Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship will have NFC, Jan. 21 Release

It has been said that the next flagship model from Xiaomi would be known as the Xiaomi Mi 5, and that particular device is certainly not short on mystery, that is for sure. Still, this has not stopped some bits and pieces of it being leaked, such as the front panel, where it is touted to sport a physical home button design that has never happened with a Xiaomi flagship before.  Well, word on the street has it that Xiaomi will introduce NFC connectivity in the Xiaomi Mi 5, something which was missing on the Xiaomi Mi 4.

Many alleged Xiaomi Mi 5 photos have emerged in the past. However, the current bunch from China shows the innards of the front panel. Going by the leaked photos, the front panel has a cut-out to accommodate a physical "Home" button. As rumored earlier, this button placeholder is expected to house the fingerprint sensor. Thankfully, Xiaomi has not removed the capacitive keys and they are very much part of the front panel.

Moving on to Xiaomi Mi 5 specifications, rumors point to either a 5.0-inch or 5.2-inch display and 1080p resolution. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chipset is believed to power the handset with a solid 4 GB of RAM in tow. As far as the camera specification goes, the device will reportedly sport a 16-megapixel rear-facing unit and a gracious 8-megapixel front-facing snapper for selfies. In addition to the standard connectivity options, this flagship will apparently come equipped with a USB Type-C port.

Xiaomi has decided to bring back the NFC chip that was dropped from the Mi 4. The information comes from a document released by China UnionPay – the sole domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, detailing support for its newly released NFC-based payment system. As already mentioned, it was dropped from the Mi 4 after the OEM discovered that only 1% of Xiaomi Mi 4C and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 users were actually using it. But, the new payment system does look like a perfect reason to reintroduce NFC to the device lineup.

As for other preliminary info on the Xiaomi Mi 5 and its alleged Xiaomi Mi 5 Plus sibling, we have heard that the pair will probably use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, but sadly without support for the company's next-gen fingerprint scanning technology (called Snapdragon Sense ID). And the release date of the upcoming flagship has been pegged as Jan. 21, 2016.
Source: http://www.xiaomidevice.com/blog/xiaomi-mi-5-flagship-will-have-nfc-jan-21-release/