Introduction
From our region, the domestic market of China seems to be some kind of exotic “with quirks”. But, in fact, there are serious passions. Manufacturers, like gigantic sea monsters, are cut not for life, but for death, fighting for one of the largest pies of our planet. And only ripples on the water reach us. Here I am holding a Xiaomi Mi5X smartphone in my hands, and I think that Xiaomi could well do without the announcement of this device. And then I look at his competitors, and I understand that I could not.
We also filmed a video review of Xiaomi Mi5X, and have already published it on our YouTube channel:
Design and ergonomics
Externally, Xiaomi Mi 5X is very similar to its direct arch-rival Oppo R11, with which it has a battle in the Chinese market, and therefore in. That is, this is another skew to the design of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, which is already thoroughly boring. In general, if you needed an illustration for the word "dull design", you can take Xiaomi Mi5X as a reference.
The Xiaomi Mi5X is also similar in size to the OnePlus 5, but it's a little bigger and therefore even more difficult to operate with one hand. The frames around the screen are quite plump, but the thumb, nevertheless, reaches both to the top and to the opposite sidewall.
But the smartphone is assembled perfectly, and the aluminum from which the back cover is made is tactilely pleasant. It is pleasant to touch Xiaomi Mi5X, it is pleasant to hold it in hands, and for many it will be even more important than appearance and lack of original ideas in design.
As people say, do not drink water from your face.
The port layout is standard for Xiaomi smartphones. Infrared on top, USB Type-C and 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom. Carriage with SIM cards and control buttons on the sides.
The SIM card slot is combined, instead of the second nano-SIM, you can put a memory card. A standard solution that is used in 99% of budget Chinese smartphones.
Equipment
Complete set Spartan: cable, paper clip and charging. Please note that the plug is Chinese, you will need an adapter for our format.
Fingerprint sensor
The fingerprint sensor is located on the back cover. It works well, is fast, and even reads fingerprints from slightly damp fingers.
Screen
The model has a 5.5-inch 2.5D display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. It uses an LTPS matrix with cool colors by default, which can be partially extended to warm colors using the settings. The screen has a very powerful backlight, which, on the one hand, is very good, but on the other hand, it really hurts the eyes, and when the backlight is at maximum, it is unpleasant to look at the screen.
Xiaomi fashion trends have been mastered: the screen has a reading mode with the ability to set it on a schedule. You can also enable double tap unlock. If you do not use a fingerprint sensor, this unlock method is extremely useful.
Performance
On board is an average Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, four gigabytes of RAM and 32/64 GB of permanent memory. In my opinion, quite a reliable, proven set of hardware, which is enough for all user requests.
Operating system
Despite promises to release the device on Out of the box, the smartphone is controlled by the MIUI 8 operating system, and this is firmware for the Chinese market. That is, no Google Apps and Russian language. Seriously, Gapps are not installed even from the Mi App Store.
It makes no sense to review the shell itself separately, we have already done this many times, including in the review.
But what is really interesting is whether it will be global firmware and entering the international market, or will the smartphone remain a Chinese cabal?
Main camera
Xiaomi Mi 5X received two camera modules manufactured by Omnivision (OV13880 + OV12a10) with optics of different distances (F / 2.2 + F / 2.6). That is, one camera is portrait shots, and the other is telephoto with a double optical zoom. A similar photo solution is used in Xiaomi Mi6, a review of which you can see on our channel. However, Mi 6 uses matrices from more famous manufacturers.
But it seems that Xiaomi did the right thing by putting simpler sensors in the Mi 5X, because the quality of the photos turned out to be the same as that of the Mi 6, which is certainly very cool for the Xiaomi Mi5X. Still, it’s not every day that a mid-range device comes out with a tasty price and, at the same time, with a flagship camera.
Although, apart from comparisons, the Xiaomi Mi5X camera cannot be called the best on the market, although it is very good. For example, algorithms for processing faces in portrait shots “soap” the skin even with beautification turned off.
And at night, strong noises come out in the pictures.
But, in general, if you get confused with the settings and lighting, you can get a cool shot.
Shooting video
When shooting video, the difference between the Mi5X and Mi 6 matrices becomes more noticeable. In the Mi 5X video, the detail is worse and, which is quite sad, the Mi 5X does not have optical stabilization.
Front-camera
The front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels, and although Xiaomi itself tells incredible fables about what cool “selfies” you can take on it, the actual image quality is average. In addition, Xiaomi’s love for aggressive facial skin processing algorithms is especially noticeable in the example of frontal shots. Even when you turn off all these Chinese gadgets, the face in the picture still turns out to be smooth.
Battery
A 3080 mAh battery paired with an energy efficient processor should give good battery life. On firmware without Google services and social networks, the device easily lives for two days without recharging. It is clear that with a normal global firmware, the battery life will be noticeably less (and we will return to this in a full review), but you can count on an honest day of work.
And this is great, since fast charging was not delivered to Xiaomi Mi5X, so most users will be fully charged once a day.
Competitors
In the domestic market, Xiaomi Mi5X will be cut with its clone Oppo R11 and Vivo X9. And how he will fight these opponents is unknown. In the foreign market, the prospects of a smartphone will greatly depend on how quickly a global firmware with Google services is released for it. But, in any case, the struggle will not be easy, since for the equivalent of 250-280 US dollars you can find a lot of interesting smartphones officially sold in Russia and Ukraine.
For example, the same LG Q6 looks extremely interesting for the same money. Although I still have doubts about the adequacy of the decision to put a 2K display in a smartphone on the Snapdragon 435 processor. But LG has no problems with localization and warranty service ...
Yes, and Xiaomi itself has already stamped so many smartphones that they really interfere with each other's lives. Well, look at Xiaomi Mi5X and then at Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X, which costs one and a half times cheaper. Is it really worth the extra money? Despite the fact that Redmi Note 4X has been with normal firmware for a long time.
In general, the market success of Xiaomi Mi5X is still under a big question.
Advantages
- Build quality and body materials
- Good level of performance for its class
- Lots of memory
- Photo quality of the main cameras
- MIUI shell
- Battery life
disadvantages
- Totally inconspicuous design
- Large sizes
- High price
- Does not support fast charging
- No optical camera stabilization
- No (yet?) international firmware
- No NFC
Where could I buy
⇒ BUY Xiaomi Mi5X in China here:
- Aliexpress (X-show) - https://goo.gl/vfRqxX
- Aliexpress (Tonke Digital) - https://goo.gl/qogcwD
⇒ Get back % of your OnePlus 5 purchase with Cashback - https://goo.gl/n9Q3w4 (Recommended)
Specifications
Net :
2G: 850/900/1800/1900
CDMA 800 & TD-SCDMA
3G: 850/900/1700/1900/2100
4G: LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) )
Display: 5.5", 1080 x 1920, LTPS IPS;
Platform: Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625, (eight cores of Cortex A53 architecture, 2 GHz, 14 nm) Adreno 506 graphics;
RAM: 4 GB;
Memory: 32/64 GB, MicroSD support;
OS: Android 7.1.1 Nougat shell Xiaomi MIUI 8 (upgraded to MIUI 9);
2 nanoSIM cards;
Main camera : Two 12 MP sensors Omnivision (OV13880 + OV12a10) with optics of different distances (f/2.2 + f/2.6), double flash;
Front-camera: 5 MP;
Communications : Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac , USB-C 2.0 Gen 1, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Infrared,
Battery : 3080 mAh non-removable
Fingerprint scanner;
Dimensions : 155.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm
Weight: 165 grams.
Summary
I definitely cannot call Xiaomi Mi5X a bad smartphone. This is a perfectly balanced midrange! Yes, without individuality, but soundly made and copes with its tasks. The problem is different: now there are a dime a dozen such devices, and if the Mi5X has nothing to stand out from the host of competitors, it was necessary to take it at a price. But the price for us just bites. So before the release of the global firmware and serious discounts, I would not consider Xiaomi Mi5X as a potential purchase.
