Xiaomi’s Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus launched in China

Riding on the success of the well-received Mi 5 smartphone, Xiaomi has launched its 2016 flagship smartphones Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus, in China. Both the smartphones will go on sale in China from tomorrow on Xiaomi’s site as well as on JD.com.

Discarding the glass and metal style of the Mi 5, Xiaomi’s Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus come with an all-metal unibody design. The highlight of Mi 5s Plus is its dual rear camera setup, and also pressure-sensitive display, which works like Apple’s 3D Touch.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor, and clocked at 2.15GHz, Mi 5s comes with a 13-megapixel camera on the back with significantly larger 1/2.3-inch Sony CMOS sensor and a f/2.0 aperture. It has a 4-megapixel selfie camera. On the front side, there is a seamlessly integrated fingerprint sensor. Xiaomi says that it can recognize a 3D map of the fingerprint through ultrasonic waves. Thus, there is no need for a separate button. The phone is powered by a 3,200mAh battery.

With a 5.15-inch Full HD display, Mi 5s is providing two memory options, one with 3GB RAM with 64GB storage, and another with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Coming to Mi 5s Plus, it utilizes the same processor as of Mi 5s, the Snapdragon 821. However, the clock speed is faster — 2.35GHz, instead of 2.15GHz.

It comes with bigger screen size, 5.7-inch and 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant; it also comes with a 6GB RAM and 128GB storage version.

The Mi 5s will be available in China for￥1999 ($300) for the 64GB version and ￥2299 ($345) for the 128GB version.

The Mi 5s Plus is priced at ￥2299 ($344) for the 64GB variant, while the 128GB variant costs ￥2599 ($389).

While the camera specs are same as of Mi 5s, Xiaomi has included a dual camera on the back of the Plus variant. One sensor captures black and white photos while the other sensor captures color photos. The company claims this move will result in better image quality, with much less noise.

Though there is no information about the global availability of the phones, let's hope for an India launch soon.