Xiaomi Mi5

Dimensions: 144.5 x 69.2 x 7.2 mmWeight: 139 gramsThe first thing you'll notice about the Mi 5 is how familiar it looks when compared to the Mi Note. The glass back, lightweight metal frame and clean façade of the Mi Note have been adapted to the Mi 5's smaller footprint, with a few added curves in tow. Suffice to say, the Mi 5 is a gorgeous smartphone. The design exudes premiumness, right from the quality of materials used to the ergonomics (or as Xiaomi's Jai Mani insists on calling it, "hand-feel"). Our review unit was white, but you can also get it in black and gold. The black variant is definitely the sexiest of the trio, but the glass back panel can get smudgy after a while. We haven't checked out the gold unit yet, but the white variant looks elegant, and does a great job of masking fingerprints too.The Mi 5 is a very lightweight smartphone, tipping the scales at just 129g. It's slim too at 7.25mm, but it actually feels much thinner, thanks to the tapered curves on either side. This also improves the grip, making the Mi 5 less slippery than we expected it to be. The 3D curved glass melts seamlessly into the frame, and you won't find any creaks or gaps in the build even though the rear plate is technically removable. For some added protection, Xiaomi has added a layer of Gorilla Glass 4 to the rear.  The front of the smartphone features the 5.15-inch display, which extends almost to the very edges of the frame. A slim bezel at the top features the front camera, earpiece, sensors and Mi branding. Below the screen you'll find the elliptical home button which also integrates the fingerprint sensor. Incidentally, this is the second Xiaomi smartphone to feature a fingerprint sensor after the Redmi Note 3 (review). On either side of the sensor are two backlit LEDs for navigation. The metal frame running around the edges is contoured for a stylish effect, and the matte finish makes a nice contast with the polished rim. The port and button placement consists of the power and volume buttons on the right, an ejectable tray for the dual-SIM cards on the left, the USB Type-C port, primary microphone and loudspeaker at the bottom, and finally the 3.5mm audio jack, secondary microphone and IR blaster at the very top. Instead of ruining the rear panel with ugly antenna lines, Xiaomi has placed them neatly on the top and bottom edge, a small touch we appreciate. The only adornment you'll find at the rear are the primary camera module (which sits flush with the back), the dual-tone LED flash and more Mi branding.

Size: 5.15 InchResolution: Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels)Display Type: IPS LCDPixel Density: 428 ppiThe Xiaomi Mi 5 retains the full HD resolution display of the Mi 4, and this is ok. For a display size of 5.15-inches, 1080p more than does the job, and doesn't come with the battery compromises of a 2K screen. Interestingly, the reason Xiaomi opted for a 5.15-inch screen size instead of the standard 5-inches was to incorporate extra LEDs. There are 16 LEDs under the screen (check out this Mi 5 teardown for a closer look), which account for the display's high brightness of 600 nits. The brightness, coupled with Xiaomi's Sunlight Display tech, make for a screen that's clearly visible even under the harsh Bangalore sun. Displays have always been Xiaomi's forte (even the budget Redmi 2 has a lovely screen), and the Mi 5 is no exception. The saturation levels are high, owing to the high contrast ratio of 1:1500, and sharpness and touch response are superb. The icons and text sit very close to the screen thanks to the thin display panel, making for an exceptionally clear screen. Like the Redmi Note 3, the Mi 5 features a Reading Mode that cuts out the blue light for a more comfortable viewing experience, and a Night Mode that lets you turn the brightness down to very low levels for reading at night. There are also controls that let you fine tune the contrast and temperature. A layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protects the display against minor scratches and knocks. 

Operating System: AndroidOS Version: 6.0, Marshmallow The Mi 5 is the only Xiaomi phone to run Android Marshmallow out-of-the-box, but that's hardly apparent given that MIUI 7 masks the native Android user interface completely. While some might be disappointed that MIUI doesn't give you any of the native Android visual enhancements, there's no denying that MIUI remains one of (if not the) best custom Android ROM out there. We love the clean design of MIUI, and the little thoughtful tweaks scattered across the interface that make it intuitive to use.  Among the pre-loaded apps on the Mi 5 you'll find Facebook, WPS Office, SwiftKey, Fleksy and Mi Store. The native Themes app gives you access to a range of themes and wallpapers, while the Security app features a virus scanner, data usage monitor, blocklist manager, memory cleaner, battery profiler and permissions manager. Since the Mi 5 is equipped with an IR Blaster, you'll also find the Mi Remote app, which has been updated with support for most set-top boxes, TVs and other electronic gadgets available in India. In settings, you'll find options to enable a one-handed mode and change the functions of the two navigation buttons. There's also a Child mode, but the Lite Mode we've seen on other Xiaomi phones is missing. You can check out our previous Xiaomi smartphone reviews for more on MIUI, or watch this short video on the Mi 5's user interface.

Primary camera: 16 MPFlash: Dual-color LED FlashSecondary camera: 4 MPFor the Mi 5's primary camera, Xiaomi has used a top-end Sony IMX298 sensor. The rear 16MP unit features a wide f/2.0 aperture, 4-axis optical image stabilisation and phase detection autofocus. The camera is also capable of shooting videos in 4K. The front camera is a 4 UltraPixel unit, utilising large 2-micron pixels to let in more light. The camera app is itself is the standard MIUI affair, with a large viewfinder and toggles for the flash, HDR and front camera. You can swipe down on the screen to bring up a range of filters that can be applied in real time, and swipe up to access the various shooting modes. Among those on offer you'll find Audio, Beautify, Fish-Eye, Timer, Tilt-shift, Panorama, Manual and Handheld Twilight (HHT).  The camera loads in a flash, and is quick to focus, which is a bonus. And while we've managed some excellent macro shots, evenly-exposed landscape images and low-light photos with impressively low noise levels, the results were inconsistent. Some macro shots we took had trouble focussing, especially when the background was crowded. Some landscape shots turned out with near perfect exposure, while others were blown out in places. And the white balance is erratic, fluctuating rapidly when you're looking at the viewfinder, but often settling on a very warm tone for daylight shots. We also had trouble with the camera module heating up when we took several images in succession (in full auto mode, for the record). Overall, the Mi 5's camera can get you some really good shots, but it's hit and miss. The front camera is more stable in its results, turning out great selfies even in low light, with accurate skin tones and low noise. Here are a few images taken with the Mi 5's primary camera. Open them in a new tab to view them in full resolution, or head over to our Mi 5 camera review for more. 

CPU:  Dual core, 1.8 GHz + Dual cor...GPU: Adreno 530RAM: 3 GBMemory: 32 GBSIM Slots: Dual SIM , GSM+GSMBattery: 3000 mAH Of the three Mi 5 variants that were initially announced, it's unfortunate that Indian users are getting only the base model. Even though this version features the Snapdragon 820 chipset, it's underclocked to 1.8GHz. There's 3GB of RAM to work with, and 32GB of fixed storage (a little over 25GB user available). An Adreno 530 GPU handles gaming and graphics. We're aware that the top-end variant of the Mi 5 (called the Mi 5 Pro) with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a ceramic body is in limited supply even in China, but we would have appreciated having at least the 64GB option available in India, considering there's no microSD card on any of the models.But the 32GB version should suffice for a majority of users. So how does it perform? In terms of day-to-day performance, the Mi 5 doesn't break a sweat. Apps launch in an instant and multi-tasking is smooth and fluid. We noticed some sluggishness on the beta build of MIUI, but these seemed to be ironed out once we switched to the stable ROM. Overall, the phone is as snappy as you'd expect, with no unwarranted freezes or lags. Gaming is a real pleasure on the Mi 5 as well. The smartphone can handle any game you throw at it, with the gorgeous display and seamless graphics rendering making for a truly enjoyable gaming experience. The only issue we had with the Mi 5 was the seemingly random heating. It's not as bad as what we've encountered on Snapdragon 810 phones, but it's still there, and it feels erratic. The phone never got too hot to handle, but it's an issue we'd like to see fixed. One of the key features of the Mi 5 is its fingerprint sensor, which is embedded into the elliptical home button. We still maintain that the fingerprint sensor on the Redmi Note 3 is among the best on any smartphone today, period. The sensor on the Mi 5 is also very accurate, but we've had a few instances when it failed to register. This is mostly owing to the fact that the surface area of the sensor is tiny, especially when compared to the Redmi Note 3. One of the things we love about the home button is that it also responds to capacitive touch. So you don't need to physically press it to return to the homescreen – just a light tap will do the trick. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to unlocking the smartphone – you need to physically press the button to both wake and unlock the device. We wish Xiaomi had opted for an entirely capacitive home button like the OnePlus 2, which directly unlocks the phone even from standby.