Xiaomi Mi5 is the flagship model of Xiaomi. Naturally, the flagship should have the most powerful hardware on the market, including the camera. One of the largest publications in the field of high technology AnandTech decided to test the novelty in a series of PCMark computer benchmarks. Recall that it came out in three versions, where the base model received a Snapdragon 820 clocked at 1.8 GHz, and in the top version, 4 Kryo cores were overclocked to 2.15 GHz. Smartphones, Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy S6 were taken for sparring.
The performance of the Qualcomm processor when running in a web browser was one of the worst among all 4 smartphones. The increase in power became obvious when playing videos and writing texts, but even there the smartphone lost to Huawei Mate 8 with Kirin 950. But in terms of gaming potential and working with photos, Xiaomi Mi5 is an unconditional favorite. There are no worthy competitors in the Adreno 530 graphics on the market.
In addition to performance, it was decided to compare the cameras of competitors. The quality of the pictures showed that in terms of photo capabilities, Xiaomi Mi5 is not inferior to the recognized leader Samsung Galaxy S6. Recall that the Chinese equipped the device with a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with a 4-axis optical image stabilization system.
Samsung Galaxy S6
Samsung Galaxy S6
Thin and light handsome man on the most powerful Qualcomm platform
Surely, many have heard and know that the Svyaznoy chain of electronics stores has once again made an attempt to officially introduce Chinese Xiaomi products to the Russian market. But not all, but, as before, only a part of it, and this time - on the example of the top and latest of the company's smartphones, the Xiaomi Mi 5 model. At the moment, this seller's activity is widely supported by advertising in several media channels at once. This, of course, does not mean that Xiaomi is now officially represented in our market. It's just that in Svyaznoy, realizing how strong brand recognition is all over the world, they are trying to arrange successful sales of this equipment with us. But so far this is not working out very well, since the prices “here” and the prices “there” differ by almost one and a half times, and users of online stores, which are the majority of fans of the Xiaomi brand, are very good at calculating benefits, preferring to order goods from abroad. In China itself, this high-end device is priced at only 1999 yuan, and in online stores it can be ordered at a price of $345 or a little over 23 thousand rubles. Inexperienced Russian users are less familiar with the popular Chinese brand, and the price of 33 thousand rubles, which is how much a smartphone costs in Svyaznoy stores, naturally rejoices not so vividly. But here the buyer purchases a smartphone already certified for sale on the territory of the Russian Federation, with localized firmware, fully Russified and equipped with the charger plug that is familiar to us.
In any case, this review is intended to thoroughly study all the technical capabilities of the new smartphone, and we will leave the discussion of pricing policies to analysts. Xiaomi's latest flagship is indeed very interesting in many ways, so it's time to move on to reviewing the technical specifications of the novelty.
Key Features of Xiaomi Mi 5
- SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996), 2×1.8 GHz, 2×1.36 GHz, 4 Kryo cores (ARMv8)
- GPU Adreno 530
- Operating system Android 6.0
- 5.15″ IPS touch display, 1920×1080, 428 ppi
- Random access memory (RAM) 3/4 GB, internal memory 32/64/128 GB
- SIM cards: Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
- No microSD card support
- GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- WCDMA networks 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
- LTE networks FDD Band 1/3/5/7, TDD Band 38-41
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display
- Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
- USB 2.0 Type C, OTG
- GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
- Direction, proximity, lighting sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, magnetic compass, infrared transmitter, fingerprint reader
- Camera 16 MP, f/2.0, autofocus, LED flash
- Front camera 4 MP, f/2.0
- Battery 3000 mAh
- Quick Charge 3.0
- Dimensions 145×69×7.3 mm
- Weight 132 g
Appearance and usability
The design and ergonomics of Xiaomi Mi 5 can only be praised: the smartphone came out surprisingly small and light, it fits in the hand more comfortably than most modern top-end smartphones from other manufacturers. Nice-looking and very pleasant to the touch case made of glass and metal turned out to be neither slippery, nor thick, nor wide, nor heavy. This is practically the same “golden mean”, unattainable and desirable.
Even compared to its direct competitor, Meizu Pro 6, the hero of the review lies more comfortably in the palm of your hand due to a more sloping back wall, a slightly less rounded and therefore less slippery side frame, and also because of the very low weight, which is simply amazing with taking into account the large battery (3000 mAh) of this elegant handsome man.
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As for the appearance of the novelty, there can be no two opinions: Xiaomi Mi 5 almost exactly copies the design of the Samsung Galaxy 6/7. It has the same unusual metal side frame, tapering on the sides and expanding towards the ends, Gorilla Glass 4 glass panels on both sides in the front and back, and, of course, an elongated oval mechanical button inscribed in the middle under the screen, exactly like modern Korean smartphones.
There are no complaints about the materials and assembly: the metal of the side frame has received a noble dullness, and both glass panels have an excellent grease-repellent coating, which is why the smartphone came out not only not slippery, but also completely not easily soiled. On the sidewalls, the prints are not visible at all, and on the glasses they appear with great difficulty and are easily erased. The mass of the device is such that any pocket of clothes will suit it: Xiaomi Mi 5 is only 10 g heavier than the small four-inch iPhone SE and weighs 30 g less than the “classmate” Meizu Pro 6.
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The case of the older model of the Xiaomi family, as usual, is non-separable, the battery is non-removable here, and the cards are inserted into the side slot. This connector is not hybrid, that is, you cannot replace one of the SIM cards with a memory card, and there is no separate slot for microSD either. Nano-SIM cards are stacked one after another in a single metal sled, their hot swap is supported.
Side mechanical keys are located on the right side in the usual manner. The buttons are quite large, protrude noticeably beyond the body, have a stiffness slightly above average, but this does not cause much discomfort when manipulating them.
The back wall, made of Gorilla Glass 4, has noticeable roundings on its sides, which makes the smartphone, like a boat, successfully fits in the palm of your hand. The camera module does not protrude beyond the surface at all, so it is quite convenient to control the device lying on the table, it does not sway.
In addition to the large eye of the main camera on the back, there is also a two-color rather bright flash, consisting of two LEDs. It is possible to use the flash as a flashlight.
Curiously, unlike most modern smartphones, whose designers strive to follow fashion trends, here the front glass is completely flat and does not have curved edges, like 2.5D panels. But the entire necessary set of sensors is present in full, as well as the LED event indicator located above the display among the sensors. The user can change the color and operating modes of the indicator in the settings.
At the bottom of the front panel there is an oval mechanical key with a fingerprint sensor area inscribed in it. The sensor instantly and almost unmistakably recognizes the owner's fingerprints, but, contrary to rumors about the use of Qualcomm 3D Ultrasonic ultrasonic technology, it is not capable of scanning through gloves. Two adjacent control buttons are marked with dots and have their own white backlight.
The main speaker is brought to the bottom end; here, as elsewhere, you can see two arrays of holes in the body, but the sound comes out only through one of them, the second is a props. In the middle is a USB type C connector that supports connecting third-party flash drives in USB OTG mode.
On the top end, in addition to the usual hole for a headphone minijack and a second auxiliary microphone, you can find a small dark eye for an infrared transmitter to emulate a remote control. True, in our firmware version there was no special program for its use.
There are no plugs on the connectors, there are no fasteners for a strap on the case either. The device did not receive protection from moisture and dust. As for the colors of the case, here the manufacturer has gone the already familiar way, offering the usual modifications of its device in three color options: black, white and gold. But the premium version, which, apparently, has not yet appeared on open sale even in China itself, will have a ceramic case and will be presented in only black.
Screen
The smartphone is equipped with an IPS touch screen with a flat protective glass Gorilla Glass 4. The physical dimensions of the display are 64 × 114 mm, the diagonal is 5.15 inches. The screen resolution is standard 1920×1080, the dot density is 428 ppi. The frame around the screen is very thin, about 2 mm on the sides, but in a face-to-face comparison, even it turns out to be slightly wider than the new Sony Xperia XA, which will be discussed in one of the following reviews. Xiaomi Mi 5 can not rightfully be classified as "frameless", but the sidewalls are really very thin. The width of the frame at the top and bottom is 14-15 mm.
The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on a light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to handle 10 simultaneous touches.
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A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.
The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than the screen of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Xiaomi Mi 5, then they can be distinguished by size):
The screen of Xiaomi Mi 5 is noticeably darker (brightness in photos is 100 versus 113 for Nexus 7). The doubling of reflected objects in the screen of Xiaomi Mi 5 is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (better in efficiency than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed more easily, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.
With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 650 cd/m², the minimum was 1 cd/m². The maximum brightness is very high, which means that, given the excellent anti-reflective properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. In the presence of automatic brightness control by light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. This function depends on the position of the brightness slider. If it is 100%, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 175 cd / m² (a little too much), in an office lit by artificial light (about 400 lux) it sets it to 460 cd / m² (it could have been less), in a very bright environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) the brightness increases to 650 cd / m² (to the maximum - it is necessary); if the adjustment is about 50%, then the values are as follows: 10, 170 and 650 cd / m² (ideal combination), the regulator at 0% is 1, 140-230 and 630 cd / m² (the first value is too low, the other two are normal). It turns out that the auto-brightness function works absolutely adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. Significant backlight modulation appears only at a very low brightness level, but its frequency is high, about 2.4 kHz, so there is no visible screen flicker (but, perhaps, it can be detected in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect, however, we did not succeed) .
This smartphone uses an IPS type matrix. Micrographs show a typical IPS sub-pixel structure:
For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.
The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photos in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Xiaomi Mi 5 and Nexus 7, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K. A white field is perpendicular to the screens:
The field darkens a little towards the bottom edge (in the photo on the right), but in general, the uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field is good. And a test picture:
The colors on the Xiaomi Mi 5 screen are oversaturated (note the tomatoes and bananas) and the color balance is slightly different. Recall that the photo can not serve as a reliable source of information about color quality and is provided for illustrative purposes only. In this case, apparently due to the characteristics of the screen emission spectrum, the color balance in the photographs is somewhat different from what is visible to the eye and is determined by the spectrophotometer. Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:
It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, but on the Xiaomi Mi 5, the contrast has decreased to a greater extent due to the strong black highlighting. And the white box:
The brightness at an angle of the screens has decreased (at least 4 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but Xiaomi Mi 5 has a lighter screen (brightness in photos is 242 versus 223 for Nexus 7). The black field, when deviated diagonally, is highlighted strongly and acquires a reddish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same!):
And from another angle:
When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good:
Contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1100:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 27 ms (15 ms on + 12 ms off). The transition between grayscale 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back in total takes 43 ms. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with an equal interval according to the numerical value of the shade of gray did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows. The fit exponent is 2.09, slightly below the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates little from the power dependence:
In this case, we did not find any dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image, which is very good.
The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:
Let's look at the spectra:
Such spectra (unfortunately) are found in top mobile devices from Sony and other manufacturers. Apparently, this screen uses LEDs with a blue emitter and a green and red phosphor (usually a blue emitter and a yellow phosphor), which, in combination with special matrix light filters, allows you to get a wide color gamut. Yes, and in the red phosphor, apparently, the so-called quantum dots are used. For a consumer device, a wide color gamut is not an advantage, but a significant disadvantage, since as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photos and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photo above.
This device has the ability to adjust the color balance by adjusting the hue warmer-colder (you can select only one of three values with the slider), as well as select one of three profiles.
Profile is of interest standard, since it is the only one that attempts to fix creepy colors by adjusting the gamut:
The result is average, but the attempt counts. We hope that by the next smartphone, software developers will master the simplest operations of matrix algebra and they will get an sRGB triangle without kinks on the sides. For now, we have the following result:
Everything is better. Yes, and one more drawback: when choosing a profile standard hue adjustment does not work, you must first move the slider, and only then select a profile standard. It looks like the software was written in a hurry.
The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is below the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is above 10, which is considered a bad indicator even for a consumer device. However, at the same time, the color temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)
Going through the profiles and the position of the hue slider in the smartphone settings, you can change the balance, but we didn’t manage to achieve a fundamentally better result. Yes, and another slider on the page Reading mode will help reduce the intensity of the blue component. However, the developers again “forgot” to proportionally reduce the intensity of the green component, so as a result the screen acquires a nasty greenish tint. This setting, of course, has exclusively marketing significance, since it is still necessary to try hard to illuminate your eyes with the light from the screen in order to shift your daily rhythm, and in any case it is better to reduce the brightness of the backlight, since the range of its adjustment in this device is simply huge.
To summarize: the screen has a very high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. It is permissible to use the mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. Also, the advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, high contrast, as well as not the worst color balance and approaching the sRGB color gamut when choosing a profile standard. The disadvantages are the low stability of black to the deviation of the gaze from the perpendicular to the plane of the screen. Nevertheless, taking into account the importance of the characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high.
Sound
Xiaomi Mi 5 sounds, like its siblings, not too impressive. In this regard, other "branded Chinese" will give it a head start, including the top devices Meizu, Huawei. The frequency spectrum is not wide, there is no bass at all, the volume margin is not always enough, and at the maximum level, the sounds sometimes begin to merge into a “mess”. In general, everything is not so bad, but this is the level of the middle peasant, not the premium class. In high-quality headphones, the situation is better, here the sound is both bright and saturated, and low frequencies are not deprived, and there is enough volume reserve. As usual, there are no bundled headphones, but at the same time, in the settings you can select specialized profiles with preset values, specially designed for specific headphones. Also, in a regular music player, the user has access to manual sound quality control settings in the form of preset equalizer values.
There are no special complaints about the spoken speaker and microphone, there are practically no extraneous noises. True, the sound comes out somehow bass and rough, but you can always recognize a familiar interlocutor. It is possible to record telephone conversations from the line. There is no FM radio in the smartphone.
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Camera
Xiaomi Mi 5 is equipped with two modules of digital cameras with a resolution of 16 and 4 megapixels. The front camera is equipped with a 4-megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 lens without autofocus and its own flash. There are no manual settings, there are only three degrees of decoration and a function for determining the gender and age of the subject - everything is familiar here, nothing new. The quality of the resulting images is not particularly praised for anything, the image turns out to be whitish, the detail is weak, although there are no particular complaints about color reproduction and sharpness.
The main camera is equipped with a 16-megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with a four-axis optical stabilization system (OIS) and phase detection autofocus (PDAF). Outside, the camera lens is covered with sapphire crystal. Autofocus is fast, it doesn’t make mistakes, the double multi-colored flash is brighter than the average level, there is not a word about stabilization in the settings, that is, it cannot be turned on or off on its own.
The camera control interface is exactly the same as that of all devices with the MIUI interface. The menu with additional modes is pulled out with a side gesture, the settings menu is called up by clicking on the gear icon. Photo resolution, as usual, is not specified: you can not directly set the size of the image, you can only choose between veiled definitions, such as "high, normal or low quality." In manual mode, it is possible to influence the white balance, shutter speed, ISO level (maximum sensitivity - ISO 3200), adjust contrast, saturation and clarity. There are also several additional modes, such as panoramic, night, fisheye and others. Third-party applications cannot control these settings via the Camera2 API, nor can they save images in RAW.
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The video camera can shoot at resolutions up to 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD), there is the possibility of slow-mo recording at 720p resolution at 120 frames per second, but the image quality there is very poor. Nothing is said about stabilization for video shooting, and in any case, the camera does not cope very well with shooting at maximum resolution. As can be seen from the test videos, the video sequence is torn, the image is twitchy, in places artifacts in the form of spots with decaying squares are clearly visible, and this is with excellent ambient lighting and bright colors. In this regard, the top Xiaomi device is clearly inferior to the flagship products of LG and Samsung. The sound is also recorded with average quality, the noise reduction system can hardly cope with even small wind noise, the sound itself is monophonic, high, the sound is simple, not bright and not saturated.
- Clip #1 (88 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
- Movie #2 (81 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
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Good sharpness across the frame. |
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Even in the shadows, the detail is good. |
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Good detail in medium shots. |
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The text is well done. |
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Macro photography is excellent for the camera. |
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With the removal of the plan, the sharpness drops very slowly. Even in the distant plans, the detail is good. |
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There is a noticeable drop in sharpness in the corners of the frame. |
| Xiaomi Mi 5 | Apple iPhone 6 Plus |
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The camera turned out to be excellent, if not a flagship one. Immediately striking is the good elaboration of details throughout the field of the frame and on all plans. This is not often seen even in flagships. In addition, the program works well, carefully removing noise in the shadows. Sharping is barely noticeable, and then only in places. Even the iPhone 6 loses the comparison in many ways. As a result, the camera will cope well with both documentary and artistic shooting.
Telephone part and communications
The smartphone can function as standard in most bands of 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation LTE FDD and TDD networks. The SoC Snapdragon 820 used here has a built-in X12 LTE Cat.12/13 modem, which theoretically allows you to receive data at speeds up to 600 Mbps. As before, the Xiaomi smartphone has support for only two of the three most common bands among domestic operators (B3 and B7), but the frequency of 800 MHz (B20), which better than others meets the requirements for indoor communication, as well as in sparsely populated areas, this unit do not support. That is, for some residents of regions outside large settlements, this can become a particular problem.
In practice, with the SIM card of the MTS operator in the Moscow region, the smartphone was confidently registered and worked in 4G networks, although it was not possible to achieve maximum speeds from it. The quality of signal reception does not cause any particular complaints, the device confidently maintains communication indoors and does not lose the signal in areas of uncertain reception. The full list of supported frequency bands is as follows:
- FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7
- TD-LTE: B38/B39/B40/B41
- TD-SCDMA: 1900 / 2000 MHz
- WCDMA: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
- GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
The device also has support for Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, dual Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels . The USB Type C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode. From a USB 3.0 port on a desktop PC, a 4 GB file is transferred to a smartphone over a cable within 135 seconds (about 30 MB/s), which is more in line with USB 2.0 specifications than USB 3.0. At this point, it is worth noting that the Meizu Pro 6 in USB 3.0 mode performs the same transfer in just 53 seconds (about 75 MB / s).
The NFC module demonstrates compatibility with the Mifare Classic protocol, which is necessary for the successful operation of the "" application with the Troika transport card.
The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. There is also support for continuous input such as Swype. It is possible to reduce the size of the working area of the virtual keyboard for the convenience of controlling the fingers of one hand.
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The smartphone provides work with two SIM-cards. Typically for the MIUI shell, in the settings you can set a specific SIM card for data transfer and voice calls, but to send SMS messages, you must select the desired card each time.
A SIM card in any slot can work with 3G / 4G networks, however, only one of the cards can operate in this mode at the same time. To change the assignments of card slots, you do not need to swap places - this can be done directly from the phone menu. Working with two SIM-cards is organized according to the usual Dual SIM Dual Standby standard, when both cards can be in active standby mode, but cannot work at the same time - there is only one radio module.
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OS and software
As a software platform, Xiaomi Mi 5 uses Android OS version 6.0 with the obligatory proprietary MIUI shell. It uses the seventh version of the user interface (MIUI Global 7.2.8.0), which is well known to most buyers of Chinese smartphones, since it was it that once became the basis for customized user shells.
Everything is familiar here, no innovations have been introduced, in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 we reviewed earlier, all this was already there. Of the features: there is no separate menu for installed applications, the navigation menu and quick settings have been completely redone in their own way; the menu of the last opened programs is conveniently arranged with indexing of the amount of memory released when closing.
The settings menu is very detailed, you can configure almost everything, up to long or short keystrokes and the color of the light indication, it is possible to reduce the working area of the screen to control the fingers of one hand, reduce the font, change themes, although the default one is very nice. There are child and guest modes, but there is practically no support for gestures in Xiaomi smartphones.
There are very few pre-installed programs, and those that are are useful, and this is good, because there is no clutter with unnecessary applications. Each user is free to download and install from the Play Store what he needs.
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Performance
The Xiaomi Mi 5 hardware platform is based on Qualcomm's newest and most powerful mobile platform currently on the market, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core SoC. 810 respectively (you can read more about the new platform in our separate article). The Snapdragon 820 is configured with four 64-bit Kryo (ARMv8) processor cores, which are Qualcomm's own development. The maximum frequency of processor cores in versions of Xiaomi Mi 5 with 4 GB of RAM is 2.2 GHz, but here it is reduced to 1.8 GHz. The new GPU Adreno 530 with support for OpenGL ES 3.1+ is responsible for graphics processing. This model has 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM (of which 1.9 GB is initially free) and 32 UFS flash memory, but Xiaomi Mi 5 variants with 4 GB of RAM and 64 or 128 GB of flash memory are also available. Installation of microSD cards is not provided at all. Connecting third-party flash drives in USB OTG mode is supported, but for this you will have to get an OTG adapter for a USB Type C connector.
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The results of testing the new platform, as expected, turned out to be very impressive, at the level of other modern top solutions, close to the maximum. The new SoC demonstrates decent results in both complex and specialized browser tests. As for the graphics, in this regard, the heroine of the review, along with the Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa installed in the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, simply has no equal. Top solutions MediaTek (MT6797T) and Huawei (HiSilicon Kirin 955), as well as Snapdragon 810, are inferior to these two champions in all graphics tests without exception. The results of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, summarized in tables, can be visually evaluated and compared with the results of alternative modern top platforms using real numbers obtained in the same test programs as an example.
Modern demanding games run at maximum settings. You can comfortably play World of Tanks at 60 fps, the frame rate simply does not drop below. The rest of the games also do not show even the slightest delay, playing games with high graphics quality on Xiaomi Mi 5 is a real pleasure. The platform is new, extremely powerful, and clearly has significant performance headroom for future upgrades.
Testing in the latest versions of AnTuTu and GeekBench 3 comprehensive benchmarks:
For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from various segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.
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Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:
When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).
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Browser cross-platform tests:
As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.
thermal images
Below is a thermal image of the back surface obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program (closer to white - higher temperature):
It can be seen that the heating is more localized in the upper part of the device, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 38 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is not very much.
Video playback
To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.
According to the test results, the test subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed for the full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network, in this case, sound ones. To successfully play them, you will have to resort to the help of a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it also needs to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 audio format.
| Format | container, video, sound | MX Video Player | Regular video player |
| BDRip 720p | MKV, H.264 1280×720, 24fps, AAC | plays normally | plays normally |
| BDRip 720p | MKV, H.264 1280×720, 24fps, AC3 | video plays fine, no sound | |
| BDRip 1080p | MKV, H.264 1920×1080, 24fps, AAC | plays normally | plays normally |
| BDRip 1080p | MKV, H.264 1920×1080, 24fps, AC3 | video plays fine, no sound | video plays fine, no sound |
Further testing of video playback performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.
Due to the lack of the necessary adapter, we could not verify the hypothetical presence of the MHL interface, as well as Mobility DisplayPort, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices) 720/24p
Note: If both columns Uniformity And Passes green ratings are set, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.
According to the frame output criterion, the quality of video files playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) to be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, in its original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows, only a couple of shades of gray do not differ in brightness from black, and in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed.
Battery Life
The capacity of the non-removable battery installed in Xiaomi Mi 5 is 3000 mAh. This is quite an impressive figure, given the medium-sized, thin, and most importantly, very light smartphone case. It is difficult to say from the first acquaintance with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 platform, whether it should be thanked for the highest level of autonomy demonstrated by Xiaomi Mi 5, or something else. But the fact remains: the most powerful and productive smartphone, which heats up quite noticeably when performing demanding tasks, nevertheless demonstrates an extremely high level of battery life. This is not a record, of course, but even against the background of the most modern flagships, the hero of the review looks more than worthy.
Testing, as usual, was carried out without using any power-saving modes, although, of course, there are such in the device.
Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) lasted almost 19 hours to full discharge. When continuously watching Youtube videos in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via home Wi-Fi, the device lasted 13 hours, which is an extremely good result. In the 3D gaming mode, the smartphone functions confidently for 6.5 hours.
Xiaomi Mi 5 with its latest hardware platform is one of the first smartphones to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It comes with a power adapter with variable maximum output current and voltage (2.5/2/1.5 A; 5/9/12 V). From its own charger, the smartphone is fully charged within 1 hour and 20 minutes with a current of 1.75 A at a voltage of 9 V.
Outcome
As already mentioned at the very beginning of the article, the prices for Xiaomi Mi 5 from official and non-certified supplies vary quite a lot. In the case of other smartphones, the spread is not so noticeable, but here it is very large. At a price of 22-23 thousand rubles when ordering from an online store, for example, this option can rightfully be called extremely interesting and even agree with the popular epithet about the best “anti-crisis flagship”. However, at a cost of 33 thousand rubles (as in Svyaznoy), our hero will already have many worthy rivals, and here it will already be necessary to compare characteristics and capabilities. However, in terms of characteristics, the hero of the review is a real flagship with a high-quality screen, the most powerful hardware platform, an excellent camera, wide communication capabilities and an outstanding level of autonomy. But in terms of sound and video shooting, the Chinese “handsome” is inferior to the top solutions of the same LG, Samsung, and maybe even Huawei. And yet, if you are not afraid to buy equipment from abroad without guarantees, then a more profitable alternative at the level of Xiaomi Mi 5 is now hard to imagine.
Xiaomi Mi5 is a very important smartphone for the Chinese company. All previous gadgets from this manufacturer were indeed a very good offer in terms of price-quality ratio - this is why Xiaomi fell in love with users around the world. However, the smartphones of this company have always been considered in the context of "for this price ...", "for this money ..." and so on. In other words, the price factor was decisive.
With Mi5, the situation is slightly different. Yes, its cost in Russia varies from 27 to 35 thousand rubles, depending on the amount of built-in memory (32 or 64 GB) and the place of purchase. For comparison: prices for flagship smartphones from other companies now start at 40-45 thousand rubles. However, the cost is lower than that of classmates - far from the only advantage of Mi5. It comes to the fore that this is one of the first mass-produced smartphones with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 on board. Other interesting features include work with LTE Cat. 12, which allows for a maximum theoretical data reception rate of 600 Mbps in mobile networks, support for two SIM cards and a very decent hardware otherwise. We are already intrigued, but what else can surprise Xiaomi Mi5?
⇡ Specifications
| Xiaomi Mi5 | Samsung GALAXY S7 | Sony Xperia Z5 | Google Nexus 6P | LG V10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.15 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 427.75 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.1 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 575.9 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.2 inches, AMOLED, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 424 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch | 5.7 inches, 2560 × 1440, IPS, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch |
| Air gap | No | No | No | No | No |
| Protective glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass (version not specified) on both sides | no information | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 (two Kryo cores, | Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa (four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, 2.6 GHz; four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 1.6 GHz); | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 |
| frequency 1.8* GHz + | frequency 2 GHz + | (four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, frequency 1.55 GHz + | (four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, frequency 1.4GHz + | ||
| two Kryo cores, | four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, | two ARM Cortex-A57 cores, frequency 2 GHz); | two ARM Cortex-A57 cores, frequency 1.82 GHz); | ||
| frequency 1.36* GHz; | frequency 1.5 GHz); | Support for 32-bit and 64-bit computing | Support for 32-bit and 64-bit computing | ||
| Support for 32-bit and 64-bit computing | Support for 32-bit and 64-bit computing | ||||
| * - The Pro version has higher core frequencies (1.6 GHz and 2.15 GHz respectively) | |||||
| Graphics controller | Qualcomm Adreno 530 | ARM Mali-T880 MP12 | Qualcomm Adreno 430 | Qualcomm Adreno 430 | Qualcomm Adreno 418 |
| RAM | 3/4 GB | 4 GB | 3 GB | 3 GB | 4 GB |
| GB (4 GB for Pro version) | |||||
| Flash memory | 32/64/128 GB | 32/64 GB | 32 GB | 32/64/128 GB | 64 GB |
| (128 GB for Pro version) | |||||
| Memory card support | No | Yes, in the S7 Duos version - a combined slot for a memory card and a SIM card | Eat | No | Eat |
| Connectors | USB Type-C, mini-jack 3.5 mm | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm | USB-C, 3.5 mm mini-jack | microUSB, mini-jack 3.5 mm |
| SIM cards | Two nanoSIMs | One nanoSIM / two nanoSIMs | One nano SIM | One nano SIM | Two nanoSIMs |
| Cellular 2G | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1700 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | |
| Cellular 3G | HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz | WDCMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz | HSDPA 850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100 MHz | HDSPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz |
| Cellular 4G | Support for LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600/150 Mbps): bands 1, 3, 7, 38, 39, 40, 41 | Support for LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600/150 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20 | FDD LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20, 28, 40 | LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 19, 20, 28, 38, 39, 40, 41 | LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7 |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| NFC | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou |
| Sensors | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer, heart rate | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer | Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | Ambient light, proximity sensor, pressure sensor, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer | |
| Fingerprint's scanner | There is | There is | There is | There is | There is |
| Main camera | 16 MP, ƒ/2.0, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 4-axis optical stabilization, 4K video recording | 12 MP, ƒ/1.7, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, 4K video recording | 23 MP, ƒ/2.0, autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording | 12.3 MP, ƒ/2.0, laser autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording | 16 MP, ƒ/1.8, laser autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, Full HD video recording |
| Front-camera | 4 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP, fixed focus | 8 MP, fixed focus | 5 MP fixed focus 80° FOV + 5 MP fixed focus 120° FOV |
| Nutrition | 11.4 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V) non-removable battery, Quick Charge 3.0 support | 11.4 Wh (3000 mAh, 3.8 V) non-removable battery, Quick Charge 2.0 support, wireless charging support | Non-removable battery | 13.11 Wh (3450 mAh, 3.8 V) non-removable battery | Removable 11.4 Wh battery (3000 mAh, 3.8 V) |
| 11.02 Wh (2900 mAh, 3.8 V) | |||||
| Size | 145×69×7.3mm | 142.4×69.6×7.9mm | 146×72×7.3mm | 159.3×77.8×7.3mm | 160×80×8.6mm |
| Weight | 129 grams | 152 grams | 154 grams | 178 grams | 192 grams |
| Hull protection | No | IP68 | IP65, IP68 | No | No |
| Up to half an hour at a depth of up to 1.5 m | |||||
| operating system | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, native MIUI 7.0 skin | Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Samsung's own TouchWiz skin | Android 5.1 Lolliipop, Sony Xperia's own skin | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 5.1 Lolliipop |
| Actual price, rub. | About 26 thousand rubles for the version with 32 GB; | from 49 990 | 49 990 | 49 990-56 990 (depending on memory capacity) | 50 990 |
| About 32 thousand rubles for the version with 64 GB |
⇡ Appearance, ergonomics, fingerprint scanner
Xiaomi Mi 5 is a very human-oriented, if I may say so, device. This is not a "brick" and not a "shovel", but a very neat and pretty gadget. It is convenient to use it with one hand - in this case, the thumb can easily reach any point on the screen. The thickness of the case is a mere 7.3 millimeters, and the weight is only 129 grams.
It was possible to achieve such small dimensions due to the fact that Xiaomi decided not to chase fashion and installed a 5.15-inch screen in Mi5, while many flagships of recent years use a 5.4-5.5-inch display.
The front panel of the smartphone is covered with protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass of the latest, fourth generation. It is resistant to scratches and other minor damage - if the gadget accidentally ends up in the same pocket as keys or coins, nothing bad will happen. The glass here has an oleophobic coating - it is easy to clean it from fingerprints and other small dirt using any cloth.
At the top of the front panel there is a slot for the earpiece, a front camera lens, sensitive areas for proximity and light sensors, as well as a small LED indicator that informs about new events. Below is a hardware Home key, as well as touch keys for backtracking and opening the application menu. They are equipped with a nice looking white backlight.
Xiaomi Mi5s smartphone - review
Xiaomi smartphones are usually very popular - mainly because of the very high quality hardware. But with firmware, everything is much worse for them: often for some new model the official international firmware does not come out for a long time, so users are either content with Chinese firmware with English support, which they adjust with a “file”, or put all sorts of custom firmware, which almost certainly fraught with a variety of glitches. I reviewed the smartphone. Everything was exactly the same there: good hardware and crooked firmware. I jumped a little with a tambourine and eventually installed some custom MIUI in it, with which he lived quite well. Xiaomi Mi5s, which has just appeared. And there, on the store's website, it is separately noted that International Edition MIUI 8 is installed here, that is, the official international firmware MIUI 8, which means that the smartphone should support the Russian interface without any problems and there should not seem to be any glitches. Well, let's figure it out what this model and firmware are, especially since I have not yet seen Russian detailed reviews of this smartphone, there are only preliminary reviews based on the results of presentations.
Display: 5.15", 1920×1080, Full HD, IPS, 2.5D, OGS, 427 PPI
CPU: Qualcom Snapdragon 821 Quad Core 2.15GHz
GPU: Adreno 530
RAM: 3 GB
Flash memory: 64 GB
Memory card: No
Fingerprint Scanner: There is
IR port: No
Net: GSM+CDMA+WCDMA+TD-SCDMA+FDD-LTE+TD-LTE
Wireless connection: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
Camera: 12 MP
Front-camera: 4 megapixels
Ports: USB-C (OTG), audio jack
Navigation: GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS / Beidou / OTA
SIM card: nanoSIM1 and nanoSIM2
Battery: 3100 mAh, non-removable, Quick Charge 3.0 support
Dimensions: 145.7 x 70.3 x 8.3mm
Weight: 147 g
Additionally: accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and light sensors, Hall sensor
Body colors: white, black, golden, pink
Price: at Gearbest $ 319 (about 20 thousand rubles) Well, the characteristics are advanced, there is no memory card support traditionally for the Mi series at all, we'll see how it all works. Contents of delivery A dazzling white box in the style of "We also want to be like Apple", on which two letters are pressed - Mi.
Inside, everything is very simple, but neat. 
The kit is in the style of "Only cheap smartphones come with all sorts of accessories", so here is a power adapter with a Chinese plug and a USB-microUSB cable. They didn’t even put an adapter for a European outlet, although the type was delivered like a European one. A trifle, but unpleasant. In smartphones worth $100-150, these are always put. And an OTG cable. And a pouch. And protective film. Well, because cheap stuff, what to take from them! 
The adapter supports three charging options. 
The body is made of aluminum alloy, the left and right ends are noticeably rounded. 
What does this all remind me of? And here's what - . Quite the twins. Only OnePlus 3 is bigger. See - on the right OnePlus 3. 
Similar? Very similar! The bottom end is a USB-C output, holes under which the speaker is hidden, two decorative screws. 
And here is OnePlus 3. 
The left end is a slot for two nanoSIMs. 
The top end is the audio output. 
Right side - volume rocker, power button. Their pressing is quite intelligible. 
Well, this smartphone is next to Honor 8 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. 
The materials and workmanship are excellent, and the smartphone makes a good impression. But here's the similarity to OnePlus 3 to the point of confusion - I'm just wondering who is who and who has whom. The "Return" and "Running Applications" touch buttons do not have markings, they have a backlight in the form of a dot that lights up for 4 seconds during use. (This is configurable.) The "Home" button is touch-sensitive, when touched, it responds with a vibration response, imitates pressing. Display
IPS-matrix display, made using OGS technology. Covered with protective tempered glass with rounded edges. It has an anti-reflective filter and an oleophobic coating. The image quality is very good: the colors are bright and saturated, the contrast is at a good level. The brightness margin is quite sufficient. In direct sunlight, the image is clearly distinguishable. Good viewing angles, with strong deviations, the contrast slightly decreases. Device operation
As I already said, Gearbest claims that the official international MIUI 8 firmware is installed here, which even has a corresponding inscription in the title of this phone's page on the store's website. And indeed, at first glance, the firmware looks like this: all Google services are in place, the Russian interface is practically without jambs. However, if you go to the official website of the MIUI developer, it is easy to see there that the Global Stable firmware for Mi5s does not yet exist in nature. Only China Stable, that is, Chinese firmware. 
So what kind of firmware is installed here? Some kind of custom: either from multirom, or from xiaomi.eu, which make firmware based on MIUI. And the unpleasant thing is that this firmware stubbornly mows under MIUI Global Stable 8.0 (as it is written in the MIUI version in the smartphone), and there is no such firmware in nature yet, which the developer himself claims. However, in the abbreviation MAGCNDH, in brackets next to the version number, the letters CN just mean "China", that is, this is a Chinese stable firmware, modified by craftsmen.
It will appear, of course, because it exists for Mi5, but now it is not there. The question arises: why worry about the fact that it is custom, and not the official international one, if everything is in order with the firmware and everything works stably with it? So the problem is that there are some minor problems with stability, and I will write about this in detail below. main desktop.
Second desktop.
Applications in the Tools folder.
Blocking window.
It's the same with the audio playback widget.
Quick switches only scroll horizontally - this is not very convenient. However, this is set by default, and in the notification settings you can separate the notification window and quick switches - then the quick switches will be in a separate window.
Conversation mode.
The quality of telephone communication is good, noise reduction works quite effectively. The transmission speed over Wi-Fi is close to the maximum.
Mobile Internet reception is even better than expected for the given conditions. Transmission is normal speed.
Sennheiser CX 2.00G in-ear headphones are good: the sound is clear, detailed, good highs and even some bass.
The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x full-size headphones are very good: the sound is voluminous, clear, detailed, deep bass, clear highs. Determination of coordinates It starts very quickly (a couple of seconds), detects GPS and GLONASS satellites. Holds the road well, there were no problems with navigation programs.
Tanks - almost all the time 59-60 FPS, that is, the maximum. 
Epic Citadel performance test - also FPS at maximum. 
Settings In the settings - a lot of interesting possibilities. 
You can adjust the font size, turn on the reading mode, turn on the screen by double-clicking (which, by the way, did not always work the first time).
Themes. By the way, there are a great variety of free themes - for every taste.
You can create a separate data space for the second user.
Of the 64 GB, almost 58 GB is free for the user.
Child mode is a useful feature for some users.
Indicator setting.
There is an equalizer adjustment for different types of headphones, but I would not say that this leads to a good effect: for me, the sound is better without an equalizer.
This is something I really love - customizing the layout of the navigation keys and different actions on press and long press.
Key backlight adjustment.
One-handed operation, and you can "sharpen" it for three display sizes.
Enable dual mode for selected applications. This is when two copies of the application are stored with different settings. For example, you need to work with Facebook with two different accounts - here you can enable this.
You can password protect individual applications.
Print setting.
shooting modes. On the second window - night mode.
Camera settings called by the "Menu" button.
Photo examples. (All are clickable, open in full size.) Daylight indoors. 
Street on a sunny day. 
Text example. 
Evening at sunset. 500 ISO. 
In the dark, decisively sets 6400 ISO and at the same time blurs the noise. But it turns out not so much pornography. 
Here is a 1:1 crop. 
And if you turn off the noise reduction mode (there is such a thing in the settings), then it turns out something like this. 
Video example.
What to say about the camera? The camera is decent - for its cost of a smartphone. Good detail and dynamic range, white balance is determined more or less accurately and almost does not float, exposure is determined normally, autofocus, although far from being as "tenacious" as competitors' flagships, but there is little marriage there. Focusing does not work well under difficult lighting conditions (sometimes it simply cannot focus even on a dimly lit object), the quality of images in poor lighting conditions is much lower than average, but not terrible. Video shoots well, also when shooting video, the stabilizer clearly works and improves the quality of the video. The camera is noticeably better, but it costs one and a half times more. So, in general, the camera is normal for a smartphone of this cost, as I think. System data and performance Data on CPU-Z.
AnTuTu performance rating. The top ten fastest smartphones. Moreover, it even seems to overtake OnePlus 3, which did not hold the championship of the fastest for long. However, it is clear that now smartphones from the top twenty AnTuTu are all very fast.
Indexes on Geekbench 3.
Well, the overall score on PCMark. But OnePlus 3 has 7003 here!
Regarding the heating, because the platform is powerful - even when running heavy 3D games, heating was practically not observed. Literally once I noticed a slight heating in a situation when I downloaded a bunch of programs and data to them in a row. We also noticed slight heating when playing high-resolution videos. The fingerprint scanner worked correctly, and failures were rare. By the way, interestingly, the scanner also worked fine on wet fingers. On dirty ones - he fooled, but he worked with wet ones. Later I read that there is a new type of scanner here and water is not a hindrance to it, which is valuable. It turned out to be quite convenient to use the touch-sensitive "Home" button, which signals when it is pressed by vibration. You get used to it quickly, and then when you return to the physical button, like, for example, on the Samsung Galaxy S7, the physical button seems to be less convenient. What is the result? In terms of hardware and characteristics, the smartphone is excellent. The only pity is that there is no official international firmware for it yet, but it will probably appear soon. they don’t interfere with work. Well, I think that with the official firmware, the smartphone will be one of the best in its class. It is very similar to, only that one costs $470 on Gearbest, and this one costs $319.
The Xiaomi brand is still one of the fastest growing companies in the smartphone market. It is not surprising that this name on the pages of our site is not only in the news, but also in the laboratory.
Recall, for example, the company's bestseller Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, rational compact Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro and a very interesting tablet based on Nvidia hardware Xiaomi MiPad. I must say that under this brand some of the most attractive models come out in terms of price / performance ratio. And build quality has only gotten better over time.
Given the above, it is not surprising that it was in the devices of this brand that one of the first “registered” was the new top-segment chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which enthusiasts and just lovers of the most lightning-fast smartphones have been waiting for so long. This situation is especially aggravated by far from the most successful predecessors in the form of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and the “six-core” Snapdragon 808.
Thanks to our partner, the online store Cheap-mobile, we have to find out if the new SoC is as good as Qualcomm itself assures us, whether it makes sense to switch to new models from previous generations, and most importantly, how much faster they are than competitors.
Specifications Xiaomi Mi5
| Model | Xiaomi Mi5 | Xiaomi Mi5 "Standard Edition" | Xiaomi Mi5 Pro |
| Device type | Smartphone | Smartphone | Smartphone |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820L, 2 x 1800 MHz + 2 x 1360(?) MHz, Kryo | Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, 2 x 2150 MHz + 2 x 1590 MHz, Kryo |
| video processor | Adreno 530 @ 624 MHz | Adreno 530 @ 510 MHz | Adreno 530 @ 624 MHz |
| operating system | Android 6.0 | Android 6.0 | Android 6.0 |
| RAM, GB | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Internal memory, GB | 32/64 | 32/64 | 128 |
| Screen | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920x1080) | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920x1080) | IPS, 5.15", Full HD (1920x1080) |
| Cameras, Mpix | 16.0 + 4.0 | 16.0 + 4.0 | 16.0 + 4.0 |
| Net | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 | GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
| Number of SIM cards, pcs. | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Micro SD support | No | No | No |
| Data transfer | Wi-Fi, WAP, GPRS, EDGE, NFC, HSDPA, 3G, LTE | Wi-Fi, WAP, GPRS, EDGE, NFC, HSDPA, 3G, LTE | |
| aGPS/GPS/GLONASS/Beidou | Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes | Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes | Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes |
| Battery, mAh | 3 000 | 3 000 | 3 000 |
| Dimensions, mm | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 | 145.0 x 69.0 x 7.0 |
| Weight, g | 129 | 129 | 129 |
| price, rub. | ~32 000 / ~36 500 | ~32 000 / ~36 500 | n/a |
It is difficult to talk about the balance of the device, since we still know little about the power consumption of the new chip - will it have enough battery capacity? It is a little strange to see “only” 3 GB of RAM in the case of the most massive modifications of the device, while even inexpensive smartphones of the past are already ready to offer 4 GB, and at the beginning of 2016 there was an “upstart” Vivo Xplay5 Elite, equipped with as much as 6 GB of RAM.
As for everything else, the weight and size characteristics are quite typical for the flagships of 2016, the thickness of the device is small, the mass is more than comfortable, and the price is pleasantly pleasing compared to the flagships of famous brands.
Packing and packaging of Xiaomi Mi5
Xiaomi Mi5 comes in an ordinary cardboard box with a nice design that we have long been accustomed to.
On the reverse side are brief technical specifications and legal information. The most important thing here is to find the frequency of the single-chip system, if you want exactly the “full-fledged” version of the Snapdragon 820.
Inside we are waiting for the following package:
- Charger;
- USB Type-C cable;
- Documentation.
Unfortunately, there are no “buns” in the form of a protective film on the display or a cover. And the gadget itself does without a protective film on its screen.
Charger medium size and weight. It is convenient to use it, if there is an adapter, of course.
Xiaomi Mi5 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology, so the charger is capable of delivering current with a voltage of up to 12 V and a power of 1.5 A.
