Xiaomi has a tradition of unveiling a lot of smartphones throughout the year. Most of these models are upgrades to last year’s releases, however, in between these launches, we get to meet a couple of brand new devices as well. The Xiaomi Mi 5X is one of these new models in the Mi series, which is looking to attract customers who don’t want to spend as much as $370 on the Mi 6 flagship.
Xiaomi Mi 5X’s existence kind of makes sense, especially since Xiaomi’s flagship model, the Xiaomi Mi 6 was priced higher than usual this year. Instead of 1999 Yuan ($295), the Mi 6 starts at 2499 Yuan ($370). So, there’s a void in the $250-$380 price segment, which the Mi 5X is probably trying to fill. Not just that, the Mi 5X is said to be the company’s first smartphone to be sold aggressively via offline channels, much similar to what OPPO has been doing for the past couple of years.
There’s another interesting thing about the Xiaomi Mi 5X. I can’t recall a Xiaomi phone that was almost completely revealed before its official launch. In the past, we have seen some revealing teasers about upcoming Xiaomi phone’s design and features, but the renders often only showcased a small part of the design and not the entire thing. But with the Mi 5X, Xiaomi seems to have taken inspiration from the OPPO R11 launch, revealing its design much before its official release. This is not at all conventional, but OPPO’s strategies seem to be working well in the past one year and that’s probably why we have seen so much of the Mi 5X officially even before its official launch.
Xiaomi Mi 5X Design
Xiaomi is playing it safe with smartphone designs this year. The Redmi series have a standard look among all models and the upcoming Mi 5X also comes with a similar design as the Mi 6 and OPPO R11. In fact, it would have been hard for us to distinguish between the R11 and the Mi 5X, if not for the lack of a physical home button on the front. The rear placed fingerprint scanner is yet another design feature that sets the new phone apart from other models in the market. Note that the Xiaomi Mi 5X has what the Xiaomi Mi 6 didn’t — a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Other connectivity ports that we can see in the renders include USB Type-C port and speakers.
There will be at least three color options available for the phone, black, rose gold and champagne gold.
RELATED: Xiaomi Mi 5X Could Feature Same Rear Camera as Mi 6
Xiaomi Mi 5X Specs
While officially we know little about the Mi 5X specs, rumors have been quite strong about what we’ll find inside the new flagship. It is said that there will be two versions of the Xiaomi Mi 5X, one powered by a mid-range Snapdragon 625 with 4GB RAM and another one powered by a more powerful Snapdragon 660 with 6GB of RAM.
As for the cameras, the phone is said to feature a similar setup to the Xiaomi Mi 6, which includes one wide angle and one telephone lens. The possible dual camera setup could be a Sony IM386 wide-angle sensor and a Samsung S5K3M3 telephoto sensor. The resulting pictures could be quite promising but we’ll have to wait and see as the ISP inside the SD625 may not yield results as good as the Mi 6.
Other rumored features include a 16MP front camera, Android 7.1.1 and 3000mAh battery.
Xiaomi Mi 5X Price & Availability
Xiaomi Mi 5X standard edition is rumored to start at 1999 Yuan ($295), a price which should have been reserved for the earlier launched Xiaomi Mi 6 flagship. So, as I mentioned above, the Mi 5X seems to be here to fill in that price gap. There’s still no word on the rumored high version with SD660, but if it gets close to 2499 Yuan ($370), there’s a good chance that users will start leaning towards the Xiaomi Mi 6 with a faster Snapdragon 835.
The phone is all set to go on sale on August 1.
To be honest, for $295, specs like SD625, 4GB RAM, and 3000mAh won’t impress Xiaomi fans, considering how there are cheaper Snapdragon 625 phones in the company’s Redmi series. So, the Mi 5X seems to be banking on its dual camera experience to justify a price tag of nearly $300. Moreover, like OPPO, the company could target it sales offline instead of focusing solely on online channels.
Well, we will have to wait and see what’s so special about the Mi 5X at launch which is on July 26.
