Categories: News

Xiaomi Mi 5 passes SIRIM. Malaysian launch soon?

If you’re looking for a high-end flagship with bargain price, it looks like Xiaomi could be bringing its Mi 5 smartphone to Malaysia soon. After its global debut during MWC 2016, the flagship smartphone had gone on sale in China and the folks in India will be getting it sometime next month.

Now back in Malaysia a new Xiaomi device has just gotten the SIRIM greenlight carrying the model number 2015105 and it is newer than the Redmi Note 3. Could this be the Mi 5?

Looking at the listing, the said device supports dual-SIMs, 4G LTE and faster 802.11 ac WiFi. The biggest indication that this would be the Mi 5 is that it supports NFC, a feature that was absent after the Xiaomi Mi 3.

To recap on the specs, it gets a 5.15″ Full HD display and it runs on a Snapdragon 820 processor that’s clocked at 1.8GHz or 2.15GHz depending on variant and with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. Performance should be top notch as it uses a faster LPDDR4 RAM and UFS 2.0 flash storage, which are similar to Samsung’s recent flagships.

In terms of design it looks like the Mi Note as it gets a 3D curved glass back but this time it curves smoothly into the metal frame. For imaging, it gets a 16MP f/2.0 Sony IMX298 camera with 4-axis optical image stabilisation. Meanwhile, the front retains the same 4MP “Ultrapixel” from the Mi Note for selfies. For the first time for a Xiaomi, it features a front mounted fingerprint scanner and they have managed to do so while maintain a compact front appearance. Keeping the lights on is a 3,000mAh non-removable battery and it charges up quickly with a reversible USB Type C port.

In China the Mi 5 is priced from 1,999 CNY (about RM1,295) for the base 3GB RAM + 32GB storage model and it goes all the way up to 2,699 CNY (about RM1,750) for its 4GB RAM + 128GB storage variant with a 3D ceramic back. The question is when is it coming? We feel that Xiaomi will first release the international Redmi Note 3 in Malaysia next month and we probably need to wait a couple of months for the Mi 5 to arrive.

Thanks @Piratz for the tip!