How fast is the Xiaomi Mi5 camera? Video and sample photos

At the Xiaomi Mi5 launch, the company made a big song and dance about the 4 axis OIS, 16 mega-pixel rear camera. So how does the camera perform in the real world?

Before we start, there are only a few low light photos. More will be included in the final review (or perhaps another article like this). The following photos were taken yesterday, and I think they give a good indication of just how fast this camera is.

Before the launch of the Xiaomi Mi5, Lei Jun released some photo samples taken with the phone at a beach. The images were good, but what was most impressive was that the camera managed to capture a bird in flight without motion blur. That was impressive, but would the same be possible in the real world?

My kids and I attend BMX training 3 times a week. Some of the better riders often try the larger jumps on the spur of the moment, so its good to have a camera that is fast, and boy is the Xiaomi Mi5 a fast camera!

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With the fingerprint scanner enabled I am able to unlock the phone, select the camera and snap a couple of photos is a blink of an eye. In fact the Xiaomi Mi5 takes photos and saves them away faster than a blink of an eye, its so fast you don’t even register the camera has caught the image at first. The speed is partly due to the Snapdragon 820, optimised MIUI 7, but largely due to the new faster memory that Xiaomi chose for the Mi5, it makes a huge difference.

Xiaomi Mi5 Photo Samples

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Xiaomi Mi5 Camera speed video

Xiaomi Mi5 photo sample taken during the video

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I’ll have more photo sample and full details about the Xiaomi Mi5 in our review coming soon, but so far what do you think of the Xiaomi Mi5 and its camera?

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

Nilzie
March 9, 2016
do you think they will release a global version for mi5? for redmi note 3 mediatek edition, still no global rom
- March 9, 2016
  They will launch in India, and I saw that Malaysia will get it. But this won’t be a truly global rom, and with the locked boot loader it is going to be harder than ever.
  - Simon
    March 9, 2016
    - - Simon
        March 9, 2016
        I’ve decided its either this or Huawei P9, roll on April 6th.
      - Sunil Adoor
        March 13, 2016
        Andi pls. Advice some good camera phone fine in low light condition..

illystor
March 9, 2016
Gah… I had halfway talked myself out of the Mi5, because the Mi4S ticked plenty of boxes for me, and the modest bump on battery capacity… I just thought it would do me fine. But the performance in those outdoor shots are steering me back, Though I *am* a little concerned by how visibly grainy and noisy those two low-light images seem to be. Though I guess I’ll have to wait for the full review, or further camera performance posts. The battery life will be another big factor. That and the flash sales basically being a narrative of me sitting and constantly having mi.com apologize that the server is under strain.

Öysan Kulbay
March 9, 2016
It is very weird that they wouldn’t launch this in some European country considering the excellent product they’ve made. It is beyond me why companies like these never fully grasp the market value they gain from establishing sales in bigger markets. Europe is basically the number 3 biggest market in the world after US and China and they still insist on launching it in India instead.
Oh well…hopefully their boardmembers takes this leap since the CEO doesn’t seem to want to.
- India Is The World’s Fastest Growing Smartphone Market: Gartner
  From here: http://www.medianama.com/2014/02/223-india-smartphone-market//
  The source of which is http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2665715, quoting below:
  “Mature markets face limited growth potential as the markets are saturated with smartphone sales, leaving little room for growth with declining feature phone market and a longer replacement cycle,”
  “This increasing contribution of smartphones was led by growth in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe, where smartphone sales grew by more than 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. With a 166.8 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2013, India exhibited the highest smartphone sales growth among the countries tracked by Gartner, and Latin America saw the strongest growth among all regions (96.1 percent) in the fourth quarter. China also contributed significantly to worldwide smartphone sales as sales grew 86.3 percent in 2013.”
  I think that should clear out your confusion.
  - Öysan Kulbay
    March 9, 2016
    Kinda weird that they’d go for Strong Growth rather than actual size. But hey…too bad for them. They miss out on an economy of the biggest proportions. But I’d assume that they aim for emerging markets due to them being young and that Xiaomi wants to establish themselves as leading in those countries. Afraid of competition it seems.
- balcobomber25
  March 9, 2016
  Xiaomi is going after emerging markets now instead of the established markets. Their focus is India, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam etc) and soon South America (starting with Brazil this year). Europe and the US are huge markets but they are also mature markets with not much room for growth. Xiaomi will make a lot more money entering India and Brazil than they would in the US/Europe.
  - Kiki
    March 10, 2016
    Hi,
    I love your post and i know that you know so much about phones. Can you tell me please is worth selling my Meizu MX5 for Xiaomi Mi5? Thebmain target what i want is Camera.
    - balcobomber25
      March 10, 2016
      I would wait to see some reviews of the Mi5 camera. The MX5 camera is very good though, it’s the phone I use everyday.
      - Kiki
        March 12, 2016
        One more qustion my firend.
        I have the Meizu MX5 with 32gb. But last week I woke up and I see the display have isus, various colors and later the full display go black.I had to pay repair 115EUR. Why did this happen? whether it happens again? I saw on the forums that many people have this problem. The display was black but touch screen waa working.
        What to do if again I have the same problem? 🙁
        balcobomber25
        March 12, 2016
        I have never experienced this on any phone I had so I really can’t tell you. Who did you buy the phone from?
        
        Kiki
        March 13, 2016
        I buy phone from Aliexpresa, and the phone is 100% original. I registe on Flyme, Flyme forum and etc… The phone is working very well but the display is is not working.
        I read on other forum Flyme China and Meizu forum that 10 people have the same problem.
        I’m afraid that this does not happen again :(((((
        balcobomber25
        March 13, 2016
        Every phone no matter the brand will have some failure rate, it’s just what happens with electronics. A small percentage will have defects. It happens with Samsung, Apple. LG, Xiaomi every brand. Some brands are better than others.
      - xi7
        March 12, 2016
        Chinese cameras never learn. check car ugly noise. and you tell about the cockroach ?
      - xi7
        March 12, 2016
        Chinese cameras never learn. check car ugly noise. and you tell about the cockroach ? …
      - xi7
        March 12, 2016
        Chinese cameras never learn. check car ugly noise. and you tell about the ugy cockroach low light ?
        balcobomber25
        March 12, 2016
- funtikar
  March 16, 2016
  its easy to find westerners posting comments on how Xiaomi are just another China cheap plastics… unless Xiaomi can change that perception then I don’t think they would bother trying there…
  - Öysan Kulbay
    March 16, 2016
    Well that is their conceited thoughts on Chinese products(talking about westerners). A person who is open minded and at the same time interested in gadgets should always want something and it shouldn’t matter where it comes from. So those who are narrow-minded can buzz off. I’d gladly pay 400+ dollars for a Chinese OEM as long as they deliver. I don’t give a shit about commercials to be fair. It’s all in the product for me. So if they made it in Antarctica or China doesn’t matter.

jauling
March 9, 2016
- March 9, 2016
  Didn’t check to be honest. It might be getting taken out whey I upload the images. I’ll make a zip and upload them later.
  - jauling
    March 9, 2016
    I see: aperture (f/2), shutter speed (1/1334s), focal length (4.3mm), as well as GPS data and timestamp data. This was for IMG_20160308_175419_BURST7.jpg
    I guess ISO isnt captured, which is very odd. Maybe ViewNX2 software I’m using is buggy, I dont know.
HBK
March 9, 2016
- Assefa Hanson
  March 9, 2016
  - HBK
    March 9, 2016
    Yes, and detail n clarity is bad too.
    From the begining i did not understand why the downgrade the aperture, Mi4 had f1.8. There is a minor increase in sensor size and the megapixel count, they should have atleast kept the f1.8 in Mi5. F2.0 is a downgrade and low light shots are showing it.
    They are using 4 Axis OIS, So i think they should give a different mode for low light and should have longer shutter speed than normal while keeping the ISO (noise level) down. I have seen good phones with OIS go for 1/2 Sec to 1/5 sec in low light scene (Handheld ofcourse). This is going for 1/15 – 1/25 sec shutter speed while taking ISO above 1k-2k. Why note put the 4 Axis OIS to use (unless its just a gimmick).
  - HBK
    March 9, 2016
    But the daylight shots are insanely fast i think. I like that.
    Lets wait for more low light images, and maybe a comparison from some reliable source, for a clear idea of how good the cam is.
    - Assefa Hanson
      March 9, 2016
Nilzie
March 9, 2016
do you think they will release a global version for mi5? for redmi note 3 mediatek edition, still no global rom
- Andi Sykes
  March 9, 2016
  They will launch in India, and I saw that Malaysia will get it. But this won’t be a truly global rom, and with the locked boot loader it is going to be harder than ever.
- Guest
  March 9, 2016
  I thought it was unlockable ?
- Andi Sykes
  March 9, 2016
  In theory it is, but I’m not sure many people have managed to unlock it
- Guest
  March 9, 2016
  I’ve decided its either this or Huawei P9, roll on April 6th.
- Sunil Adoor
  March 13, 2016
  Andi pls. Advice some good camera phone fine in low light condition..
illystor
March 9, 2016
Gah… I had halfway talked myself out of the Mi5, because the Mi4S ticked plenty of boxes for me, and the modest bump on battery capacity… I just thought it would do me fine. But the performance in those outdoor shots are steering me back, Though I *am* a little concerned by how visibly grainy and noisy those two low-light images seem to be. Though I guess I’ll have to wait for the full review, or further camera performance posts. The battery life will be another big factor. That and the flash sales basically being a narrative of me sitting and constantly having mi.com apologize that the server is under strain.

Roberto Tomás
March 9, 2016
I would consider this phone once the markup goes away. There’s no difference between the mid tier and the high end model except the larger storage, right?
- - Roberto Tomás
    March 9, 2016
    that sounds like the differences between the base model and the others. I thought at least the CPU speed was the same for the mid range (64GB storage) and the top model (128GB)
    - Jasper Cz
      March 9, 2016
      No. The mid range model have 3gb RAM and a glas back.
    - balcobomber25
      March 9, 2016
      The mid model is kind of a blend of the two. It has the the same CPU speed as the PRO but the same RAM as the base.
      - xi7
        March 12, 2016
Pezzo
March 9, 2016
It is very weird that they wouldn’t launch this in some European country considering the excellent product they’ve made. It is beyond me why companies like these never fully grasp the market value they gain from establishing sales in bigger markets. Europe is basically the number 3 biggest market in the world after US and China and they still insist on launching it in India instead.
Oh well…hopefully their boardmembers takes this leap since the CEO doesn’t seem to want to.
- Keshav Khera
  March 9, 2016
  India Is The World’s Fastest Growing Smartphone Market: Gartner
  From here: http://www.medianama.com/2014/02/223-india-smartphone-market//
  The source of which is http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2665715, quoting below:
  “Mature markets face limited growth potential as the markets are saturated with smartphone sales, leaving little room for growth with declining feature phone market and a longer replacement cycle,”
  “This increasing contribution of smartphones was led by growth in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe, where smartphone sales grew by more than 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. With a 166.8 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2013, India exhibited the highest smartphone sales growth among the countries tracked by Gartner, and Latin America saw the strongest growth among all regions (96.1 percent) in the fourth quarter. China also contributed significantly to worldwide smartphone sales as sales grew 86.3 percent in 2013.”
  I think that should clear out your confusion.
- balcobomber25
  March 9, 2016
  Xiaomi is going after emerging markets now instead of the established markets. Their focus is India, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam etc) and soon South America (starting with Brazil this year). Europe and the US are huge markets but they are also mature markets with not much room for growth. Xiaomi will make a lot more money entering India and Brazil than they would in the US/Europe.
- Pezzo
  March 9, 2016
  Kinda weird that they’d go for Strong Growth rather than actual size. But hey…too bad for them. They miss out on an economy of the biggest proportions. But I’d assume that they aim for emerging markets due to them being young and that Xiaomi wants to establish themselves as leading in those countries. Afraid of competition it seems.
- Guest
  March 10, 2016
  Hi,
  I love your post and i know that you know so much about phones. Can you tell me please is worth selling my Meizu MX5 for Xiaomi Mi5? Thebmain target what i want is Camera.
- balcobomber25
  March 11, 2016
  I would wait to see some reviews of the Mi5 camera. The MX5 camera is very good though, it’s the phone I use everyday.
- Guest
  March 12, 2016
  One more qustion my firend.
  I have the Meizu MX5 with 32gb. But last week I woke up and I see the display have isus, various colors and later the full display go black.I had to pay repair 115EUR. Why did this happen? whether it happens again? I saw on the forums that many people have this problem. The display was black but touch screen waa working.
  What to do if again I have the same problem? 🙁
- xi7
  March 12, 2016
  Chinese cameras never learn. check car ugly noise. and you tell about the ugy cockroach low light ?
- balcobomber25
  March 13, 2016
  That cockroach was a terrible picture lol.
- balcobomber25
  March 13, 2016
  I have never experienced this on any phone I had so I really can’t tell you. Who did you buy the phone from?
- Guest
  March 13, 2016
  I buy phone from Aliexpresa, and the phone is 100% original. I registe on Flyme, Flyme forum and etc… The phone is working very well but the display is is not working.
  I read on other forum Flyme China and Meizu forum that 10 people have the same problem.
  I’m afraid that this does not happen again :(((((
- balcobomber25
  March 13, 2016
  Every phone no matter the brand will have some failure rate, it’s just what happens with electronics. A small percentage will have defects. It happens with Samsung, Apple. LG, Xiaomi every brand. Some brands are better than others.
- azmi
  March 16, 2016
  its easy to find westerners posting comments on how Xiaomi are just another China cheap plastics… unless Xiaomi can change that perception then I don’t think they would bother trying there…
- Pezzo
  March 16, 2016
  Well that is their conceited thoughts on Chinese products(talking about westerners). A person who is open minded and at the same time interested in gadgets should always want something and it shouldn’t matter where it comes from. So those who are narrow-minded can buzz off. I’d gladly pay 400+ dollars for a Chinese OEM as long as they deliver. I don’t give a shit about commercials to be fair. It’s all in the product for me. So if they made it in Antarctica or China doesn’t matter.

jauling
March 9, 2016
- Andi Sykes
  March 9, 2016
  Didn’t check to be honest. It might be getting taken out whey I upload the images. I’ll make a zip and upload them later.
- jauling
  March 9, 2016
  I see: aperture (f/2), shutter speed (1/1334s), focal length (4.3mm), as well as GPS data and timestamp data. This was for IMG_20160308_175419_BURST7.jpg
  I guess ISO isnt captured, which is very odd. Maybe ViewNX2 software I’m using is buggy, I dont know.

Guest
March 9, 2016
- Assefa Hanson
  March 9, 2016
  yeah you saw the noise?
- Guest
  March 9, 2016
  Yes, and detail n clarity is bad too.
  From the begining i did not understand why the downgrade the aperture, Mi4 had f1.8. There is a minor increase in sensor size and the megapixel count, they should have atleast kept the f1.8 in Mi5. F2.0 is a downgrade and low light shots are showing it.
  They are using 4 Axis OIS, So i think they should give a different mode for low light and should have longer shutter speed than normal while keeping the ISO (noise level) down. I have seen good phones with OIS go for 1/2 Sec to 1/5 sec in low light scene (Handheld ofcourse). This is going for 1/15 – 1/25 sec shutter speed while taking ISO above 1k-2k. Why note put the 4 Axis OIS to use (unless its just a gimmick).
- Guest
  March 9, 2016
  But the daylight shots are insanely fast i think. I like that.
  Lets wait for more low light images, and maybe a comparison from some reliable source, for a clear idea of how good the cam is.
- Assefa Hanson
  March 9, 2016
ARUN SUBRAMANIAN
March 9, 2016
to be honest,not impressed by the pics..i was eagerly awaiting for mi5 to have rocking camera..guess i would have to look elsewhere..Mi5 is super is places where i dont really need..eg: 820 processor
Roberto Tomás
March 9, 2016
I would consider this phone once the markup goes away. There’s no difference between the mid tier and the high end model except the larger storage, right?
- Andi Sykes
  March 9, 2016
  Storage, RAM, CPU speed, and ceramic rear are the differences
- Roberto Tomás
  March 9, 2016
  that sounds like the differences between the base model and the others. I thought at least the CPU speed was the same for the mid range (64GB storage) and the top model (128GB)
  edit: in fact, this is the details as reported at androidPit (emphasis mine): . The most affordable model costs 1,999 CNY (about US$305) and brings 32 GB of internal storage and a 3D glass rear panel, but has a lower clock speed than the other two models, 1.8 GHz instead of 2.15 GHz.
  The middle model has 64 GB of internal storage and a 3D glass rear panel, and will be priced at 2,299 CNY (US$352).
  Finally, there’s the Pro version, which will haul along 4 GB of RAM, compared with the 3GB at the disposal of the other two versions, and a 3D ceramic back, all for a price of 2,699 CNY (US$413).
- Jasper Cz
  March 9, 2016
  No. The mid range model have 3gb RAM and a glas back.
- balcobomber25
  March 9, 2016
  The mid model is kind of a blend of the two. It has the the same CPU speed as the PRO but the same RAM as the base.

ARUN SUBRAMANIAN
March 9, 2016
to be honest,not impressed by the pics..i was eagerly awaiting for mi5 to have rocking camera..guess i would have to look elsewhere..Mi5 is super is places where i dont really need..eg: 820 processor
Marcello23
March 10, 2016
it will be great andy if you compair with nexus 6P which its better ..camera and everything.. ..
Marcello23
March 10, 2016
it will be great andy if you compair with nexus 6P which its better ..camera and everything.. ..

Dasha Konfetka
March 14, 2016
Пошли в продажу уже по 400$ на aliexpress. Цена немножко кусается, но он того стоит
http://mygip.ru/xiaomi-mi5/
YOUWOTM8
January 11, 2017

Gizchina News of the week

Xiaomi Mi5 Photo Samples

Xiaomi Mi5 Camera speed video

Xiaomi Mi5 photo sample taken during the video

Andi

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