Xiaomi’s press conference yesterday was amongst the most anticipated events at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Following the lead of LG and Samsung, Xiaomi has also introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Mi 5. This handset resembles the MI Note in many ways, but for the first time ever one of Xiaomi’s handsets sports a physical home button below the display. The device also offers high-end specs, and an affordable price point, but Xiaomi still has not plans to launch it globally.
That being said, we’ve recently received an e-mail from one of Xiaomi’s partners, Vidyo. For those of you who don’t know, Vidyo is video collaboration company which has received plenty of news coverage this year. The company has actually been chosen by Bloomberg earlier this year, and now they’ve announced a partnership with Xiaomi. The Mi Video Call app you’ll find installed on the Xiaomi Mi 5 (available on Android and iOS devices soon), is actually powered by Vidyo’s technology. This app, as its name says, is used for multipoint video communication, and the company seems quite proud of their product. “Vidyo delivers the best video communication experience over mobile and it is exciting to have been selected by Xiaomi, which has disrupted the mobile market with its growth and ability to bring incredibly-priced, high-quality products to market. Xiaomi has leveraged the Vidyo platform to bring forth a consumer-centric app that will transform how people around the world communicate and redefine what’s possible in mobile collaboration,” said Eran Westman, CEO at Vidyo.
The Mi Video Call app lets you text, voice and video chat with your contacts, all you need is an internet connection and you’re good to go. The service is, of course, completely free, says Vidyo. That being said, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is actually one of the highest-end phones you can purchase today, though its display is not QHD as some users have anticipated, others will see this as a benefit in a way, for both battery and performance. This handset is fueled by the Snapdragon 820, while it packs 3GB / 4GB of RAM and ships with Andriod 6.0 Marshmallow pre-installed, with Xiaomi’s MIUI 7 OS on top of it. In case you’d like to take a look at the phone’s in-depth spec sheet, click here.