Xiaomi Mi 5 is on everyone’s lips, at least in China and some parts of Asia, thanks to the decent spec sheet the phone debuted with during last month’s MWC in Barcelona.
The Chinese smartphone maker, dubbed “the Apple of China”, surprised millions by coming in with a device that packs the latest flagship hardware, especially given that its known for pricing its devices at affordable rates.
In case you didn’t know, Xiaomi is the Chinese version of Amazon. It is an online retailer that is vast in China, but it recently started to make its intentions to jump into the international scene very clear. The company currently runs an online store in the American online space; however, there are still no handsets on offer via this platform, which is known as mi.com. This is an indicator that it already has an interest in the market and there is no doubt that it will be moving in sooner than later.
According to Xiaomi, the demand for the high-end spec-packed phone is higher than expected; however, the main problem is that the phone is currently available for purchase in China alone. The company has already sold up to 16 million units of the device via flash sales held earlier this month.
Xiaomi Mi 5 headed to India and other parts of Asia
Xiaomi has an already established market in China, India and other parts of Asia, especially those neighboring China. While the availability of the phone in the home country is already confirmed, word is just coming in that the phone will also be selling in India beginning early April.
This is good news for the Indian market as they now have “a cheaper Samsung Galaxy S7” to turn to. This market is very crucial for Xiaomi Mi 5 to succeed and as such, the company has come out with a price plan for the phone in India.
According to Xiaomi CEO Lin Bin, the Mi 5 will be sold in India for a price range of between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 27,000, which translates to about $298.95 and $403.59 at the current rates. However, the specifics of which version this price range was referring to were not clear. The Xiaomi Mi 5 has two versions depending on the amount of RAM. There is a standard 3GB version that also offers 32GB and 64GB of onboard storage and a 4GB version that is equipped with 128GB of storage.
As of now, it cannot be established whether Bin was including the Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro version in this price range.
Other features of the Mi 5 include a 5.15-inch IPS LCD screen with 1080p resolution, a Snapdragon 820 SoC that comes with the latest Adreno 520 GPU. On the rear is a 16MP snapper that is supported by a 4MP snapper on the front. The phone packs a 3000mAh battery unit and is powered by the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company’s MIUI 7 user interface on top of it.
Until now, the only way to get the Xiaomi Mi 5 in the U.S. is through shipping. There is still no word on whether the phone will be making its way to Europe and other parts too. We’ll keep you posted.