Xiaomi announced on Feb. 23 the company's latest flagship smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi 5. The company said that three variants of the device will hit the market with an expected release date on Mar. 1.
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has built its reputation in building powerful devices and market it at an extremely low price point. Some market analysts even consider Xiaomi's flagship devices, in terms of hardware specs, in par with that of Samsung and even Apple. The Xiaomi Mi 5 is no exception to this rule.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 was announced at the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Although Xiaomi confirmed that the Mi 5 will hit stores on March 1, the Chinese tech company did not reveal whether it plan to release it outside of China. Although there are rumors claiming that the flagship smartphone will be released in India and a handful of other Asian markets.
Xiaomi devices are currently unavailable in Europe or the United States. Many market analysts agree that Xiaomi has a big market potential should it decide to enter these markets.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 has a premium version with a body made of ceramics. It has 125GB of storage space and 4GB of RAM. The latter spec is slowly becoming a trend in terms of high-end devices. This model will cost $413.
On the other hand, the entry level Xiaomi Mi 5 costs $305 and has a glass body with 32GB of storage space and 2GB of RAM.
In a statement acquired by Business Insider, Xiaomi vice president of international operations said, "This is basically ahead of the pack in many ways when it comes to flagship devices. You're looking at a third to a half of the price that you would expect to pay for another flagship device with similar capabilities."
In terms of display specs, all Xiaomi Mi 5 models will sport a 5.15-inch screen. It has a fingerprint sensor and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. The flagship device also has a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera.
According to The Daily Mail, both the premium and basic models of the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship smartphones are available in three colors; black, gold and white.