14 DAY TRIAL // For the first time in its existence, Chinese company Xiaomi introduced its flagship smartphone, the Mi5, in Europe. The device was officially unveiled earlier this week at MWC 2016 trade fair in Barcelona, Spain.
The smartphone was announced at the same time in China, along with its smaller sibling Xiaomi Mi 4s. According to Xiaomi, the Mi5 will be available for purchase in China on March 1.
The company's VP Hugo Barra also confirmed that the flagship will also be released in China shortly after, TechCrunch reports.
More importantly, the Mi5 could be Xiaomi's first smartphone to go on sale globally or at least partially. During the press conference at MWC 2016, Hugo Barra hinted at the possible release of the Xiaomi Mi5 in “other markets.”
Unfortunately, it's unclear at which markets Xiaomi's VP was referring, but we will probably find out more as soon as the smartphone hits shelves next month.
You can still get it, but it will be much more expensive
Until then, if you really must own the Xiaomi Mi5, you can pre-order one via GearBest for around $440 (32GB model) or $515 (64GB model) outright. Keep in mind that you won't have to pay anything for shipping, but depending on your location you might have to pay customs fee.
Xiaomi announced that the standard version of Mi5 would cost just $305. This particular model comes equipped with a 1.8GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, an Adreno 530 graphics processing unit, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
Also, the high version of Xiaomi Mi5 has been priced at $350. This one includes a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory.
Xiaomi also launched an exclusive version which is powered by the same 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor but packs 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Xiaomi Mi5 exclusive version is priced at $415 outright.