Xiaomi is a name that smartphone users in the United States likely aren’t very familiar with. The company makes stunning Android phones that feature flagship power and specs, and it sells them at shockingly low prices. Why haven’t you ever seen one of Xiaomi’s phones in the US? Because the company built a multi-billion dollar smartphone business based on shamelessly copying everything Apple does, so it would likely be sued into oblivion if it had tried to sell its phones in the US market. One time, Xiaomi even had an executive in a black mock turtleneck and jeans unveil a new smartphone at a press conference. No, seriously.
Outside the US, Xiaomi just unveiled its latest flagship smartphone. It looks like it will instantly become a smash hit when it’s released, featuring a sleek design and killer specs. But the most interesting thing about the new Xiaomi Mi 5s may very well be the fact that it touts one of the hottest new features expected to come to next year’s new iPhone 8.
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Xiaomi just unveiled two new smartphones, the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus. See, we told you the company copies everything Apple does.
Both new phones feature an all-metal body and they sport similar designs. As you might have guessing from the fact that the company stole Apple’s naming convention, the Mi 5s Plus is the larger of the two phones and it sports a bigger screen as well as a bigger battery. And guess what… it also has a dual-lens camera. We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried.
Other specs include a Snapdragon 821 chipset, a 5.2-inch 1080p display (with Force Touch support, of course), a 3,200 mAh battery, up to 128GB of UFS 2.0 storage and up to 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM.
The real start of the show isn’t something that’s visible when you look at the new phone, however. Hiding under the display on the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus is a new under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint reader. This means that the phone has a hidden fingerprint scanner that doesn’t take up any room on the face of the device, allowing the display to occupy as much space as possible.
As you might recall, Apple is due to launch a completely redesigned “iPhone 8” next year that will include a number of exciting new features. Among them, Apple is expected to ditch the home button and integrate its Touch ID fingerprint scanner into the display. By doing this, Apple will finally be able to build a smaller phone without cutting down on screen size, because there will be less wasted space around the display. Apple’s capacitive home button on the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is believed to be a stopgap solution that will get people used to the idea of not having a physical home button.
Of course, we still have a year to go before Apple’s next-generation iPhones are released. In the meantime, Xiaomi’s new Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus will be made available for preorder in China beginning September 29th, and they’ll start at about $300 and $345, respectively. You can learn more about them on Xiaomi’s website.
