Xiaomi’s Mi5 flagship looks like one of the best phones on the market

Xiaomi Mi5. Image by Xiaomi.

Xiaomi today announced the launch of the Mi5, the company’s latest flagship smartphone. It has been nearly 18 months since the roll-out of the Mi4, and it looks like Xiaomi didn’t let that time go to waste.

Xiaomi Mi5 phones. Image by Xiaomi

The phone was unveiled this afternoon by CEO Lei Jun in Beijing. For the first time, Xiaomi’s launch was an international affair, with VP Hugo Barra also slated to unveil the device at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona one hour after the Chinese release.

Xiaomi’s latest boasts a 5.15-inch screen, a fingerprint reader built into the home button, and a body made from “3D ceramic glass.” The phone weighs just 129 grams, and is loaded with up to 4GB of RAM and 128 gigs of storage.

It runs on a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor, as well as an Adreno 530 GPU that the company says will increase the phone’s performance by 40 percent, while dropping power consumption.

Additionally, the phone sports an extra-bright screen and has support for NFC. It has a 3000mAh battery, and supports a “quick charge” feature that Xiaomi says can get 2.5 hours of calling from just five minutes of being plugged in.

Xiaomi’s latest, compared to Apple and Samsung devices. Image via Xiaomi.

The company is also particularly proud of its new flagship’s camera, and has posted images comparing its results to the iPhone’s. (Although, keep in mind that these are PR images, and should be taken with a few grains of salt.)

iPhone 6S Plus image on left, Xiaomi Mi5 on right. Image by Xiaomi

The Mi5 will retail for US$306 for the lowest-end model (3GB RAM, 32GB storage) and US$413 for the highest-end model (4GB RAM, 128GB storage). There are also a 64GB model that will sell for US$352. Sales start on March 1.

Too late?