Xiaomi Mi 5

Xiaomi’s phones are rare sightings in the UK, but the company’s market dominance in China and increasingly India means many more people are starting to hear of Xiaomi. Not officially sold here, the only way you’ll get your hands on one is through unofficial channels.

Price

Our Xiaomi Mi 5 came from GearBest, which stocks all three versions of the Mi 5 in white, black and gold. We tested the white Mi 5 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is currently available for £286.09 (note that prices will fluctuate daily at grey-market sites). Shipping to the UK is free, but note that you should pay import duty on anything you buy from China, and you will be billed for this if your parcel is stopped at Customs. We were charged an additional £40.73, which includes 20 percent of the phone’s value on the paperwork plus a £10 disbursement charge. This took the total price up to £326.82.

Even with the import duty on top, the Mi 5 offers excellent value for a flagship smartphone – especially given that its rivals cost in excess of £500. The difference with this phone is you won’t get it on contract in the UK, but while you might pay more up front you’ll save huge amounts of cash if you also switch your contract to a SIM-only deal.

And, on that subject, O2 customers and those of piggyback networks such as GiffGaff should note that they will not receive 4G on this phone. With no support for band 20 (800MHz), which is O2’s only 4G band, the most you’ll get is 3G. Customers of other mobile operators needn’t worry, since 4G LTE bands 3 and 7 are supported.

Design

Xiaomi’s Mi 5 feels awesome in the hand. In common with the Samsung Galaxy S7 it has a Gorilla Glass 4 front and rear, with the left and right rear edges tapered to give a comfortable fit in the hand. This phone is thinner and lighter, though, just 7.25mm and 129g.

Although this rear panel can apparently be replaced should you crack it, the insides are not user-accessible. The SIM (two Nano-SIMs if you like) is loaded via a slot tray at the phones top left edge, while the 3000mAh built-in battery may be non-removable but it’s incredibly fast to charge. Unlike the Galaxy S7 there’s no camera bump at the rear, nor curved glass at the front: the Mi 5 is flat as a pancake, save for the ever so slightly raised Home button. This is the first time we’ve seen a fingerprint scanner built into a physical Home button on a Xiaomi phone, and it works very well – fast to recognise your touch and unlock the device.

Either side sit back and recent buttons. These aren’t labelled, and you can switch them around to suit how you want to use the phone.

The screen bezels are virtually nonexistent, resulting in an extremely premium-looking design. There’s not a single rough edge on the chamfered metal chassis, and save for its non-waterproof body we are seriously struggling to find fault with the design. The white model we tested even battles fingerprints incredibly successfully.

The screen is a standout feature. While some of Xiaomi’s rivals are fitting Quad-HD panels with always-on tech, Xiaomi’s display is merely full-HD (1920x1080, 428ppi). You wouldn’t know it. It’s pin-sharp, brilliantly bright (600cd/m2), bursting with colours and has very good contrast. Pixel-level adaptive contrast and Sunlight Display make it easily visible in all scenarios.

Either side of the bottommounted USB-C charging- and data-transfer port are speaker grilles, though there is just the one speaker on this phone. It’s loud, though, and we found it to be