2016 proved to be a lucky year for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi. Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone selling company in Indian market. They have different series of phones like Mi series, Note series, Redmi series. Xiaomi Mi5C is the newest member of the Xiaomi Mi series.
Design and Display
Xiaomi Mi 5C is another sibling of the existing Xiaomi Mi5 series, which consist of Xiaomi Mi5, Xiaomi Mi5S, Xiaomi Mi5 S Plus. Xiaomi Mi5C is expected to be the cheapest device of Mi series. Xiaomi Mi5C flaunts a full metallic body with round edges. Xiaomi Mi5C is expected to come in three colours: Rose Gold, Gold, and Black.
Xiaomi Mi 5C features a 5.5 inches (13.97 cm) display with Full High Definition display (FHD). It has a pixel density of 401pixels per inch and a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The screen size is bigger than that of other Mi siblings like Mi5 and Mi5s. The pixel density is amazing with 401 PPI. It uses IPS LCD type display and is protected by a 2.5D glass protection. The display quality is overall nice.
The area above the display has the 8 MP camera and the proximity sensor next to it. This device lacks front LED flash. The area below the display features a physical home button which is a new addition to the Mi phones. This home button also acts as a fingerprint sensor. There are two capacitive keys with back key on the right side and recent apps on left side. The volume and power buttons are present on the right side. As the back cover of this device is non-removable, the SIM Tray is located outside the device. There is a dual SIM tray on the left side of the device. The memory of the device is non-expandable hence no memory card slot/tray. It supports 3.5 mm jack. The tray is easily ejectable with the help of a metal pin. It supports USB type C port.
On the back side, there is a 12 MP primary camera and dual colour LED flash next to it, present at the top left the corner. The back is non-removable and so is the battery.
Performance:
Xiaomi Mi 5C is expected to be powered by Quad-core 2.15 GHz, Kryo + 1.6 GHz, Dual core, Kryo chipset. It runs on 3GB RAM and uses Snapdragon 820 processor. Graphics are handled by Adreno 530 GPU. As per the expected specifications, Xiaomi Mi5C is a powerful device and will run smoothly.
Software:
Xiaomi Mi 5C will run on the Android marshmallow (6.0) enhanced with its own UI MIUI 8 on top. Since it is a new device, it is expected to get a NOUGAT update soon. The UI is similar to all Xiaomi phones. The app drawer is absent like all Xiaomi phones, and you can disable some preinstalled apps to free the RAM. It also has dual space mode and reading mode.
Camera:
Xiaomi Mi 5C is equipped with good cameras on both the sides. The Xiaomi Mi 5C has a 12MP rear-facing camera with dual-colour LED flash. This phone features usual photo enhancing modes like exposure compensation, ISO control, autofocus, Geo-tagging, HDR, face detection, panorama, etc. There is no laser autofocus in this phone. It uses CMOS image sensor. The images have the maximum resolution of 4000 *3000 pixels. You can record videos at 1 920×1080 @ 30 fps with this phone.
The front camera, on the other hand, is also good. It is an 8MP front camera. There is no LED flash for the front camera.
Storage:
Xiaomi Mi 5C has an internal memory of 64 GB which is good. But the problem is that the memory is not- expandable, and you are stuck with 64 GB.
Battery:
Xiaomi Mi 5C is powered by a 3,500mAh Li-polymer nonremovable battery. This phone doesn’t support fast charging but uses USB TYPE C port.
Connectivity:
Xiaomi Mi 5C is a dual SIM Phone which supports 4G in only one SIM. The second SIM only supports 2G GSM 1800 / 1900 / 850 / 900 MHz. There are usual connectivity features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (4.1), GPS with A- GPS. It doesn’t support NFC and MicroUSB port. There are usual sensors like Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer
Price:
The Xiaomi Mi 5C price in India has not been announced yet, though it is expected to be a budget-friendly phone.
The verdict:
Xiaomi Mi 5C is expected to be in the segment of budget smartphones. It flaunts a lot of specifications. With 3 GB RAM and Snapdragon processor, the performance is expected to be decent on this phone. The only real drawbacks are the non-removable battery and non-expandable memory. If you want more internal memory, this will be a problem for you. Also, with the currently rumoured specifications, it doesn’t have fast charging which is a must-have featured these days.