Xiaomi Mi 5 vs Xiaomi Mi 4: How the upcoming flagship is superior to its predecessor

Last week, Hugo Barra , Xiaomi's global Vice President confirmed that the company will release the successor of its well-received Mi4, dubbed as the Xiaomi Mi5 on Feb. 24 at its Spring Conference in Barcelona. The company is said to host an event at the Mobile Word Congress (MWC) for the first time.

Design and display

The Xiaomi Mi5 will reportedly come in an all-metal body with a 5.2-inch Full HD or Quad HD display with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels. The handset will tout a 2.5D curved glass protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4. On the other hand, the predecessor Xiaomi Mi4, released back in August 2014 features a 5.0-inch display and 1,080 x 1,920 pixels resolution.

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The upcoming flagship will also come packed with a fingerprint scanner for authentication which was missing in the Xiaomi Mi 4. The Xiaomi Mi 5 may also include a physical Home button for the first time. The device is said to tout the fastest and smallest fingerprint scanner.

Moreover, the rumour mills suggest that the Mi 5 might be the first Xiaomi phone to house a touch-sensitive display technology similar to Apple’s 3D Touch in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The handset is tipped to come in Black, Gold, Pink and White colour variants.

Related: Xiaomi Mi5 will be first Xiaomi phone to have 3D Touch and a physical home button with fingerprint scanner

Processor

As confirmed by Liwan Jiang, co-founder and senior VP of Xiaomi, under the hood; the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, as compared to Snapdragon 801 processor which powers Xiaomi Mi 4.

The Xiaomi Mi 5 is believed to be equipped with two RAM configurations. The base model will ship with 3GB of RAM with 32GB built-in storage whereas the larger sibling will feature 4GB of RAM with 64GB of native memory. On the contrary, the predecessor offers only 3GB of RAM with 16GB or 64GB of internal storage capacity.

Related: Xiaomi Mi 5 vs. Huawei Mate 8; comparison of specifications, availability and price

Camera

In the camera department, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is believed to flaunt a 16-megapixel main camera along with a gracious 13- megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. On the other hand, the Mi 4 settles for a 13 MP main camera unit paired with an 8 MP front shooter.

Battery

A massive 3,600 mAh battery is supposed to power the Xiaomi Mi 5, supported by Quick Charge 3.0 technology. The Xiaomi Mi features a 3,080 mAh battery unit aided by Quick Charge 2.0.

Software

Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship, the Mi 5 is said to run MIUI 7 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, as compared to Mi 4 which was initially launched with Android 4.4.4 KitKat with MIUI 5.0 on top, reports GSM Arena.

Later the Xiaomi upgraded the device to launch Mi4i with Android 5.0.2 with MIUI v6.0. Latest rumours suggest that the Xiaomi Mi5 may also arrive with a Windows 10 variant, reports GizmoChina.

NFC support

With Mi 5, Xiaomi is expected to bring back the NFC compatibility feature, which the company dropped for its predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi 4.

As reported by NDTV Gadgets, the Xiaomi Mi 5 price will be lesser than its rival Huawei Mate 8. The 3GB RAM version is anticipated to be priced at CNY 1,999 (AU$423) while the one with 64GB built-in storage and 4GB RAM will come with a price tag of CNY 2,299 (AU$487). The company is yet to confirm the Xiaomi Mi 5 price.

Related: Xiaomi Mi 5 release date, price, specs and features in various reports