Finally we got ourselves the much coveted Xiaomi Mi5 Pro, and its the Black Ceramic Edition! There was news that this went on pre-selling March 31 ahead of the April 6 debut date, 2000 units of Serial Numbered units went on sale to 2000 lucky Mi Fans. Look what we got here? Unit number 1355, We wonder if this was part of the serial number released as we heard it is supposed to be full of 888 instead. Anyways, the serials are just numbers and will just make the value go up a bit when you plan to resell it in the near future (like a Kobe Bryant or Yao Ming serial numbered autographed basketball card). Whats more important is the phone itself ready to be used in action as a daily driver.

WHATS IN THE BOX




Xiaomi Mi 5 PRO Specs· Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor
· 4GB of RAM
· 5.15-inch full HD IPS display, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
· Ceramic Back Black / 3D Glass White
· 128GB of storage
· 16-megapixel rear camera, F/2.0 lens, OIS, Phase Detection AF, 4 Axis OIS
· 4-megapixel front camera with 2 micro-meter sized sensor
· Dual SIM (nano sim size)
· 3G, LTE, VoLTE
· Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint Scanner, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
· 3000mAh battery
· Android Marshmallow, MIUI 7
· USB-C port
· Black and White

UNBOXING VIDEO



DESIGN

The Mi5 Pro sports the same form factor as the Mi5 32GB and 64GB Variant. We can see it here in the comparison thread between the Black 64GB and the Black Ceramic 128GB Comparing Mi5 Black and Mi5 PRO Black. Now the main difference here is the non-removable battery cover which Xiaomi brags as made of scratch proof ceramic materials. Now we have put it under test and rubbed our key against it, true enough that it did not appear to have any scratches after we cleaned the surface with a clean piece of microfiber cloth.



Above the frame we have the Infrared port together with the 3.5mm jack and the noise cancellation mic.



On the right side we have the volume rocker and the power button. We are not sure about the breaking lines above thevolume up and below the power button if it is the antennae or it’s just a design patterned to the Iphone 6S.



On the left side we have the sim tray which supports 2 Nano sim cards and sadly it’s not the same as Mi4s and Redmi Note 3 Pro which sports a hybrid sim 2 slot for either a Micro SD card or a Nano Sim. There are those enthusiast who were able to fuse the Nano sim to the body of the Micro SD card and made sim 2 and expansion storage work at the same time, but there is a risk of stuck up upon ejecting the sim tray.



Below the frame we have the USB-C port which is standard for all future smartphones released by Xiaomi, and the loudspeaker is placed at the left and right of the charging port, again these holes are pretty similar to the Iphone 6S.



In the front we have the physical home button with fingerprint scanner together with the 5.15" display and the 4MP selfie camera. The homebutton has a special assistive touch, you just need to tap the home button lightly and it will go back to home screen.



The back sports a stunning ceramic cover together with the 16MP 4-Axis OIS Sony IMX 298 Sensor Camera with dual LED flash. The overall feel on the Mi5 is very smooth and very thin like the Mi Note Pro, Xiaomi did a heck of a job in squeezing in all those goodies inside the Mi5. One noticeable thing is that the phone is so silky smooth to the point that it will tend to slide when the table is not even, take an extra precaution on that since you don’t want your phone ending up on the floor unnoticed. The black ceramic cover can be used as a mirror becuase it has a mirror finish effect plus it also looks like black stainless steel, we really loved the way it was build, the only problem we guess will occur is the supply for this item because the ceramic needs several stages of processing in order to achieve this ceramic mirror like finish.





Mi5 is oftenly pitted against Samsung Galaxy S7, no doubt because they have the same SoC. But in terms of price, Mi5 Pro is half the price of S7 based on SRP. Now taking a look at the specs, they both sported the same Snapdragon 820 at the same time they sort of look like each other in front. But we can say that Mi5 Pro in terms of the back case pitted against the S7, it looks more premium than any other flagship in the market, we even like this more than Iphone 6s plain back cover.



DISPLAY

The Mi5 Pro comes with a full HD display, 5.15-inch display coupled with a 2.5D curved glass and Ceramic Cover protection for Anti Scratch. One of the top reason why Mi5 did not have a QHD (2K) display similar to the Mi Note Pro is because it drains the battery too fast as witnessed by those who have the later unit described. Plus having a 2K display on a mobile is a bit practically useless as everyone gears towards better battery performance for the phone and not much importance on the rendered display.



Putting Mi Note Pro side by side with Mi5 Pro and played some movies and streamed some videos, there is not really much difference in terms of the rendered video although Mi Note Pro’s display is a little more vivid than that of the Mi5 Pro. But due to Mi5 Pro incorporating more Backlit LED (a total of 16 LEDs), Mi5 Pro did display the photo brighter under max brightness compared to the Mi Note Pro.The 600 nits luminance output doesn’t translate to faster battery drain, but instead more power efficient leading to more screen on time for your Mi5 Pro. One thing that captures our attention is the Sunlight Display Panel which makes the viewing under direct sunlight easy on the eyes, plus the minimum brightness ofthis unit is 0.7 nits which makes reading in low light or dark places cool for the eyes.

Snapdragon 820

During the Mobile World Congress of known as MWC 2016, there were several flagship level phones which debuted with the Snapdragon 820, and Mi5 Pro is part of the bandwagon who unveiled Qualcomm’s latest powerful processor. This powerful processor combined with the power of Adreno 530 makes this phone one of the beast to look out for this 2016. We ran several test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any slowdown on the opening of any apps in the Mi5 Pro, in fact it was pretty snappy. This SoC is already supporting the 64-bit architecture which means it can compute at a fast phase. So good graphics, good multitasking plus fast processing makes Snapdragon 820 on of the force to recognize. We tried playing NBA2k16 and all we can say is that it’s Awesome! There we almost no lag based on our experience compare to other lower end SoC phones in the market.



We did a short video in comparing the speed of the Mi5 Pro and the Mi5 64GB, sit back and enjoy the video



STORAGE

Mi5 Pro has 119GB free and ready storage out of the box.


CONNECTIVITY

The Xiaomi Mi5 Pro supports 7 different LTE bands as well as VoLTE, its easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings but once your do the second sim will be running on GSM connectivity only. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 4.2,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, and one thing that has debuted in this unit is the NFC (Near Field Communication) which enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. It also supports Mi Drop to transfer files between MIUI Based device.



Here are the supported bandwidth by the Mi5 PRO:
FDD-LTE ( B1，B3，B7)
TD-LTE ( B38，B39，B40，B41)
TD-SCDMA ( B34，B39)
WCDMA ( B1，B2，B5，B8)
GSM ( B2，B3，B5，B8)
CDMA1X/EVDO ( BC0)


AUDIO and VIDEO

The Mi5 PRO sports a pretty good speaker, loud and crisp. We have compared the output audio of Mi5 Pro against the Mi Note Pro and we proved that the loudspeaker of the Mi5 Pro rocks the music better than its predecessor. Mi5 Pro supports a wide range of video format like MKV, MP4, M4V, AVI, XVID and more. I can even support 4k H265 videos in the process. While watching Blueray Ripped copy of Ip Man 3, we can conclude that Mi5 Pro is brighter in terms of display, but Mi Note Pro is definitely better graphics as it is QHD and Mi5 Pro sports only HD display due to battery drain issue.


CAMERA

The main focus of Xiaomi in Mi5 series is primarily in its 16MP Sony IMX 298 sensor Camera. It’s no fluke that this camera is one of the top ones in the market, as this camera is often pitted against the Samsung Galaxy S7’s camera, we will focus more on the camera of Mi5 PRO which is pretty much the same as Mi5 64GB in our previous review. This 16 MP camera is equipped with a high definition sensor, with PDAF (Phase Detection AutoFocus, commonly present in DSLR cameras) and DTI (Deep Trench Technology) and the main focus is the all new feature which is the 4-AXIS OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer) This uses a high performance image processor which is the Qualcomm Spectra ISP which is capable of capturing high quality photo equaling the level of that of a DSLR camera. While we have taken several snaps with this camera while on the road using the Mi5 Pro as a daily driver, we can note that the camera can focus fast plus it takes pretty good snaps under bright sunlight as well as low dimlight. Here are some of our photos that are not edited as well as a video clip comparing the video of Mi5 and Mi5 Pro under full HD recording.



UNEDITED PHOTOS



Battery, Temperature and Benchmark
While packing in 3000mAh inside a thin unibody is no easy task, the Mi5 Pro has a pretty good battery life, but we are more impressed with the battery of Redmi Note 3 Pro which sports a 4000mAh battery and can last for more than a day in daily usage. The Mi5 Pro now supports the Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0 and it takes in 2.45Amperes based on our testing. We were able to charge from 9% to 20% in 6 minutes out the box as that’s the only factory charge they gave us together with the unit. We were able to complete charging the phone in 1 hour and 20 minutes. We recorded a 10 hour 27 minute on the Mi5 Pro using PC Mark battery stress test, which is roughly 1 hour higher than that of the Mi5 64GB.



While using the phone, standby mode gives us a temperature of 31.5 Celsius, while hitting a 34.5 Celsius on normal usage like browsing and using messengers and it recorded 40 Celsius when we put the pedal on the metal for the processor at full throttle. The unit did feel a bit hot upon reaching and hour playing NBA2k16 but we are no strangers to heat as Mi Note Pro reaches 45 Celcius upon reaching 1 hour playing the same game. The heat recorded is just 0.5 Celsius higher compared to Mi5 64GB as we were expecting hotter due to ceramic cover can not dissipate heat properly.



Our rating with AnTuTu gave us a score of 120947 Points, a few thousand lower than that of Mi5 64Gb at 127776 Points, based on the chart of AnTuTu, Mi5 Pro should achieve 137000 mark, it just didnt happen on this unit. Nevertheless, its just a benchmark, whats important is the performance is faster than Mi5 64GB.



NFC and Mi Mover

We tried running the Mi Mover from Mi5 to Mi5 Pro, it did work seamlessly along the way, and we did transfer some video files as well it was pretty okay.

Bootloader

Yes Yes we know your gonna ask that, the Mi5 Pro is bootloader locked. Therefore you need to request unlock code from en.miui.com/unlock/ and you will receive the unlock code in a few days or so. Remember that only China Dev Rom has the power to unlock the bootloader at the moment. Mi5 and Mi5 Pro shared the same rom so you can hit the Mi5 download section for Fastboot and recovery rom.



Here is our guide how to unlock bootloader of Mi5/Pro en.miui.com/thread-267361-1-1.html as well as how to install Google Play on Mi5/Pro en.miui.com/thread-272881-1-1.html

Mi5 Pro, Half the price of other Flagships yet more Elegant

The Mi5 Pro sure is a performer in its class of Snapdragon 820 releases, giving us a thumbs up in almost every category from the feel in the hands, on one hand texting, multitasking, camera, music thru loudspeaker plus the battery life.The unit sure is a must have for 2016 since it’s the most elegant looking flagship sporting a Snapdragon 820 yet it is just priced at 2699 RMB. The style and the looks sure beat S7 in terms of appearance, price except in the camera category. Overall we give this phone a two thumbs up.

Appreciating Mi5 Pro Ceramic Cover




Disclaimer: Please don't send me any PM regarding any type of Sales related inquiries. I'm a Xiaomi enthusiast but not a seller of Mi Products. I'm just a hardcore Xiaomi Fan, one notch higher than many of you here. Also I'm a Tech Blogger in the Philippines and all my review devices are either bought by myself from Xiaomi or borrowed from someone for a short period of time.

your always welcome