You may or may not have seen our written review of the Xiaomi Mi 5 already, but how does it stand up to scrutiny after 3 months on the market? We’ve been running the Official MIUI 7 Chinese ROM on our Mi 5 since we received it in mid March, and were finally able to drop an international version of MIUI 7 on the phone when it got re-released in late May. Xiaomi seems to have had a tougher time with the Mi 5’s global release than with previous models, but that doesn’t mean it is any lesser of a phone because of it.
In fact the Mi 5 is one of the finest phones Xiaomi has ever released, if not the absolute best ever, and the sales of the phone in China are sure reflecting that truth. We thought pretty highly of it too, but like anything there are always positives and negatives to any device on the market. This one is easily the least expensive of all Snapdragon 820 powered devices, and its build quality doesn’t seem to have suffered from the price point either.
The real crux of the decision here doesn’t rely on the hardware or price by any means, it relies completely on the software experience. MIUI has been loved for years by millions, but that doesn’t mean it will appeal to everyone. Full of features and dripping to the brim with options, MIUI is a powerhouse by any standard, but it drastically changes the way you’re used to using Android on a deep system level. The MIUI team is the absolute best when it comes to updates though, and you’ll find that weekly releases of bug fixes and feature updates are a normal thing. They’re also one of the most responsive when it comes to feedback and feature requests too, constantly adding more and more to MIUI all the time.
The upcoming MIUI 8 is also set to revise certain things in the UI that have needed to be changed for a long time, and of course add new features that we certainly can’t live without nowadays. Is this the phone for you? Find out in our video below!