Xiaomi's India head confirms Mi5 launch on February 24

fter months of speculation, Xiaomi has finally confirmed that their flagship phone for the year, the Mi5 will be launched on February 24. The company confirmed this by tweeting about it from its twitter handle. Xiaomi VP, Hugo Barra and Xiaomi India head, Manu Jain also posted the same teaser image from their respective twitter handles. The shared image states “All you ever imagined, and more” with a big “5” written in the middle. Xiaomi is also hosting a contest in which, contestants have to describe, what they expect from the Mi5 and why they should be chosen?. 10 lucky winner will be taken to Beijing to witness the launch event of the phone.

The Xiaomi Mi5 smartphone has been in the news for more than a year now. Earlier in 2015, it was suggested that the phone will launch with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. However, Xiaomi didn't launch the phone last year. The company took its time and now the upcoming phone is due for launch on February 24th. While specifications of the phone have been under constant speculation, rumours suggest that, it is more than likely that the phone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC. This year, most flagship smartphones are expected to be powered by this SoC only.

Apart from the obvious SoC choice, the phone is supposed to have a 5.2-inch display. There are rumours that the display of the Mi5 will offer a 2K or QHD resolution. It may have 4GB of RAM and rumours suggest that we might get the same storage options as we got the last time, i.e. 16GB and 64GB. In the camera department, the phone is expected to offer a 16MP camera sensor at the back. We are still not sure, whether it will have features like OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and laser autofocus. The front-facing camera is supposed to feature an 8MP sensor. Going by early renders, and rumours till now, the phone is believed to come with a fingerprint sensor and a metal frame as well. The lower variant of the Xiaomi Mi5 is expected to be priced around the RMB 2200 (Rs. 22,750 approximately) and prices can go upto RMB 3100 (Rs. 22,750 approximately)

Besides the Mi5, Xiaomi is all set to launch the Redmi Note 3 in India. This will be a budget phone from the company. Xiaomi recently launched the phone in China for RMB 999 (Rs. 10,100 approximately) and we might see a Indian launch soon. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SoC (earlier known as the Snapdragon 618). Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 3 in two variants offering 2GB and 3GB of RAM with 16GB and 32GB of on-board storage respectively. At the back, the phone sports a 16MP camera and a fingerprint sensor. It features a 5.5-inch FullHD display and a large 4000mAh battery.

UPDATE: Images purported to be of the Xiaomi Mi 5 and its retail packaging have been leaked on Weibo. If the images really are of the upcoming phone, then it confirms that the phone will have a home button located between below the display.