After revealing its new affordable Redmi lineup, the next Xiaomi device will be a flagship model. The long-awaited Mi 5 was said to be launched after Chinese New Year and now they have locked a date for its official announcement in Beijing.
According to its official post on Weibo, the Mi 5 will be launched on 24th February at 2:00PM. For the die hard Mi Fans in China, Xiaomi will be opening ticket sales beginning this Friday, 29th January from the Mi Store app.
In terms of models, we could be seeing up to 4 different variants of the Mi 5. The base model could start from 2,199CNY (about RM1,435) and it goes all the way up to 3,099 (about RM2,022). As speculated earlier, Xiaomi will be playing around with 2 different back materials for the Mi 5. It is also expected to run on the latest Snapdragon 820 precessor and it will get a fingerprint scanner as well. The purported Mi 5 variants are as follows:
Metal Design – 3GB RAM + 32GB Storage – 2,199 (RM1,435)
Metal Design – 4GB RAM + 64GB Storage – 2,599 (RM1,695)
Glass Design – 2K Display + 4GB RAM + 32GB Storage – 2,799 (RM1,826)
Glass Design – 2K Display + 4GB RAM + 64GB Storage – 3,099 (RM2,022)
It is also worth pointing out that Xiaomi’s launch is happening while MWC 2016 is taking place at Barcelona. With Xiaomi missing its sales target for 2015, we expect the Chinese brand to expand to more markets with more competitive devices for 2016. While we didn’t really get the Mi 4 due to 4G support limitation, hopefully, the new one would be a compelling flagship for 2016.
UPDATE: Hugo Barra has tweeted that the Mi 5 will be previewed at MWC 2016. This is Xiaomi’s first showing at the annual international mobile event.
