Starting with the Xiaomi Mi 5s, the new device has a unibody aluminum design, with a brushed metal finish and curved edges, and antenna lines along the top and bottom that look far too familiar. Along the back is also the new large 1/2.3-inch 12 megapixel sensor with F/2.0 aperture and PDAF that bests even the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 edge, if Xiaomi’s slides are to be believed. You also get a 4 megapixel camera on the front with 2μm large pixel and F/2.0 aperture.
On the front is a 5.15-inch 1920×1080 pixel IPS LCD with 600nits maximum brightness, 1500:1 contrast ratio, and a 94.4% NTSC color gamut. The higher end model also has support for pressure sensitivity.
Also on the front is a new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that uses Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID. An ultrasonic fingerprint sensor captures a more accurate map of the finger that is harder to spoon, works through multiple materials, and is immune to surface contaminants such as sweat and condensation.
Inside the Mi 5s is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of storage. It has support for 3xCA network connectivity, along with Bluetooth 4.2, dual-band MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and NFC. It is powered by a 3200mAh battery, that charges via Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0.
The Mi 5s is priced at RMB 1999 ($299) for the 3GB/64GB model and RMB 2299 ($344) for the 4GB/128GB model. It will be available in gray, silver, gold, and rose gold.
Xiaomi also announced the Mi 5s Plus. It has a larger 5.7-inch 1920×1080 pixel display and dual 13 megapixel cameras on the back that work similarly to those on the Huawei P9. One camera captures color images and the other captures only black and white images. The black and white sensor lacks the Bayer filter, which means it gathers much more light producing more detailed images with less noise. You can either capture pure black and white images or color images. When capturing color images, the camera combines the output of both the sensors to enhance the final photo.
The Snapdragon 821 chipset and 4MP front camera are identical to the Mi 5s, but the memory and storage options are 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB . The battery gets a bump, and is now 3800mAh.
The Mi 5s Plus is priced at RMB 2299 ($344) for the 4GB/64GB model and RMB 2599 ($389) for the 6GB/128GB model. It’s available in the same four colors.