Xiaomi Mi 5X vs Xiaomi Mi 6 Camera Shootout: Can A Cheaper Model Be As Good As A Flagship?

Aug 26, 2017

Xiaomi Mi 5X was announced back in July to cater the needs of a cheaper dual camera smartphone in the market. The idea behind the smartphone was simple, use a similar dual camera setup as the Xiaomi Mi 6 flagship and put it inside a mid-ranger, with decent specs. So, the Mi 5X (full specs here) isn’t as powerful as the Mi 6, but its camera is still quite capable, thanks to the sensors inside. The cheaper price also makes it available to a much wider crowd with a limited budget.

On first glance, the dual camera setups on both the phones seem identical. But the setup is much more different than what you may realize, as the sensors inside the Mi 5X are not from Sony or Samsung, instead they are from OmniVision (OV). The basic specs remain the same, like one 12MP sensor with 1.25µm pixel size and another one with 12MP 1.0µm pixel size. But the sensor manufacturer, as well as the apertures, are different than what’s used inside the Mi 6.

The table below should give you a good idea about the setups used by both the devices.

	Xiaomi Mi 5X		Xiaomi Mi 6
TYPE	Wide Angle	Telephoto	Wide Angle	Telephoto
SENSOR	OV12A10	OV13880	IMX386	S5K3M3
RESOLUTION	12MP	12MP	12MP	12MP
SENSOR SIZE	1/2.8"	?	1/2.9"	1/2.9"
PIXEL SIZE	1.25um	1um	1.25um	1um
APERTURE	f/2.2	f/2.6	f/1.8	f/2.6
OTHER FEATURES	2X Optical Zoom Dual LED Flash		2X Optical Zoom Dual LED Flash 4-axis OIS

The Mi 5X’s primary OV12A10 comes with a slightly larger 1/2.8″ sensor as compared to IMX386 (1/2.9″). The aperture on the Mi 6 is bigger though, f/1.8 vs f/2.2.

When it comes to the real life performance of both the handsets, it’s quite similar. But there are a few differences seen in these samples as well. For example, on most occasions, the Xiaomi Mi 6 had much sharper images. It was even more evident when you zoom into the pictures. But interestingly, the Mi 5X managed to take brighter images.

In terms of color saturation, the Mi 5X seems to be better. However, sometimes, the pictures look over saturated, different from what it looks in real life. So, if you are someone who likes images which are closer to reality, the Mi 6 is a better option.

Portrait mode is better on the Mi 6 as the object tracking on the Mi 5X is not as good as its elder sibling. The colors on the portraits are much more natural, unlike the Mi 5X which captures somewhat whitish images (kind of what we see in beauty mode).

Low light images are much sharper with the Mi 6. The f/1.8 aperture lets in more light and therefore we get more details as well. However, once again, the Mi 5X tends to take brighter images, although they are not as sharp as the Mi 6.

To conclude, the Xiaomi Mi 6 does well in this comparison but so does the Mi 5X. Despite being almost $150 cheaper, the Mi 5X manages to keep up with Xiaomi Mi 6’s camera on most occasions. It won’t be as sharp as the flagship model, but it’s capable of capturing high-quality images, making it one of the top camera phones in its price segment.

Check out the Xiaomi Mi 5X vs Xiaomi Mi 6 camera images down below and let me know which phone do you think takes better images. I have added zoomed in images of the samples whenever possible.