Xiaomi Mi5 Roundup: Expected features, price, release details

Xiaomi has already revealed that Mi5 will be unveiled days after the Chinese spring festival in February. Now, the company has disclosed when the device will hit the market, generating excitement among fans.

Xiaomi Mi4 made its debut in July 2014, and its successor, Xiaomi Mi5, was supposed to be unveiled in July 2015, but it never materialised.The company has assured fans it will be worth the wait as Xiaomi has put in a lot of efforts to improve the user experience on the Mi5.

To provide better perspective on the Xiaomi Mi5, we have leafed through numerous reports from reliable sources and stitched together a list of key features most likely to make the cut in the upcoming flagship phone.

Display:

Word on the street is Xiaomi Mi5 will be offered in two variants — one a top-end model with full-metal body and QHD (2560x1440p) screen, and another with with 2.5D glass shield front-and-back having a metal frame and full-HD (1080x1920p) display.

Processor, RAM and Storage:

Rumour has it that the low-end full-HD model will house 3GB RAM and 32GB in-built memory, whereas the QHD variant will come packed with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage capacity. However, they will be powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC (System-on-Chip).

Camera:

In this aspect, both full-HD and QHD display models will have identical camera hardware. They are said to ship with 16MP camera having dual-LED flash, PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) and a 13MP front-snapper with wide-angle capture ability.

Mobile Operating System:

Again, both the Xiaomi Mi 5 models will run the same MIUI 7.0, but it is yet to be ascertained whether it is based on the one-generation-old Android 5.1.1 Lollipop or the new v6.0 Marshmallow.

Value-added features:

Fingerprint sensor:

The fingerprint sensor is also confirmed to come packed in the home button, but it is yet to be ascertained whether it will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sense ID 3D fingerprint technology, like Letv Le Max Pro.

Read more: Key features of Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon Sense ID 3D bio-metric security system

3D Touch display:

Xiaomi has long been accused to mimicking Apple device features in its devices. Again, latest reports suggest the Chinese company may incorporate 3D Touch display in Mi5, similar to the flagship iPhone 6S series, but it will be more advanced.

This new feature is reportedly called "ClearForce", and has been developed by Synaptics in collaboration with Xiaomi.

Read more: Apple's 3D Touch vs Synaptics' ClearForce

Release details:

One of Xiaomi's co-founders, Liwan Jiang, who officially confirmed the Mi would house Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, has revealed the flagship phone will be released within one week of the unveiling, reported Gizmo China.

China's spring festival is set to be celebrated on 8 February, and will continue for 15 days. This means Xiaomi Mi5 will debut by the start of the fourth week of February and be released by the end of the month, either on 28 (Sunday) or 29 (Monday) February.

The recently unveiled new Redmi Note 3 with Snapdragon 650 CPU went on sale on 17 January (Sunday) in China. So, we believe Xiaomi Mi5 might be made available for purchase on 28 February.

Price details:

Rumour has it that Xiaomi Mi5 will be aggressively priced to take on tier-1 brands, and is expected to come with a starting price of $399 (around €366/Rs 27,000).

Leaked specifications of Xiaomi Mi5: