Xiaomi Mi 5S and Mi 5S Plus: New Apple iPhone 7 Killers

Yesterday, Xiaomi stirred up quite a bit of excitement with the announcement of the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus pair. The Chinese giant appears to have taken a cue or two from Apple in terms of marketing as well, as it has opted to start sales ASAP. Both phones are said to hit shelves tomorrow. But in the meantime, to keep the hype levels high, Xiaomi has shared its preliminary registration numbers.

Xiaomi, in sharp contrast believes that it is possible to cram both top-tier hardware and premium looks in a smartphone, and yet (somehow) keep its price from burning a hole in your pocket. Xiaomi taking the occasional inspiration from Apple isn't new or surprising. There's a reason why it is called the Apple of China. Until now, however, most of this inspiration was restricted to software. Things are different in 2016. This year, Xiaomi has upped the ante, bringing hardware into the fray. In July, it launched its first laptop, aka the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air, pitting it straight up against Apple's MacBook air. The company has now launched the Mi 5s and the Mi 5s Plus. Going by the naming convention, it is pretty obvious that the Mi 5s and 5s Plus have been designed to take on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Case. Xiaomi was also pretty vocal about it at the launch event held in Beijing.

As earlier rumors touted, the Mi 5s relies on a new Snapdragon 821 processor for processing power, which is backed by 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The standard storage room is 64 GB, but customers can opt to pay $45 more and get a more solid 4 GB of RAM paired with 128 GB of storage.

Price starts at 1,999 yuan (around $300, or Rs 19,940) for the base Mi 5s which comes with 64GB memory and 3GB of RAM, and go all the way up to 2,599 yuan ($390 or Rs 25,923) for the top-tier Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus model with 128GB memory and 6GB RAM. The iPhone 7 on the other hand starts at Rs 60,000 for the base 32GB version and goes all the way up to Rs 92,000 for the top-end iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB memory.
Source: Xiaomi Device