Xiaomi Mi5

AOMI MI5

Weight: 129g
Dimensions: 144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3mm
OS: Android 6
Screen size: 5.15-inch
Resolution: 1080 x 1920
CPU: Snapdragon 820
RAM: 3/4GB
Storage: 32GB/64GB/128GB
Battery: 3000mAh
Rear camera: 16MP
Front camera: 4MP 

The display is equally impressive when it's turned on. It has a pretty modest resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, which, compared to phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5 is a little low – those phones have similar screen sizes, but 1440 x 2560 resolutions.

I'm not a fan of looking only at the numbers though, and I can assure you that the Mi5's display is bright, colourful and full of detail. It's an IPS-type screen, rather than an OLED, but that doesn't seem to have a huge impact, as it still offers the kind of ultra-vivid colours you'd see on the Galaxy S7.

Xiaomi has opted for a USB-C connector on the Mi5 – and if you don't know what that is, then just know that it renders your old charging cables entirely useless, and requires you to buy extra cables for anywhere you might want to juice up your phone away from where you keep your main charger. 

I'm grumpy about USB-C in general, as at this stage it doesn't add much apart from the ability to plug the cable in either way round. In the long run USB-C will be a good thing, but you won't be saying that when your phone runs flat at work and you've left your charger at home.

One feature about which I'm far from grumpy is the fingerprint scanner on the front of the Mi5, which is concealed beneath the home button.

I initially concluded that this was some kind of magic – either that or it wasn't really scanning my fingerprint at all, and the whole thing was some sort of joke. Why do I say this? Because it's so fast that I simply didn't believe it could really be scanning anything.

My theory was quickly disproved, however, by using a different finger to try and log in to the phone – it didn't work. So the fingerprint scanner is just really, really efficient. I didn't expect that – although maybe I should have, because most fingerprint scanners these days are fast and work well.

The headphone jack is located at the top of the phone, and next to that is an IR blaster that you'll never use. If you really did want to use it, it could be employed to control your TV – but you have a remote for that already, and I've yet to be persuaded that this kind of extra functionality is of much value.