Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus Announced: Price, Specifications, and More

At an event in Beijing event on Tuesday, Xiaomi launched the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus smartphones. The Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus feature a metal unibody design, with the bigger Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus packing a dual rear camera setup, a strategy adopted by Apple with the latest iPhone models. The new Xiaomi smartphones are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 SoC.

The Xiaomi Mi 5s 3GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant is priced at CNY 1,999 (roughly Rs. 20,000), while the 4GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant is priced CNY 2,299 (roughly Rs. 22,900). The Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant on the other hand has been priced at CNY 2,299 (roughly Rs. 22,900), while the 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant has been priced at CNY 2,599 (roughly Rs. 26,000). Both smartphones will be available in four colour variants - Gold, Rose Gold, Silver, and White. Both the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus will go on sale from Thursday via flash sales on JD.com and Mi.com.

The Xiaomi Mi 5s features a 5.15-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display with NTSC 95 percent colour gamut and a brightness of 600 nits. The company claims the display bears 16 ultra-bright LED lights to help further boost brightness. The Mi 5s Plus on the other hand features a 5.7-inch display with the same resolution, but a brightness of 550 nits, and a NTSC 94 percent colour gamut.

The Mi 5s Plus (seen below) bears a dual rear camera setup, with two 13-megapixel sensors - one for colour, and the other for black and white. The Mi 5s on the other hand bears a single 12-megapixel rear camera, with Sony IMX 378 sensor and an f/2.0 aperture. Both smartphones support PDAF autofocus, and both bear a 4-megapixel front-facing camera with 2-micron pixels and an f/2.0 aperture. Other differences between the smartphones include the clock speed of the processor. While the Mi 5s bears a 2.15GHz Snapdragon 821 SoC, the Mi 5s Plus bears a 2.35GHz Snapdragon 821 SoC.

The Mi 5s bears an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on its home button. Placed under glass, the sensor will not get damaged with use, however, Xiaomi claims it offers the same level of accuracy and speed as regular planar fingerprint sensors. The Mi 5s Plus on the other hand has a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel.

Connectivity options on board include 4G LTE connectivity with 3x carrier aggregation support, NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v4.2, and GPS/ A-GPS. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, barometer, and magnetometer.