Review: Xiaomi Mi 5 – good-value smartphone and tougher than you’d think
Despite some flaws, this mobile offers unbeatable value for money and lives up to its cheap and cheerful reputation. Its camera is as good as any and its fingerprint sensor is among the fastest
Glassy, shiny and very slippery, the latest flagship phone from Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, the Mi 5, is a lot tougher than it looks.
Hardware and design
Wrapped around the entire side of the phone is what looks like aluminium with chamfered edges. It’s shiny and very slippery; it slid off most of the surfaces I placed the phone on. What’s surprising, though, is how tough the entire body is. Every time I expect to be picking up pieces of glass off the floor, instead I get an intact phone with slight scuff marks along the aluminium. Either Xiaomi is doing something right structurally or the Corning Gorilla Glass 4 is highly shatter resistant. It’s still prone to scratches, mind, but so far they’re all very minor. Most surprisingly of all, despite its shiny surface, it’s no fingerprint magnet.
Software and features
One of the main attractions of the Mi 5 is its operating system. Known as MIUI (as in “me UI”), it’s a highly customised OS based on Android’s Marshmallow. There is, for instance, an endless supply of themes. You can get practically any look you like, including some that mimics Apple’s iOS.