us about this device and complained that the review had not been published for a very long time. The reason for this is quite simple: we wanted to test the normal PCT version of the model, and not order it from China. Why? The point, of course, is the firmware, since when we test versions of the Mi 5s with Chinese firmware and find that there is something wrong with it, we often run into negativity from readers who claim that we need to manually install global, fixes, etc. .d.
Characteristics
| Specifications | |
| Class | Flagship |
| Form factor | Monoblock |
| Housing materials | Aluminum |
| operating system | Android 6.0 + MIUI 8.0 |
| Net | 2G/3G/LTE (800/1800/2600), two SIM cards |
| Platform | Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 |
| CPU | Quad-core |
| Video accelerator | Adreno 530 |
| Inner memory | 32 GB |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Memory card slot | No |
| WiFi | Yes, a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band |
| Bluetooth | Yes, 4.2 LE, A2DP |
| NFC | Eat |
| Screen diagonal | 5.15 inches |
| Screen resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Matrix type | IPS |
| Protective covering | Glass |
| Oleophobic coating | Eat |
| Main camera | 12 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, 4k video shooting |
| Front-camera | 4 MP, f/2.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, Glonass |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor |
| Battery | Non-removable, 3200 mAh |
| Dimensions | 145.6 x 70.3 x 8.3 mm |
| Weight | 145 grams |
| Price | From $280 / 31,000 rubles |
Equipment
- Smartphone
- Charger
- PC cable (also part of the charger)
Appearance, materials, control elements, assembly
When you look at the Mi 5s, you immediately understand that when creating it, the company was inspired by the Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE; the back of the case has the same beautiful curve, only, unlike the EDGE, it is made of aluminum, not glass.
But the glass on the front panel has only a slight bend, and this is actually great. Owners of the same S7 EDGE regularly complain that the edges of their smartphone dig into their hands and because of this it is not very convenient to use. The Mi 5s does not have this problem; thanks to the curve at the back, the device feels thinner and lighter, and the absence of a strong curvature of the screen allows you to hold it with greater comfort.
The smartphone is sold in four colors: silver, dark gray, gold and pink; we tested the first option.
Above the display there is a front camera, a speaker mesh, light and proximity sensors, and an indicator light.
Below the screen there are three touch buttons: “Recent Apps”, “Home” and “Back”. The central button is integrated into the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. I like that the scanner was mounted on the front, but its performance was disappointing. Unfortunately, it only successfully unlocks your smartphone half the time. At first I thought that this was an isolated problem, but readers complained that it was also unstable for them. Just for fun, I read the 4PDA thread on the device, they suggest either installing some special version of the firmware, or driving the same finger four times, or very carefully adding all areas of the finger. In any case, the problem exists, keep it in mind before purchasing.
There is a mini-jack at the top end, and a Type C port, an external speaker grille and the main microphone at the bottom. Keep in mind that the speaker here is not stereo, two meshes are made just for beauty, and a microphone is hidden in the left one.
On the right there is a volume rocker and a power button, and on the left there is a tray for two SIM cards; alas, there is no slot for a memory card.
On the back cover you can see the main camera eye, dual LED flash, laser autofocus and plastic inserts for antennas.
The device is well assembled; after a month of use, I had no complaints about its assembly.
Dimensions
In the comments, readers often ask why I call five-inch devices compact. The fact is that smartphones with a smaller diagonal are practically no longer on sale, and most flagships are gradually moving from 5 to 5.5-inch displays. Therefore, even a smartphone with a 5.15-inch screen already looks and feels compact in the hand.
Compared to Apple iPhone 6
Mi 5s feels great in the hand, it is quite thin and light, and the narrowing at the edges of the body visually and tactilely makes it even thinner.
Screen
To be honest, before I looked at the table with the characteristics, I was sure that this device had an AMOLED matrix installed. The fact is that the contrast of the picture is very similar to AMOLED displays. Moreover, you can even notice red halos along the edges of the letters when scrolling! Surprisingly, for some reason I didn’t see any information about this in other reviews.
The problem with ghosting is solved by switching to the “default” mode. Auto-tuning is initially enabled, but I recommend turning it off.
It is problematic to check the behavior of the screen in the sun in the current weather, but on the street the picture is clearly visible at about 60-70% brightness and higher. It is also convenient to read from a smartphone, thanks to the wide range of brightness.
There is also a separate reading mode in the settings; when you turn it on, the entire color scheme turns yellow. There is also a slider that adjusts the intensity of such a transition. I didn’t like the reading mode; I feel like it makes my eyes even more tired. In general, there are a lot of color settings; I was particularly pleased with the ability to turn on the display with a double tap.
The oleophobic coating is excellent, in no way inferior to flagships from other major brands. The finger glides perfectly on the glass, and swiping is convenient.
To summarize: the screen in the model is excellent, using it is a pleasure.
operating system
The device runs Android 6.0 and MIUI 8.0. Once again I promise to tell you about the shell in more detail, I think that the time to do this has come. Below I will list the main features of MIUI, although, in a good way, it deserves a separate review.
Work tables. The launcher in MIUI has not changed much over time; it still uses the display of all applications at once on desktops and oval rims for the icons of some third-party programs. Interestingly, the settings are called up here by pinching with two fingers; a long press does not work. I liked the application sorting mode; when you turn it on, you can add as many icons as you like to the bottom panel, and then scatter them across your desktops. A kind of help in general cleaning on the desktop.
Dialer. The dialer in MIUI has long become a standard for many users; I myself use the exDialer application, made on its basis. The program supports the Russian language, there is a search on T9, setting up actions for left-right swipes, a separate black list and call recording. Unfortunately, in Russian versions of Xiaomi smartphones, for some reason, the search for Russian contacts does not work, I don’t know what this is connected with.
SMS messages. The application is quite simple, but if you are logged into your Mi account, it automatically makes a backup copy of your correspondence.
Browser. I like that the browser's home page has shortcuts to popular pages, making it easy to navigate to the page you want. Of course, you can add your own links, change their places or delete them. But the separate reading mode does not work well; when it is turned on on our website, the pictures are automatically flattened.
Notification curtain. MIUI 8 abandoned the division of the curtain into two parts, and this is the right decision; when you lower it, you immediately see four shortcuts and a brightness adjustment slider. The transition to the next buttons is made using a horizontal swipe, as in TouchWiz. A long press of the button opens the settings of the corresponding interface, this is convenient.
Screenshots. Now, after taking a screenshot, it hangs in the upper right corner for about three seconds; if you click on it, the settings for editing and forwarding it will open. MIUI can also take long screenshots.
Second space. Ability to create an additional user on a smartphone. This is convenient if you want to use different accounts for the same applications at work and at home, for example.
Dual applications. Well, if you just need to have two accounts in some WhatsApp, then for this you can use this function, which creates a copy of it within one account.
Permissions. MIUI has a very detailed application permissions panel, where you can fine-tune which interfaces and functions a particular program will have access to and which ones it will not.
One-handed control mode. To enter this mode, slide your finger from the center to the left touch button, and to exit, tap on the dark area of the screen. In the settings you can specify which diagonal emulation you want to use.
Keys. For the lower buttons, there is fine-tuning of actions for both short and long presses.
Headphones. MIUI can also customize actions for the buttons on the headset. This is convenient if you want to skip to the previous/next track instead of changing the volume.
In general, the entire MIUI is made in such a way that you can customize anything, and that’s why geeks love it.
Performance
I received several requests from our regular readers regarding testing the performance of devices, in particular, they asked to add results from GeekBench, measure the write speed of a card, and also check the performance of the device in WoT Blitz. I think the Mi 5s review is a great reason to start doing all this.
The smartphone runs on a top-end chipset from Qualcomm and has good internal memory speed, this is felt in all operating scenarios: desktops and the browser are scrolled quickly, all games run at maximum settings. Now about WoT: Blitz, it also runs at maximum settings, there are no stutters or delays, the picture in the toy is simply amazing.
After 15 minutes of playing, the smartphone gets very hot, the body temperature rises to 45 degrees. The back cover gets hot, it's noticeable.
In everyday use there are no such problems; the body of the smartphone is only a little warm.
Autonomous operation
I also changed the battery life section a little. Now, instead of testing the operating time when watching HD video and reading mode, I will measure the operating time when watching an FHD YouTube video and while playing WoT. And, of course, my daily use regimen has not gone away either.
When using Mi 5s, you can safely count on one day of work, there are no super impressive results here.
The smartphone supports Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 technology; in half an hour the device is charged by 41%, in an hour by 83%, the total charging time is approximately 100 minutes. Unfortunately, to use this mode you will need a separate Charger.
Camera
I asked Roman Belykh to evaluate the shooting quality of the Mi 5s, below is his detailed comment:
The camera takes excellent pictures during the day, there are practically no complaints, the only thing I would like is a little higher detail. Focus is instant and precise.
Xiaomi Mi5 is a very important smartphone for the Chinese company. All previous gadgets from this manufacturer were indeed a very good offer in terms of price and quality ratio - this is why Xiaomi is loved by users around the world. However, the smartphones of this company have always been considered in the context of “for this price...”, “for this money...” and so on. In other words, the price factor was decisive.
The situation with Mi5 is a little different. Yes, its cost in Russia varies from 27 to 35 thousand rubles, depending on the amount of built-in memory (32 or 64 GB) and the place of purchase. For comparison: prices for flagship smartphones from other companies now start from 40-45 thousand rubles. However, the cost is lower than that of its classmates - this is not the only advantage of Mi5. What comes to the fore is that this is one of the first mass-produced smartphones with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 on board. Other interesting features include working with LTE Cat. 12, allowing a maximum theoretical data reception speed of 600 Mbit/s in mobile networks, support for two SIM cards and otherwise very decent hardware. We are already intrigued, but what else can Xiaomi Mi5 surprise?
⇡ Technical specifications
| Xiaomi Mi5 | Samsung GALAXY S7 | Sony Xperia Z5 | Google Nexus 6P | LG V10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.15 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 427.75 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.1 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 575.9 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.2 inches, AMOLED, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 424 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, 2560 × 1440, IPS, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
| Air gap | No | No | No | No | No |
| Protective glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass (version not specified) on both sides | no information | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 (two Kryo cores, | Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa (four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, 2.6 GHz; four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.6 GHz); | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 |
| frequency 1.8* GHz + | frequency 2 GHz + | (four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.55 GHz + | (four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.4 GHz + | ||
| two Kryo cores, | four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, | two ARM Cortex-A57 cores, frequency 2 GHz); | two ARM Cortex-A57 cores, frequency 1.82 GHz); | ||
| frequency 1.36* GHz; | frequency 1.5 GHz); | Supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing | Supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing | ||
| Supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing | Supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing | ||||
| * - The Pro version has higher core frequencies (1.6 GHz and 2.15 GHz, respectively) | |||||
| Graphics controller | Qualcomm Adreno 530 | ARM Mali-T880 MP12 | Qualcomm Adreno 430 | Qualcomm Adreno 430 | Qualcomm Adreno 418 |
| RAM | 3/4 GB | 4 GB | 3 GB | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| GB (4 GB for Pro version) | |||||
| Flash memory | 32/64/128 GB | 32/64 GB | 32 GB | 32/64/128 GB | 64 GB |
| (128 GB for Pro version) | |||||
| Memory card support | No | There is, in the S7 Duos version, a combined slot for a memory card and SIM card | Eat | No | Eat |
| Connectors | USB Type-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | USB-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm |
| SIM cards | Two nanoSIM | One nanoSIM/two nanoSIM | One nanoSIM | One nanoSIM | Two nanoSIM |
| Cellular connection 2G | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1700 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | |
| Cellular 3G | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz | WDCMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHz | HDSPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
| Cellular 4G | LTE Cat support. 12 (up to 600/150 Mbit/s): bands 1, 3, 7, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat support. 12 (up to 600/150 Mbit/s): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20 | FDD LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbit/s): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20, 28, 40 | LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbit/s): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 20, 28, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbit/s), bands 1, 3, 7 |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| NFC | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou |
| Sensors | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer, heart rate | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer | Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | Light, proximity sensor, pressure sensor, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | |
| Fingerprint's scanner | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Main camera | 16 MP, ƒ/2.0, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 4-axis optical stabilization, 4K video recording | 12 MP, ƒ/1.7, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, 4K video recording | 23 MP, ƒ/2.0, autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording | 12.3 MP, ƒ/2.0, laser autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording | 16 MP, ƒ/1.8, laser autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, Full HD video recording |
| Front-camera | 4 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus | 8 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus, 80° viewing angle + 5 MP, fixed focus, 120° viewing angle |
| Nutrition | Non-removable battery 11.4 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V), supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging | Non-removable battery 11.4 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V), supports Quick Charge 2.0, supports wireless charging | Non-removable battery | Non-removable 13.11 Wh battery (3450 mAh, 3.8 V) | Removable 11.4 Wh battery (3000 mAh, 3.8 V) |
| 11.02 Wh (2900 mAh, 3.8 V) | |||||
| Size | 145 × 69 × 7.3 mm | 142.4 × 69.6 × 7.9 mm | 146 × 72 × 7.3 mm | 159.3 × 77.8 × 7.3 mm | 160 × 80 × 8.6 mm |
| Weight | 129 grams | 152 grams | 154 grams | 178 grams | 192 grams |
| Housing protection | No | IP68 | IP65, IP68 | No | No |
| Up to half an hour at a depth of 1.5 m | |||||
| operating system | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, own MIUI 7.0 shell | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Samsung's own TouchWiz shell | Android 5.1 Lolliipop, Sony Xperia's own shell | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 5.1 Lolliipop |
| Current price, rub. | About 26 thousand rubles for the 32 GB version; | from 49 990 | 49 990 | 49,990-56,990 (depending on memory capacity) | 50 990 |
| About 32 thousand rubles for the 64 GB version |
⇡ Appearance, ergonomics, fingerprint scanner
Xiaomi Mi 5 is a very human-oriented device, so to speak. This is not a “brick” or a “shovel”, but a very neat and nice gadget. It is convenient to use with one hand - the thumb in this case can easily reach any point on the screen. The thickness of the case is an insignificant 7.3 millimeters, and the weight is only 129 grams.
It was possible to achieve such small dimensions due to the fact that Xiaomi decided not to chase fashion and installed a 5.15-inch screen in the Mi5, while many flagships recent years a display with a diagonal of 5.4-5.5 inches is used.
The front panel of the smartphone is covered with protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass of the latest, fourth generation. It is resistant to scratches and other minor damage - if the gadget accidentally ends up in the same pocket as keys or coins, nothing bad will happen. The glass here has an oleophobic coating - it can be easily cleaned from fingerprints and other small dirt using any cloth.
At the top of the front panel there is a slot for the earpiece, a front camera lens, sensitive areas for proximity and light sensors, as well as a small led indicator, reporting new events. At the bottom there is a hardware Home key, as well as touch keys for going back and opening the application menu. They are equipped with a pleasant looking white backlight.
The Xiaomi brand still remains one of the fastest growing companies in the smartphone market. It is not surprising that this name is on the pages of our website not only in the news, but also in the laboratory.
Let's remember, for example, the company's bestseller Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, the rational compact Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro and a very interesting tablet based on Nvidia hardware Xiaomi MiPad. It must be said that this brand produces some of the most attractive models in terms of price/performance ratio. And the build quality only improves over time.
Considering the above, it is not surprising that the new top-segment Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip, which enthusiasts and simply lovers of lightning-fast smartphones have been waiting for so long, was one of the first to be installed in devices of this brand. This situation is especially aggravated by far from the most successful predecessors in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and the “six-core” Snapdragon 808.
Thanks to our partner, the online store Cheap-mobile, we have to find out whether the new SoC is as good as Qualcomm itself assures us, whether there is any point in switching to new models from previous generations and, most importantly, how much faster they are than competitors.
Technical characteristics of Xiaomi Mi5
| Model | Xiaomi Mi5 | Xiaomi Mi5 "Standard Edition" | Xiaomi Mi5 Pro |
| Device type | Smartphone | Smartphone | Smartphone |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820L, 2 x 1800 MHz + 2 x 1360(?) MHz, Kryo | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 2 x 2150 MHz + 2 x 1590 MHz, Kryo |
| Video processor | Adreno 530 @ 624 MHz | Adreno 530 @ 510 MHz | Adreno 530 @ 624 MHz |
| operating system | Android 6.0 | Android 6.0 | Android 6.0 |
| RAM, GB | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Internal memory, GB | 32/64 | 32/64 | 128 |
| Screen | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920 x 1080) | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920 x 1080) | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920 x 1080) |
| Cameras, Mpix | 16.0 + 4.0 | 16.0 + 4.0 | 16.0 + 4.0 |
| Net | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
| Number of SIM cards, pcs. | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| MicroSD support | No | No | No |
| Data transfer | Wi-Fi, WAP, GPRS, EDGE, NFC, HSDPA, 3G, LTE | Wi-Fi, WAP, GPRS, EDGE, NFC, HSDPA, 3G, LTE | |
| aGPS/GPS/GLONASS/Beidou | Is/Is/Is/Is | Is/Is/Is/Is | Is/Is/Is/Is |
| Battery, mAh | 3 000 | 3 000 | 3 000 |
| Dimensions, mm | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 |
| Weight, g | 129 | 129 | 129 |
| price, rub. | ~32 000 / ~36 500 | ~32 000 / ~36 500 | n/a |
It’s difficult to talk about the balance of the device, since we still know little about the power consumption of the new chip - will it have enough battery capacity? It’s a little strange to see that in the case of the most widespread modifications of the device, “only” 3 GB of RAM, while even inexpensive smartphones of the past are already ready to offer 4 GB, and at the beginning of 2016 there was an “upstart” Vivo Xplay5 Elite, equipped with as much as 6 GB of RAM.
As for everything else, the weight and size characteristics are quite typical for 2016 flagships, the thickness of the device is small, the weight is more than comfortable, and the price is pleasantly pleasing compared to the flagships of famous brands.
Packaging and equipment Xiaomi Mi5
Xiaomi Mi5 comes in a regular cardboard box with a nice design that we have long been accustomed to.
On the reverse side are brief specifications and legal information. The most important thing here is to find the operating frequency of the single-chip system if you want a “full-fledged” version of the Snapdragon 820.
The following set of supplies awaits us inside:
- Charger;
- USB Type-C cable;
- Documentation.
Unfortunately, there are no “goodies” in the form of a protective film for the display or a case. And the gadget itself does without a protective film on its screen.
The charger is of medium size and weight. It’s convenient to use if you have an adapter, of course.
Xiaomi Mi5 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology, so the charger is capable of delivering current with a voltage of up to 12 V and a power of 1.5 A.
Xiaomi Mi5 is the flagship model of Xiaomi. Naturally, the flagship should have the most powerful hardware on the market, including a camera. One of the largest publications in the field high technology AnandTech decided to test the new product in the PCMark series of computer benchmarks. Let us remember that it was released in three versions, where the base model received a Snapdragon 820 with a clock frequency of 1.8 GHz, and in the top version, 4 Kryo cores were overclocked to 2.15 GHz. The smartphones used for sparring were Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy S6.
The performance of the Qualcomm processor when working in a web browser turned out to be one of the worst among all 4 smartphones. The increase in power became obvious when playing videos and writing texts, but even there the smartphone was inferior to Huawei Mate 8 with Kirin 950. But in terms of gaming potential and when working with photographs, Xiaomi Mi5 is the undisputed favorite. There is no worthy competitor to the Adreno 530 graphics on the market.
In addition to performance, it was decided to compare competitors' cameras. The quality of the images demonstrated that in terms of photo capabilities, Xiaomi Mi5 is not inferior to the recognized leader Samsung Galaxy S6. Let us remind you that the Chinese equipped the device with a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with a 4-axis optical image stabilization system.
Samsung Galaxy S6
Samsung Galaxy S6
