Xiaomi Mi 5 Review: For Those Who Like The Feel, But Not The Price, Of Samsung Galaxy Phones

There's a certain stigma to the word "budget" when it's used to describe products or services. The term means, literally, "inexpensive" and absolutely nothing more, yet consumers have long associated it with "inferior quality." To take that mindset is to make the false assumptions that market prices are defined by quality and not only supply, demand and hype. Xiaomi - long considered a budget phone maker - is here to smash that to pieces stigma: its 2016 flagship phone, the mi 5, is a gorgeous device crafted out of curved glass and metal frame. It's an eye-catching design that's similar to Samsung's highly popular S7 - and the mi 5 packs the same top-of-the-line Qualcomm processor - only it costs half as much (HK $ 2,599, or US $ 335).

Okay, okay, I know I'm sounding like a broken record here with yet another "this phone is as good as the Samsungs and iPhones out there but at half the price," but it's true! Chinese OEMs, after years of craftsmanship inferior hardware and software tacky, have really figured it out in 2016. The Mi 5 is an absolute beauty.

Because it's more glass than metal, the Mi 5 is crazy light, and just 129g (4.9 oz). The curved back, like Samsung's phones, feels great in the hand. The device's 15.5-inch 1080p IPS display is bright, and its illusion of being bezel-less (when it looks like it turned off, but once on, vertical black bars run alongside the screen's edges) adds to the overall aesthetic. The volume rocker on the side is slightly wobbly, making for the only "flaw" in what is otherwise top-notch craftsmanship.

In terms of photography, the phone's  16 MP, f / 2.0 lens takes great photos during the day, but struggles in night shots compared to an iPhone or the Motorola V10. It compares favorably to other Chinese phones like the Huawei Meizu MX and P9 Plus 6 though. The Xiaomi Mi 5's display (second from left) side by side with the iPhone 6S (left), and LG's Cam X and X Screen (right)

The Mi 5 has a fingerprint sensor up front, which doubles as a home button, along with two more capacitive buttons. Although I usually prefer soft buttons, Xiaomi's done a great job with them for two reasons. One, they're customizable: the back and recent apps button can be swapped around, shortcut actions can be assigned to long presses. and two, the capacitive buttons are located further away from the edges of the phone. This makes less likely accidental button presses, a problem I had quite a bit with OnePlus 3 and HTC's 10 hard buttons. I've elaborated further, along with other bits about the hardware, in the video below.

As mentioned earlier, the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. The base 32 gig model (the one I'm reviewing) has a  1.8 GHz Kryo CPU, while the higher-end model it up to 2.2 GHz. I tried higher 5 Mi-end, and the difference in power is minimal.

The Mi 5 runs Xiaomi's own MIUI skin over Android 6.0, and much like Flyme Meizu's OS, it's a lot cleaner than people in the West might think. T he two major differences that fans of stock Android would notice right away is the lack of app drawer, and the notification shade, which is split into two tabs (a la Huawei's EMUI). One side is notifications, the other is toggles for things like WiFi, Bluetooth, volume, etc. I do not particularly love this two-part take (because it requires an extra swipe left / right to do most things), but it's not that annoying.

What is annoying, however, is MIUI's inexplicable decision to offer no search function within settings, at least in my software version (7.5) of the phone. If you want to tweak anything in the Mi 5, whether it's the slightly aggressive battery saving modes or app permissions, you have to manually scroll through dozens of slots. Some of these are buried deep in the settings, so if you want to, say, turn on downloads from unknown source, you'd probably have to spend two to three hours digging through the settings menu. A search bar would have eliminated the need to look around.

( UPDATE:  I've been told by a rep that Xiaomi MIUI's newest update, version 8.0, fixes this problem by adding a search bar into settings. But that update is not available on my device for some reason)

With 3GB of RAM and that processor 820, the Mi 5 is a super fast phone, but I must point out that the phone crashed twice on me throughout my week's of use. That's not a high failure percentage by any means, but it's still something I did not encounter when testing the Huawei P9 Plus or OnePlus 3. There's also a bug in the software (I've read dozens of other complaints about this online, so it's not just my device) that prevents the use of the fingerprint sensor, requiring PIN unlock. Again, it's not a huge problem, but at this point that it can not be ignored, especially since one time, I was locked out of the phone for two hours because I butt-dialed wrong PIN too many attempts.

The Mi locked me out for 5 minutes after its fingerprint sensor failed, and I accidentally butt-dialed too many incorrect PIN attempts (left); Xiaomi's take on the notification shade

I do not really care that much about benchmarks, but if you're wondering, the Mi scored a 5 on Antutu 136,497, which beats the iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy Edge S7, but falls short of the OnePlus 3 (140,288). Rest assured the Mi 5 can handle any task you throw at it.

The device's 3000 mAh battery is more than enough to last a day, and if you need a top up, Xiaomi's Qualcomm 3.0 included a fast-charging outlet in the box.

In terms of photography, the phone's  16 MP, f / 2.0 lens takes great photos during the day, but struggles in night shots compared to an iPhone or the Motorola V10. It compares favorably to other Chinese phones like the Huawei Meizu MX and P9 Plus 6 though. 

A dark shot, taken by Xiaomi Mi 5 (left) and Huawei P9 Plus (right).Xiaomi Mi 5 (left), Huawei P9 Plus (right)

Mi 5 (left); P9 Plus (right)

Xiaomi's camera software is fun and easy to use. It includes a manual mode, offering the usual ISO / shutter speed tweaks. I particularly liked the fun "mirror" and "sketch" built-in filters, mainly because other phones I've tested did not have them.

The Mi 5's mirror mode (left) and sketch mode (right).

Shots taken day and night with the Mi 5.

The phone's standout feature is perhaps its 4-axis OIS (usually, phones offer 2-axis only). This means recorded videos will appear smoother. Below is a video of it in action.

Overall, Xiaomi's Mi 5 is a flagship phone that ticks all the boxes. Because of the software's minor stability problems, I'd rank it behind the OnePlus 3 in terms of ease of use, but we must keep in mind that Mi 5 is about HK $ 400 (US $ 50) cheaper than the OnePlus 3. The value factor jumps to another level when you compare the price to Mi 5's something like an HTC 10 (US $ 650). Right now, the only phone cheaper than the Mi 5 that's not mediocre is  the Meizu MX6 , but if you are talking raw power, the Mi 5's Snapdragon 820 beats the MX6's  Mediatek chip. You can not really go wrong with any of the above, and phones Xiaomi's Mi 5 is a wonderful step in the right direction for the company. This phone is a winner.