Gadgetory

hey what's up guys this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and today we'll be checking out xiaomi's latest flagship smartphone the me 5 it's rocking a Snapdragon 820 and it's relatively inexpensive at around three hundred dollars in China we've been using it for the past couple of weeks and without any further ado let's get started with our full review the me fives design balance is the best of previous flagship like the 3d glass of the Mino with fresh design aspects such as the physical home button the curved Gorilla Glass for rear angular metal frame and illusionary basilis display combined to form a recognizably flagship design and good looks aren't the only thing that the me 5 has going for it as the phone is also very comfortable and easy to hold in the hand thanks to the glass rear and gradual curves outside a forum details like the me fives tactile power and volume keys as well as its flush camera optics are notably well implemented the symmetrical bottom frame design is visually pleasing in the IR blaster on the top of the device is very nice for controlling televisions and household appliances unfortunately the glass pack can have its drawbacks it's very slippery on many soft surfaces and it can be a fingerprint magnet especially if you purchase the black model the me 5s one-handed usability is improved even further by its relatively small 5.1 5 inch display while some are disappointed that Xiaomi has gone with 1080p instead of quad HD we here at Android Authority are still very happy to see 1080p especially at this size 1080p panels are cheaper use less power and the vast majority of users won't be able to tell the difference compared to quad HD anyway besides it's not all about resolution and Xiaomi has proven that with vibrant and saturated colors deep blacks great contrast and excellent viewing angles sunlight readability was also very good in our testing as was the adaptive brightness feature regardless of the variant you purchase you'll be getting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 under the hood which is one of the best ARM chips currently available and that's very apparent when using the v5 even for just a minute performance was very even on our base model coupled with the also very impressive Adreno 530 v5 I was able to played every game we through edit with ease call sounded excellent for us on the v5 and colors also said they heard us loud and clear and here are the frequencies that the new five supports do keep in mind that this is an unlocked dual SIM device if you are in the u.s. you'll be missing out on 4G LTE but will be able to receive HSPA+ in all areas when using AT&T and most areas when using t-mobile xiaomi has embedded a fingerprint reader within the physical home button which is very accurate and incredibly fast beating the Nexus 6p in nearly all of our tests often times the last screen is visible only for less than about a tenth of a second if at all although there are two speaker grilles at the bottom of the device the left is presumably a microphone as sound is only emitted from the right grill the speaker isn't bad it's definitely better than the one found on the galaxy s7 in terms of both volume and quality but its side position and very minor distortion may be disappointing Xiaomi did adapt the USB type-c 1.0 standard with the me 5 which we were happy to see there's also Qualcomm quick charge 3.0 onboard and you can even get nearly 85% in nearly 30 minutes with a 3.0 charger unfortunately the charger included in the box is only quick charge 2.0 compliant battery life was very impressive thanks to the 3000 milliamp hour high-density battery we had no trouble giving the me 5 to lasts through a full day of use and always ended with very good screen on time values comparable to those produced by the galaxy s7 average users will have no trouble using the nephi for a full day and then some which is not always the case with even higher end smartphones the me fives 16 megapixel f 2.0 Sony rear camera performed very well in ideal conditions images came out sharp and detailed with a good amount of dynamic range the color reproduction is also very pleasing with just the right amount of saturation although there is an HDR mode which works quite nicely we never really felt the need to use it as the default auto mode performs well enough there's also a dual LED flash on back which does help even out skin tones the four axis optical image stabilization does help quite a bit in ensuring less motion blur but it helps even more in low-light situations unfortunately the camera does not do as well in darker environments and we would consider it mediocre relative to other flagships digital noise is sadly present and almost always noticeable and great aspects during the day like great color reproduction and detailed images are unfortunately compromised that's not to say it's terrible in low-light but it's just not as impressive as the galaxy s7 or Nexus 6p the four megapixel app 2.0 front-facing camera also performed well especially with its larger pixels size the camera software is also what we would expect from a flagship in terms of quality with a variety of different filters many different modes and control over white balance focus exposure time and ISO and manual mode if you're not interested in tweaking all those settings the auto mode is easy to use and produces great results the me5 is running Shaunie's custom version of android mui more specifically it's running new UI 7 / android 6.0 marshmallow well many have dismissed the UI as being too similar to iOS few have highlighted chummy's attention to detail and the amount of customization me--why offers throughout for example mui has a respectable theme store allowing users to change the look of the entire UI there's also advanced features built-in like call recording and scheduled battery profile changes if you are importing the device from China there's a good chance that your device will come pre-installed with bloatware and possibly even malware so it's a good idea to flash the global ROM in order to return to stock me oh I with Google Apps and services and the ability to receive show Me's weekly updates however Xiaomi has started blocking boot loaders and some resellers have blocked updating through the updater app so you'll have to unlock the bootloader if you want to avoid potential malware a process which can take up to 10 days and remove some features like xiaomi's find my device we were also disappointed to find that many of the features introduced in March mellow and even lollipop are still missing in new UI Google is now on tap multi-user support and tabbed windows for apps are ignore to be found at least in me wise current iteration the Xiaomi me 5 is now available within China you want to buy from China that's great buy from China in a few models starting at 1999 rum it be or about $310 each model is available in either white black or gold and comes with either 32 64 or 128 gigabytes of non expandable storage the me 5 is an excellent phone it undercuts the best smartphones in price but not nearly as much in features although its lack of u.s. availability and 4G LTE support are a major hurdle for some it's low light camera maybe somewhat disappointing for a flagship and me I could use a few updates there's a lot to love about me 5 the b5 s design display performance Hardware battery life camera and software impressed us overall which is astonishing at this price point Xiaomi has yet again raised the bar for what an affordable smartphone should be which is why we strongly believe that you should consider this is your next smartphone if you are interested in learning more about the Xiaomi me 5 we have an even more comprehensive review up on android authority with benchmark scores battery life screenshots more camera samples in a detailed look into v UI thank you for watching our video review of the Xiaomi me 5 if you have any questions about this device or anything else Android related please do hit us up on snapchat to have a chance at being featured in our upcoming snapchat Q&A show finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website is we are your source for all things Android