In what has to be one of the more exciting launches for the Chinese company, Xiaomi has launched the new Mi 5 during an event in Barcelona, Spain. Held during Mobile World Congress in Spain, the event that sees Samsung, Sony and everyone else releasing their new flagship smartphones. In a move that probably signals as much an intention to go global as anything else, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has been officially announced in Europe. Of course, the company also held an event in Beijing as well, naturally. A lot has changed in the Mi 5, especially in terms of looks and overall appearance. We’ve been covering the device for some time now, we’ll be taking a closer look at the camera hardware inside of the Mi 5.
Xiaomi is doing something a little different with the Mi 5, and the front-facing camera features a 4-megapixel sensor. This features pixels that are 2um in size, which should mean that despite the resolution, these photos take in a hell of a lot more detail than previous devices. Larger pixels make for more detail, and where selfie shots are concerned, these will definitely have more detail in them. Around the back, things are a little more familiar and feature a 16-megapixel sensor from Sony, the IMX298, to be specific. This is the same sensor used inside of the Huawei Mate 8 and it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Where the Mi 5 is concerned though, this features 4K video recording, 4-axis optical image stabilization and PDAF. That last addition should make a big improvement to autofocusing speeds Phase Detection Autofocus (or PDAF) is the same sort of technology used in dSLRs and high-end mirrorless cameras. Everything is topped off with a dual-LED flash which should deliver a more natural flash when things get dark. There’s also DTI pixel-to-pixel isolation, which should prevent light leak in images and stop colors running into each other.
We’ll be able to put the Mi 5’s new camera setup through its paces pretty soon, hopefully. For now though, there’s a lot to look over where the Mi 5 is concerned, and we’ll have more on the camera as soon we get our hands on one for review. If the camera samples we achieved in our Mi Note Pro review are anything to go by however, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
