Xiaomi Mi 5 Review

Performance and Benchmarks

The Mi5 is one of the first devices to run on the latest Snapdragon 820 chip. The 3GB of RAM allows for fluid multi-tasking while the Adreno 530 GPU provides smoother gaming experience.

Previous Snapdragon 800 chips normally have octa-core (801, 810) or hexa-core (808) processors using a combination of Cortex A53 and A57 architectures.

With the Snapdragon 820 chip, Qualcomm went back to the drawing board and made their own Kryo architecture. The 820 chip only has 4 cores and in the case of the entry-level Mi5, it’s a combination of a low-power 1.36GHz dual-core processor and a high-power 1.8GHz dual-core processor. Xiaomi must have underclocked the second pair from a top speed of 2.2GHz so there’s a noticeable gap to justify the price difference of the 3GB/64GB variant that’s running on full speed.

The variant that we got uses a slightly clocked-down Snapdragon 820 processor with an Adreno 530 Graphics. Top core speed is capped at 1.8GHz but in our synthetic benchmarks, it still got really high scores.

Benchmark Scores:
Antutu Benchmark: 114,445
Quadrant Standard: 36,547
PC Mark: 6,086
Vellamo: 3,224 (Multicore), 2,934 (Metal), 4,768 (Chrome browser)

The Mi5 got a top score of 114,000 from Antutu benchmark. It’s a pretty high score but falls short of the expected 130k mark we’ve seen in other SD820-powered devices like the Galaxy S7 and the LG G5. It is obvious the underclocked Kryo HP 1.8 processor resulted to the lower-than-expected benchmark scores.

Call Quality, Connectivity and Battery Life

The Mi5 came with every standard connectivity options one would expect — WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, Infrared sensor and LTE.

Call quality is excellent and voice calls are clear and crisp. Same goes with SMS while WiFi signal is slightly weak though not a big concern.

The Mi5 comes with a 3,000mAh non-removable battery and though it does not support wireless charging, Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 along with the USB-C provides quick charging feature.

In our PC Mark Battery test, the device managed to get a score of 8 hours, 41 minutes. It’s still a bit short compared to the 9 hours, 19 minutes of the Galaxy S7 which has the same battery capacity.

In our own standard video loop test, the Mi5 got 12.5 hours before being completely depleted at 50% brightness, 0% volume and on airplane mode.

Charging time is equially fast with the USB-C providing enough power to completely charge the Mi5 in just 71 minutes. The Type-C cable that came with it can only do charging and not data transfer, forcing us to buy a separate data cable just to download the sample photos and videos we took from the camera.

Conclusion

Xiaomi has consistently produced topnotch smartphones for years and the Xiaomi Mi 5 is no exception. In fact, we think it’s their best one yet. For a starting price of just Php15,000, you get a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 chip and 3GB of RAM on a beautiful body that packs everything you’ll ask for in a flagship handset. It’s like getting a Galaxy S6 at half the price.

The Mi5 isn’t a perfect flagship but for its asking price, it is easy to admit it’s a great smartphone overall.

The Xiaomi Mi5 is not yet officially available in the Philippines and there’s no known release date yet. However, select models such as the 3GB/32GB variant is available in online stores like Widget City (see listing here).

Xiaomi Mi 5 specs:
5.15-inch full HD display @ 1920 x 1080 pixels, 428ppi
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor
Adreno 530 GPU
3GB / 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
32GB, 64GB / 128GB UFS 2.0 internal storage
4G+ LTE Cat. 12, up to 600Mbps
VoLTE support
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2
NFC
IR Blaster
GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS
Fingerprint sensor
USB Type-C
16-megapixel Sony IMX298 PDAF rear camera w/ dual-LED flash, 4-axis OIS
4-megapixel front camera
3000mAh battery w/ Quick Charge 3.0
Android 6.0 Marshmallow w/ MIUI 7
144.54 x 69.20 x 7.24 mm
129 g
Black, White, Gold

What we liked about it:
* Gorgeous design
* Impressive performance
* Great camera quality
* Very good display
* IR blaster
* Good battery life

What we did not like:
* No expansion card slot