Xiaomi is giving Apple and Samsung a run for their money

Xiaomi has officially announced the Mi 5, its latest flagship device, at events in Beijing and Barcelona today. The Mi 5 follows the Mi 4 launched 18 months ago. It is a 5.15-inch smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor, up to 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, a 3,000mAh battery, and what Xiaomi is calling a “3D ceramic” body. It has a similar design language to last year’s Mi Note and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5, with a metal frame, front and rear glass panels, and a fingerprint sensor integrated into the home button. The Mi 5’s camera is a 16-megapixel unit with four-axis optical image stabilization. The Mi 5 runs Xiaomi’s MIUI 7 interface on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and comes with weekly software updates from Xiaomi’s community. It’s the first phone that ships with Xiaomi’s Mi Video Calling app, a new cross platform video chat app that includes live video effects and multitasking modes. The phone will be available starting on March 1st and will be priced at $354 (2,600RMB) for the high-end 128GB model and $262 (1,999RMB) for the entry-level 32GB version, keeping in line with Xiaomi’s tradition of offering a lot of specs for a low price. The Mi 5 will come in black, white, and gold color options. It will come to China first, followed by India and other markets Xiaomi sells its devices in.