So, the Xiaomi Mi5X pre-order has started, it's time to make the first review. Rumors about a new product from a Chinese company appeared in mid-July, but before they had time to stir up the interest of users, Xiaomi officially showed the smartphone. Xiaomi Mi5X is a mixed bag, combining mid-range hardware, top-level cameras and a nice appearance that makes the new product look like the latest brainchild of Apple. Everything is quite good, soundly, and most importantly - inexpensive.
Let's take a look at the specifications of Xiaomi Mi5X to see if the next addition to the lineup is worth attention.
Specifications of Xiaomi Mi5X
Contents of delivery
Before starting the Xiaomi Mi5X review, a little about the package. In general, the company does not deviate from its traditions, offering a smartphone in the most ordinary white cardboard box, on which there is a company logo and a slightly noticeable model name. The smartphone itself is located on top, and the equipment is in a separate box. Package Contents Xiaomi Mi5X Classic:
- a paperclip to remove the tray;
- small manual;
- power adapter;
- USB Type-C cable.
We are sure that Xiaomi Mi5X sellers from Aliexpress will give the package a richer look by adding glasses and cases as bonuses.
Design
Xiaomi Mi5X in terms of design resembles the company's recent flagship Mi6, as well as their popular . However, this is only from the back. On the front is a typical Xiaomi smartphone, indistinguishable from the Redmi line.Xiaomi Mi5X has acquired smoother features, is in many ways similar to models from Vivo and Oppo, which is not surprising - the manufacturer molded it into a competitor for smartphones of these companies. The novelty is presented in an all-metal case, on which there are only thin plastic inserts for antennas. They were made as inconspicuous as the Mi Max 2. Approximately the same concept was used in the iPhone 7/7 Plus, which makes us talk about Xiaomi Mi5X as its counterpart.
The new brainchild of Xiaomi looks interesting and stylish. The smartphone has acquired smooth edges, which are so lacking in the more budget lines of the company. All corners are rounded for a good grip and a pleasant feeling of use. Xiaomi Mi5X turned out to be quite thin - only 7.3 mm. The smartphone is presented in three colors - gold, pink and black. Of course, black looks more interesting, given how the market is filled with bored gold or gray devices. The Xiaomi Mi5X is assembled with high quality, but there can be no problems with this - the company has been making really good products for several years.
According to the arrangement of the elements, Xiaomi did not invent a bicycle, placing everything in its usual form. The front side, in addition to a large display, is represented by classic touch buttons, at the top there is a speaker slot, a front camera and a set of sensors. The mechanical key with a built-in fingerprint scanner, which is present in the original Mi5, has disappeared. The scanner itself is located on the back, which is more common for Xiaomi smartphones. It works as expected well, to say the least. In addition to the fingerprint, on the back of Xiaomi Mi 5X we have only a logo (below) and a dual camera with dual LED flash. They took a place in the left corner, which is customary, but a flash was installed first, followed by a platform with two lenses.
Do you know what design is in trend in 2017? Frameless - here you are.
Neat lock and volume keys settled on the right side of the Xiaomi Mi5X. They are planted quite deeply, they are pressed pleasantly, they do not hang out. Just as usual, a hybrid tray is located on the left side, ready to accept a pair of nano-sized SIMs or one SIM and microSD. Above we have only an IR transmitter, which can be found in many smartphones of the Chinese company. A 3.5 mm headset jack, a USB Type-C port and a main speaker have taken their place on the bottom edge of the Xiaomi Mi5X.
Everything looks good, well put together. However, there are drawbacks, where without them. During the review of Xiaomi Mi5X, gaps were identified between the glass covering the front side of the case. As a result, dust will accumulate, which is not so easy to clean out. Let's see if we can find some other bad things.
Display
There is nothing special to paint here - the middle Chinese class is represented for the most part by screens of the same style. Xiaomi Mi5X is equipped with a classic size today. The IPS matrix, of course, is of very good quality, as they say (or do not say), Xiaomi will not slip a bad one. The resolution is 1920x1080 pixels, which provides 401 dpi. More for a high-quality picture is not needed. You won't see grain unless you're armed with a pair of microscopes. It is clear that there is no air gap here. The maximum brightness is 600 nits. Worthy of Xiaomi Mi5X and viewing angles, there is a protective glass and an oleophobic coating. In general, a decent display for its price segment.
Performance
Apparently, Xiaomi considered that every few months it was enough to release flagships, so instead of a flagship solution, we see a cheaper, but energy efficient one. The "heart" of Xiaomi Mi5X is now the popular Snapdragon 625 - a mid-range solution built on a 14-nm technical process that provides lower power consumption. Despite the class, the chip is quite productive, it will cope with any games without any problems (with the exception of the most demanding ones like WoT Blitz - you will have to slightly lower the graphics settings). By the way, for graphical features in the answer Adreno 506.
Do you like to play on your smartphone? Then you need an appropriate device, and we just picked it up.
4 gigs of RAM are in a hurry to help the Xiaomi Mi5X chip - a standard amount even for a more budget class, so it's not impressive. The drive is represented by 64 GB of permanent memory, which can be increased up to 128 GB via microSD by replacing one of the SIM cards.
Hardware Xiaomi Mi5X is able to give out in AnTuTu just over 80,000 points, which is a good result for this configuration.
Sound, communication, interfaces
Separately, it is worth mentioning the sound of Xiaomi Mi5X. The novelty has got into a short range of smartphones that are equipped with a separate audio chip, in addition, a new sound tuning algorithm is involved - DHS. This will allow users to enjoy really good, surround sound.
As for communication, everything is classic for a modern smartphone: work in LTE networks with Cat 12, which provides data transfer speeds up to 600 Mbps. The usual set of interfaces for Xiaomi Mi5X: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2. You can't say much about navigation either: a familiar set of systems that work very quickly and accurately.
Operating system
Xiaomi Mi5X happened to be the first manufacturer's device running MIUI 9. This is a new version of the company's proprietary shell, which was recently updated. It is based on Android Nougat 7.1.1. Of the interesting innovations, we can highlight Smart Assistant (a virtual assistant that will help you quickly find notes, various events, dates on the calendar, photos, and so on), Smart app launcher (a special function that displays applications depending on what is shown on the screen). The company also worked a little on the appearance of the shell, icons and animation. Xiaomi says that the new MIUI has been well optimized, so the OS will make better use of the smartphone's resources, ensuring maximum performance.
cameras
The company paid great attention to the presentation of the dual main camera Xiaomi Mi5X, which supposedly uses the same mechanisms as the recent flagship Mi6. However, you should not fall into euphoria, hoping that the smartphone of the middle segment will be compared with the flagship. So, Xiaomi Mi5X received a dual 12 + 12 MP main camera module. The second plays the role of a telephoto lens, providing a twofold increase. Cameras collect information about color depth, which ultimately allows you to create photos with a trendy bokeh effect (blurred background). And everything is “on paper”, like the Mi6. However, one has only to delve a little into the characteristics to notice the difference.
Firstly, despite the same megapixel value, the cameras of Xiaomi Mi5X and Mi6 have different apertures - f / 2.2 versus f / 1.8 (the smaller, the better). This parameter especially affects the quality during night shooting, as we can see, the difference is quite significant. In addition, Xiaomi Mi5X does not have optical stabilization, which also affects the quality of shooting, and not for the better. Again, going back to the hardware, the Mi6 is powered by the Snapdragon 835, the flagship chip of 2017. It is not only more powerful, but also looks much more interesting in terms of photography, processing images faster.
Be that as it may, the Xiaomi Mi5X is not a bad camera. But she is far from the title of excellent.
autonomy
The desire of the company to present to the public the Xiaomi Mi5X in a thin body forced to abandon the huge batteries that the Redmi lineup is famous for. To achieve a thickness of only 7.3 mm, the manufacturer equipped the model with a 3080 mAh battery, which, of course, does not look very cool. However, let's not forget about the energy-efficient processor, which has already proven its efficiency in many other smartphones. Xiaomi Mi5X is able to go without recharging all day with medium-active use. If you refuse some functions and moderate your ardor, you will be able to squeeze out two days.
Xiaomi Mi5X has acquired Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology, which will fully charge the smartphone battery in about an hour.
Xiaomi Mi5X price, where to buy
The price for Xiaomi Mi5X for standard equipment starts from 16,000 rubles, you can buy it in popular online stores:
Conclusion
So, the result of the Xiaomi Mi5X review. The smartphone is very good, really very good. The novelty looks stylish and modern, while it has good materials and high build quality. In principle, the hardware did not let us down either - not all smartphones come out on flagship chips. Cameras can upset a little, and even then false expectations are more upsetting: the manufacturer painted advantages that, in fact, do not exist. The absence of NFC is also frustrating - the technology is very useful today, it seems that the installation is inexpensive, but for some reason it was removed from Xiaomi Mi5X. Be that as it may, I liked the smartphone. He will definitely find his buyer, and by the number of orders he will be in the tops of online stores.
Pros and cons of Xiaomi Mi5X
What we liked:
What did not like.
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 on 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 is slightly larger 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 front camera 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 a power 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.
The new smartphone Xiaomi Mi 5X, long announced by Chinese developers, has appeared on sale, which immediately attracted the attention of fans of stylish and fairly bright gadgets. The hardware component of the phone does not claim to be the best of its kind, but, nevertheless, the model stands out with a powerful camera, as well as a practical and pleasant design, somewhat reminiscent of another development from Apple. And most importantly, the smartphone is affordable, because it is inexpensive. To understand all its advantages and appreciate it, you should familiarize yourself with its characteristics.
Mi 5X bundle and what it includes
The package bundle of the Xiaomi Mi 5X is standard and does not stand out with anything unusual. A practical, white box with the company's corporate logo holds the smartphone itself in the upper section, and all gadgets and manuals adjacent to it in the lower section.
Kit includes:
- USB Type-C cable.
- Power supply adapter.
- Phone instructions.
- Branded headset in white.
In addition to all of the above, various covers and other accessories that are not included in the sale, and therefore require separate costs, also easily fit the smartphone.
Design
From the front, the gadget is difficult to distinguish from any device on the market in the Redmi line. At the same time, its forms are smoothed out and do not stand out with sharp features, which resembles recent developments from Vivo, but this is explained by the fact that Xiaomi was originally created precisely as a competitor to this manufacturer. The body of the smartphone is almost entirely made of metal and only in some places there is plastic.
The rounded shape at the edges makes it convenient to use the gadget, even taking into account its subtlety - only 7.3 millimeters.
The device is available in three color variations - black, white and pink. The back surface, not counting the two cameras and the logo, is equipped with a fingerprint scanner.
On the one hand, the Mi 5X has the volume down and volume up keys, and on the other, there is one large slot for two SIM cards at once. Hybrid, it also allows you to place one SIM and one SD card. The headset and USB jacks are on the bottom.
Thanks to the powerful Adreno 506 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 650 MHz, the user gets a bright and colorful image.
The screen resolution is quite high - 1920x1080 pixels, which does not allow even the most demanding and discerning buyers to find graininess.
The smartphone, unfortunately, does not have an air gap, but has a double glass with which the user is in contact. It has an oleophobic coating. Adjustable brightness allows you to maximize it up to 600 nits.
The technical side of the gadget
The Snapdragon 625 processor is responsible for speed, performance and power consumption, which, although it is a budget option, is still a powerful and competitive chipset. It is focused more on economical energy consumption, but the Xiaomi Mi 5X smartphone can handle games easily. Only the most demanding ones can cause problems, but they can be easily avoided, for example, by lowering the graphic settings.
The processor at its disposal has 4 GB of RAM, but for smartphones of this level and price category, these are no longer surprising numbers. More notable is the built-in 64 GB, as well as the ability to add another 128 GB with a memory card.
Operating system
The Mi 5X model is driven by the new MIUI 9, making it the first smartphone to take advantage of the latest improvements from the manufacturer. Basic Android 7.1 has several new apps in addition to standard apps – Smart Assistant and Smart app launcher.
The first successfully helps to navigate all the information entered into the smartphone, because it is responsible for quickly searching for bookmarks, notes, and dates in the calendar. The second opens the application, focusing on the image on the screen.
According to the creators of Xiaomi, the device has been improved in terms of animation and detail of shortcuts for various applications, and most importantly, it optimally distributes the resources used, showing a high level of performance.
Gadget cameras
The creators of the device paid great attention to equipping their offspring with cameras, and Mi 5X has a dual 12 + 12 MP module in this regard.
The second camera is an additional lens that doubles the quality of photos and videos. This technology also allows you to work more deeply with colors and create the effect of a blurred background.
However, often compared to the Mi 6 in terms of camera performance, the Mi 5X still loses a little. It is inferior in night shooting due to the aperture, which is only f / 2.2, and the chipset plays a big role, which is weaker and therefore photo processing is a bit slower. But because of this, it is definitely impossible to call the cameras built into the smartphone weak, because the device outperforms many of its leading competitors precisely because of them.
Price for Xiaomi
The cost of the smartphone is fully consistent with its parameters, design and capabilities.
Within Russia, it starts from an amount of 16,000 rubles or more, taking into account the standard configuration, without additional functions and accessories. All Xiaomi Mi 5s are within the framework of this pricing policy. So, for example, Prime, which is second only in diagonal (5.15 inches) and other less important features, costs about 15,500 rubles.
As for the cost in Ukraine, it will be possible to purchase it for an average of 8000 UAH.
The base price abroad ranges from $210 to $230 for a smartphone.
There is one Chinese company that is very fond of making smartphones. She does them often, but not always well. However, this Chinese company is not used to giving in to difficulties. Falling and rising again, learning from her own mistakes, the people's favorite Xiaomi churns out new devices, often differing from each other in one or two indicators. But much more users are confused by the complete confusion and vacillation in the names of smartphones. Here, for example, there is the flagship Mi line and there are middling Redmi ones. Everything is simple and clear. But in obedience to some strange prediction of astrologers, Xiaomi releases the Mi 5x model, which seems to want to be a flagship, but somehow falls short of this role. Why are we offended by Mi 5x and what is good in it today and we'll talk.
Package standard, white. Nothing interesting.
Contents of delivery habitually meager: a USB cable, a charger and a paperclip key.
Design the models are not much different from their colleagues in the price segment: moderately rounded metal case, smoothed frames… Everything seems to be fine, but we have seen such appearance so many times that it has already set the teeth on edge. The dimensions of the smartphone are not the most compact, but due to the small thickness in the hand, it lies well. Xiaomi Mi 5x comes in three colors: black, gold and pink. The dimensions of the model are 155.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm, weight 165 g. There are no complaints about the build quality, but the black frames around the screen plunge into despondency. Xiaomi, 2k17 in the yard, what do you allow yourself at all ?!
At the bottom we see a USB-C port, a multimedia speaker and an audio jack.
On the left is a slot for a SIM card, it is hybrid, so you have to choose between a second SIM card or a memory card.
On the right side are the power and volume buttons.
Above infrared port.
On the front panel above the screen is the front camera and a set of sensors, and below it are three navigation buttons.
The rear panel with camera eyes, a two-section flash and a round fingerprint scanner has become the main source of complaints about the device: it’s too “iPhone-like”
The fingerprint scanner, works quickly and is almost always error-free, just keep your hands clean.
Display 5.5 ″ diagonal is made using IPS technology and has FullHD resolution (1920x1080), which on this diagonal gives a pixel density of 401ppi. It is not bad, has good viewing angles and pleases with natural color reproduction, except that I would like more brightness, and in bright sunlight the screen does not always remain readable. The color temperature is pleasant, but if desired, it can be adjusted in the settings.
Sound in a smartphone, it is typically average: there is no bass, but the volume is in bulk. The main speaker plays cleanly, without wheezing. In the headphones, the sound is of high quality, a dedicated audio chip is responsible for it. In the settings, you can find presets familiar from other Xiaomi products, tailored for various headphone models.
Operating system Android 7.1.2 is hiding here under the proprietary MIUI 8 shell, and an early update to the ninth version is also promised. Nothing new can be said about MIUI, everything is as it was: a lot of themes and animations, a lot of pre-installed branded applications and their own non-standard settings, all this has long been familiar to users. What was unpleasantly surprised was the instability of the Mi5x. In the most seemingly everyday tasks, such as connecting headphones or launching a camera, the smartphone begins to throw out such tricks that you can only wonder how they could not be noticed at the development stage. This is unpleasant, but such instability is a temporary phenomenon and will obviously disappear with the update. Moreover, now you can find a modification of a smartphone with a pure android “on board”, but more on that later.
Performance This model will please anyone who does not consider himself an avid gamer. The Snapdragon 625 processor with 4 GB of RAM does a great job with any daily tasks and not too heavy games. In heavy 3D battles, it is enough to switch to medium graphics settings to make everything work out. At the same time, even after running games or synthetic tests, the smartphone remains cool, which is always nice.
Interfaces Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are in place, NFC is missing, an infrared port is unusual. GPS and GLONAS are used for navigation.
Camera double, in 2017 it is fashionable. The first module is 12 megapixel wide-angle, the second - telephoto - also 12 megapixels. Here it is used for high-quality lossless zoom and for beautiful blurring of the background. The smartphone copes well with the first function, but it does not matter with the second. He blurs the background, but all the time he strives to “bite off” a piece from the subject. Of course, like all software flaws, this problem can be solved in the future.
In other scenarios, the photo quality is not bad: the colors are realistic, there is enough detail, the camera is good at both landscapes and macro photography or general shots.
It is impossible to call this optics fast. F / 2.4 aperture is a rather modest value for the current year. The results of shooting with a lack of lighting are appropriate: the detail drops, the noise grows.
Without getting into the distant jungle, we can say that the camera on the Mi5x shoots better than the average price segment, but it frankly falls short of the flagship one.
Shooting video is carried out as much as possible in 4K, it would not hurt at least some kind of stabilization, but basically the quality of the videos is acceptable.
The 5MP front camera shoots… just shoots. Nothing more can be said about her. The camera is suitable for video communication, but you can’t take highly artistic selfies with it, despite the large number of effects.
Battery there are not enough stars from the sky for 3080 mAh, but this is a standard day of work, if you spend it carefully - one and a half, in numbers, this is about 7 hours of active screen. By and large, this value is standard for modern smartphones, but the lack of fast charging is frustrating: in an hour, the smartphone gains about 60%.
Generally, we, once again, admit that Xiaomi's mid-range smartphones are better than flagships. The Mi5x model turned out to be somewhat faceless, without any zest and intelligible positioning. However, this does not mean that the device is bad. For its price, the smartphone has an excellent camera and sounds good. Again, the processor used has already proved itself well, and showed itself well in this smartphone. The main drawback is that the unstable operation of applications is temporary.
Today we already know that the device became part of the Android One program under the name Xiaomi A1, received a “bare” Android and became available to the world community in this form. Perhaps this was the main mission of our hero, moreover, it explains the indistinct positioning and raw software of the smartphone. If you are interested in the model with MIUI on board, you can easily find it on the market, and at a quite reasonable price - $255.
- USB-C port
- good camera
- good sound in headphones
- slim body
- raw software
- no fast charging
- no NFC
The Chinese smartphone market is rich in a huge number of devices with average performance and affordable price. One of the largest manufacturers - Xiaomi, has released another device in this segment - Xiaomi Mi 5X, a review of which we have prepared for you. Let's see why this, in fact, a secondary smartphone came out, and what is good about it, unlike others.
Price and main characteristics
The start of sales of Xiaomi Mi 5X took place in early August, the device appeared on store shelves at a price of $220.
Specifications:
Display: 5.5”, LTPS FHD 1920*1080 px (401 ppi) ;
processor: Snapdragon 625 (2 GHz) + Adreno 506 video accelerator;
RAM: 4 GB;
internal memory: 64 GB + micro SDXC flash cards up to 128 GB;
camera: main - 12 MP, front - 5 MP;
connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, Dual SIM, LTE, GPS;
battery: 3080 mAh;
dimensions: 7.3 x 155.4 x 75.8;
weight: 165 g
The smartphone was one of the first Xiaomi devices to receive a new version of the proprietary MIUI shell. It is based on the Android 7.0 Nougat operating system and has several interesting innovations such as a smart assistant and a quick application launcher.
Equipment and appearance
Traditionally, the Mi 5X received only the most necessary things in the kit - a charger, a USB Type-C cable, a clip for the SIM card tray and a short user manual. The contents of the box are packed soundly, you can not worry about the integrity of the purchase during delivery.
Mi 5X can hardly be awarded a prize for a unique design, however, the smartphone does not claim it. At first glance, it can even be confused with the popular state employee Redmi 4, all because of the almost identical touch buttons on the front panel. The only thing that slightly distinguishes Mi 5X from other devices is the rear panel. Here, the influence of Huawei Honor 9 is already more noticeable, all thanks to the dual main camera module.
The inconspicuous design of the device is slightly offset by materials that are pleasant to the touch, most of the body of the Mi 5X is made of aluminum. Some users may be confused by the wide bezels around the screen, however, they are invisible in the black version of the smartphone. In addition to it, gold and pink colors are also available to customers.
5.5-inch FullHD display on the front panel is covered with 2.5D glass. Just below are three touch-sensitive navigation buttons. The area above the screen is occupied by a 5-megapixel front camera, a speaker and several sensors.
On the top end there is a small peephole for the infrared port.
At the bottom is a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port and multimedia speaker.
The screen activation button and the volume rocker remained in their traditional place on the right.
The left side is occupied by a combined slot for SIM-cards.
The dual camera and fingerprint scanner can be found on the back of the smartphone. Here, the appearance of the Mi 5X is slightly spoiled by inserts at the top and bottom, which are especially striking in the light color options of the gadget.
In general, Mi 5X is clearly not for fans of bright and original smartphones. The device also cannot boast of a high level of convenience, due to its large size it is difficult to operate it with one hand. The shortcomings are compensated by the high build quality of the device, in terms of which it is almost impossible to find fault with the Mi 5X.
Screen
The smartphone received a 5.5-inch screen with a fairly high-quality LTPS-matrix. It has FullHD resolution (1920*1080 pixels) with a pixel density of 401 units per inch - a standard figure for most mid-price Xiaomi.
The display boasts a fairly large margin of brightness of 450 nits. Reading information from the screen is very convenient in almost any light. For avid e-book lovers, there is a special mode that reduces eye strain while reading. In the settings, you can adjust the schedule for turning on this mode.
Performance
The choice of developers fell on the eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. Its maximum frequency reaches 2.0 GHz, and the chipset itself was introduced in early 2016 and has rather mediocre characteristics, besides, the updated 635 dragon was recently released. Most likely, the use of a somewhat outdated platform is associated with attempts to reduce the cost of the smartphone's selling price.
However, paired with 4 GB of RAM, Snapdragon 625 shows pretty good results. For everyday use, the points scored in Antutu are quite enough, but some games will only run at the minimum graphics settings. The video accelerator Adreno 506 is responsible for its processing.
To store user data allocated 64 GB of permanent memory on the built-in drive. On sale you can also find a 32 GB version of the Mi 5X.
Camera
During the announcement, Xiaomi mentioned that the Mi5X will receive two main Omnivision photosensors. They were OV13880 and OV12A10 with equivalent focal lengths of 50 and 26 mm. A similar configuration has already shown good results in the flagship Mi6.
Mi 5X is definitely not the best smartphone on the market when it comes to cameras. It has its drawbacks - "blurring" faces in portrait shots, low detail at dusk and rare autofocus errors. Nevertheless, the device shows a fairly good result, close in its level to the same Mi6. With finer manual adjustment of the image, you can get quite high-quality photos.
With video shooting, things are a little worse, here the difference in the quality level of the Mi 5X and Mi6 matrices is already striking. Another drawback is the lack of optical stabilization.
Video example:
The front 5-megapixel camera shoots quite well, but with the use of aggressive auto-correction algorithms for facial skin. You can turn them off in the settings.
speaker, sound quality
The multimedia speaker on the bottom of the device is very loud, with excellent frequency range. It is almost impossible to miss an incoming call at maximum volume.
The spoken speaker also boasts high quality. Among the minuses, one could single out the lack of a branded headset, but this is already a complaint about the configuration of the smartphone itself.
Battery
The gadget got a built-in battery with a capacity of 3080 mAh. There is no fast charging option, however, it will not be needed. In conjunction with an energy-efficient processor, Mi 5X will definitely last at least one day in active load mode.
With moderate use, the battery will last two full days on a single charge. The duration of battery life also depends on the firmware, there are rumors on the net that the global version "lives" a few hours less than the Asian version with a similar load.
Communication and Internet
On the issue of mobile Internet and the quality of cellular reception, there are no complaints about Mi 5X. The gadget quickly loads web pages and works without problems in the coverage area of Russian mobile operators.
The smartphone also has a GPS module that correctly identifies satellites in just a few seconds. There is Bluetooth 4.2.
Xiaomi Mi 5X video review
Competitors, conclusion
- Good body build
- Quality camera;
- Bright display;
- Good autonomy.
- Discreet design;
- No fast charging.
The Mi 5X has so many borrowed parts from other company smartphones that it is almost impossible to single out something unique in it. Starting from the design and ending with the technical characteristics, this device shows average results, nothing more. The device is suitable for those who wish to purchase an inexpensive and reliable smartphone for daily use.
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