Meet Barra's baby: Xiaomi arrives with a splash

Xiaomi is heading West, and its new Mi 5 flagship brings Galaxy quality for £250 to Western markets this Spring. The Mi 5 shows a major investment in design - as the company told us at tedious length in Barcelona today. “Ceramic is up to 8H on the Mohs scale,” Xiaomi phone chief Hugo Barra told us, extolling the virtues of …

[2460 Something]

on the up?

The Chinese phone quality is certainly improving year on year and assuming this also marks up on performance reasonably well it will be quite a compelling alternative for many android users. I cannot really see it pulling in many current iphone users though as most people who buy the top end phones do so as a luxury and still prefer to purchase them because that's what they like. Add to that that they are already invested in that operating system and it's associated market-places makes switching from one platform to the other less a consideration about the phone, and more about being willing to walk away from the investment in applications and games that would cost to replace.

[Dave 126]

Re: on the up?

Performance-wise, one assumes that this will be as quick as any other Snapdragon 820-based phone, though I note the slides refer to two different clock speeds, 1.8 and 2.1 GHz. The 4GB RAM can't hurt, either - that's all my laptop has, and in five years I've only wanted for more on a couple of occasions.

**

Apps aren't the only investment people make in iPhones - there are also bits of hardware, either from 3rd parties such as headphones or from Apple like the Apple TV, that don't work as well with Android devices. However, many of my iPhone/iPad using mates use them in conjunction with Chromecasts and Playstations rather than Apple TVs or whatever. So, it's hard to call. The price difference between a Chinese Android phone and an iPhone buys a lot of apps and peripherals.

[Anonymous Blowhard]

Re: on the up?

"The price difference between a Chinese Android phone and an iPhone buys a lot of apps and peripherals."

Or it buys another phone, or a couple of years SIM only connection, or whatever; the main thing is that the difference is big enough to motivate people into doing something else.

[Triggerfish]

Re: on the up?

But thats the same issue with people moving from iphone to android the lock in. I'd say it at the beggining might start worrying the high end manufacturers in Android first, and the knock on effect with enough sales and market penetration might be people wondering why they are paying £500 more for something with a label, thats when it may hit Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

With all the "spying"

that's going on, perhaps Mi5 wasn't the best name...

[Dave 126]

Re: With all the "spying"

Hehe, I think the same when I see the fifth instalment of the Mission Impossible film franchise.

There was a Xiaomi Mi4, so I'm assuming quadraphobia was just a Japanese thing (companies like Panasonic would often have a MK3 product followed immediately by a MK5 successor. )

[g e]

Re: With all the "spying"

Wait till the next truly international version.. MI6 ;o)

[Triggerfish]

Re: With all the "spying"

It's the markets outside Europe thats really going to make a difference as well, £500 quid difference in parts of SEA is really a lot with the cost of living being so cheap.

[Ken 16]

Re: With all the "spying"

I just remembered Charles Stross comment in the Atrocity Archives about MI5 renaming internally to DI5 in the early 80's so that freedom of information requests get mis-directed to the maintenance department (renamed MI5) who can honestly state that they're holding no information on the inquirer.

[Shane McCarrick]

Just one question- where/how do I buy one of these babies?

This quality at this price point- blows even the likes of the One Plus X etc out of the water.

[Triggerfish]

@Shane McCarrick

I have seen good reports of Geekbuying as a place to reliably purchase these sort of goods. The tablet range there looks good as well.

TBH just check the range of tablets and phones made by manufacturers you never hear about, there is quite a lot.

[Anonymous Coward]

Xiaomi always sells directly via their website. Once officially launched in Europe it should be the exact same thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

only

at 4 times the price...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an early adopter

Bought a Xiaomi REDMI 1S way back in 2014 online (ebay I think) before they went large internationally.

I always liked it, but I like it even more now after successfully upgrading it from the Chinese version Android OS (sometimes annoying) to Android 4.4.4 (Global version) this week. Unless you are a dedicated phone flash hacker, it is better to buy the international version. Remember that the Chinese market was so big whem Xiaomi came on the scene (over 35 % of the global market) they hardly cared about Western preferences (this is finally changing). They then quickly started to outsell Apple and Samsung in their home market.

The Xiaomi specs are indeed fabulous for the price. Back then, my REDMI cost 149 USD. With 1 G of Ram, 4 G of storage and 1.6 g quad-core processor (qualcomm) it was a serious Android contender. Anything else at that price was "heap steaming cow dung".

As far as buying goes, they are playing the One Plus subscriber game, check http://mi5xiaomi.com/ for info. It doesn't matter, I am sure it will still be a nice phone, based on past performance. If I even wanted a new one, I would definitely be looking at this puppy.

You can also look in grey markets like Ebay. Try to but it with the Global version of the OS or else spend time on forums learning how to flash it so you can stop your keyboard from suddenly shifting into Mandarin. Other than that, nice hardware.

Catchy name too, maybe they'll bring out an NSA model soon.

[MrRimmerSIR!]

Beware the 4G

According to this listing, it won't support all of the 4G frequencies implemented in Europe (and the UK). It's a common problem with China-centric phones.

[Charles 9]

Re: Beware the 4G

What bands are you talking about? Last I checked, bands I, III, & VII were the chief international bands, and it supports all three.

[tiggity]

Smooth

313 minutes of polishing - is this the Oz prison use model?

Do they dp a non polished model that actually has a reasonable coefficient of friction?

I hate phones that are so slippy that they can slide over a metre across a smooth table surface and onto the floor (Cat met the super slippy glass backed original Google Nexus 4 & gave it a gentle push!) & so a case is essential for "friction free" phones, rather defeating any aesthetic value of the phone

[Kristian Walsh]

Re: Smooth

For a hand-held device, a highly-polished, gloss finish offers better grip than a matt finish does. Against fabrics, the opposite is generally true.

I've seen the same thing as you, but only with the toughened glass used for phone screens. I usually leave my phone face-down when I'm in company, but my current device (Lumia 930) has such a slippery screen that I've seen it slowly slide off the arm of a sofa more than once, and now it stays face-up afterwards, if I have to take it out of my pocket for any reason.

[Paul Shirley]

Re: Smooth

The bit I hate is when they slide off your hand unless grabbed by the edges, making shiny back large screen devices firmly 2 handed use only. Putting a grippy case or back cover on usually bloats them too much as well, with the notable exception of my G4's leather back (which isn't really gripping enough).

Why this obsession with shininess over ergonomics in phones?

[johnfbw]

Security Optional

With all the problems with governments hacking into phones these days (iPhone and FBI this week) what assurances do we have the Chinese haven't pre-backed holes in their phones?

[Triggerfish]

Re: Security Optional

I think nowadays if you check the companies origin country, and also the manufacturing country you can work on the assumption they have both tried it. The best you can hope for is one of them cancels the others backdoor attempts, spy v spy style.

[Gordon 10]

Re: Security Optional

Or that you have less to lose to Far Eastern spying than 5 eyes spying.

At least I have a choice to make with Far Eastern spying by not buying their products. No such choice with my own and allied governments.

[Triggerfish]

Re: Security Optional

That's a point actually considering the FUD, vague incompetence, and need to make an example attitude of security services round the world, maybe having a foreign goverment spy on you is safer than your own. After all it's harder for China to send the Old Bill or a SWAT team through your door if you do not live there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Security Optional

You can always install a Cyanogen build...

[Anonymous Coward]

removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

if so, then MAYBE.

as in "MAYBE I'll consider thinking about replacing my 5 year old mobile which still works fine thankyouverymuch".

p.s. and please, do invest in some BASIC translation services for your interface, IF you want my money. And oh, you might want to drop the price by half. Then... well, see the above MAYBE.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

Haha, yeah, whatever. Until then, they'll just keep making phones that people want at prices they can make a living on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

yeah, gimmy a shiny for half price of an iphone and I'll bend over...

[Triggerfish]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

Half, blimey don't want much do we?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

Moon on a stick?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

Fairphone 2 ? Though a bit expensive

https://www.fairphone.com/phone/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: removable battery? Sd slot? rootable?

All Xiaomi (all MIUI OS) phones are rootable.

I can possibly blame this guy for removing the sd support, as suddenly (now he is gone) Samsung have brought them back - and Xiaomi have dropped them from much of their range.

I have a Xiaomi Note, it is a great phone, that still gets updates to the MIUI OS, even though they are now selling the Note 3; and yes, there have been Mi1, Mi2, Mi3 and Mi4 phones already, so Mi5 is not a surprise.

The only real downer for many people will be that MIUI OS is STILL based on KitKat 4.4.2, although rumours of - and unofficial ports of - Lollipop and Marshmallow are out there.

I havent checked out the full specs for the phone yet on the MIUI forums, sometimes the wrong info gets given out on precise specs; GSMArena have been wrong plenty of times; but I wouild expect the 4G to work on most of the UK networks; some of the older phones dont do 800Mhz ( used by O2 mostly), but other recent launches HAVE included it.

[jason 7]

Nice looking phone.

To be honest though I'd be quite happy with a revised updated Nexus 4 sized phone. Bit more ram, 2500mAh battery, tweak up the camera and another 300Mhz on the CPUs.

[Nigel 11]

Re: Nice looking phone.

If I need a new phone next week it will be a Google Nexus. I am completely fed up with apps that I don't want and cannot get rid of, and of depending on a vendor who no longer makes my particular model of phone for its security updates. They have no incentive to produce updates in a timely manner, if at all. Worse, they have a positive incentive not to. Make the phone as obsolete as possible as soon as possible so the muggles buy another new one. Glueing the battery into the phone and hoping(*) it fails a few months after the warranty runs out is another form of the same.

Some time in the hopefully near future I may switch to a phone that runs Cyanogen or some other truly open OS so I'm not dependant on any single company for updates. Then I might even be able to keep the exact same familiar UI after my obsolete phone finally breaks.

Sorry, Xiaomi. It looks very pretty but I suspect you want me to throw it away as soon as the warranty has run out. Once bitten and all that ....

(*) or engineering it to fail? How can we tell?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nice looking phone.

Read my post, Xiaomi are trying VERY hard to take over the market, build quality is excellent, and OS updates are regular; you can also opt for the Beta or Developer update program.

Beta updates come out every week, and developers get them nightly.

If you are brave, you can have FULL control over what is installed on your phone - meaning you can delete anything you want - including important parts of the OS if you arent careful.

The only thing I dont like about Xiaomi is the REALLY slow MIUI forum website; it is slow to load, slow to navigate and sluggish to respond to anything; downloading a different ROM can be a pain, especially once you have gotten used to a fibre internet connection.

[Nigel 11]

Re: Nice looking phone.

I did read your post. As long as Xiaomi are actively marketing this model of phone everything will be great. My jaundiced opinion concerns afterwards, and is not specific to Xiaomi.

Xiaomi will at some future date launch a new model and cease manufacturing this one. Where are the cast iron legally binding promises about software support and security updates 1,3,5,10 years after this happens? (And promises concerning the battery life, since it's not replaceable? )

If there are any such, please let us know. Any such really will set them apart from the crowd.

Of course they may go bust or get taken over by Microsoft, which is even worse for future security updates.

Maybe I'm unusual in not wanting to throw away a perfectly good piece of hardware because the manufacturer has deemed it obsolete and stopped maintaining the software, or because the manufacturer no longer exists, or because the battery cannot be replaced. Also in not thinking "new shiny" == "good" and in not being happy to throw out everything I have learned about the apps and UI on my old phone and having to learn all over again on my new one. I run Linux on an "obsolete" (but plenty fast enough) PC at home, and would like to run Linux on a phone if a sufficient ecology of linux-able phone hardware and linux-phone distributions ever arises. Until then, next phone will be all-Google, as the least bad option.