Xiaomi drops Mi5 pricing in the hope to boost sales


xiaomi mi5 unboxing

Xiaomi have announced a price drop for their flagship Xiaomi Mi5 in an attempt to boost sales, but could this move also confirm those Mi5S rumours?

The Xiaomi Mi5 was a flagship phone long in the making, but once it was launched it wasn’t given the fanfare welcome that Xiaomi had hoped for. Many people complained that the build quality wasn’t up to scratch, and that although it features some nice design and hardware thought, it failed to WOW like phones before it.

Gizchina News of the week


With sales lower than expected Xiaomi have announced today that the Mi5 will now cost from just 1799 Yuan in China, a 200 Yuan drop from the launch price of 1999 Yuan. For those of you hoping this means that resellers will also cut pricing, we wouldn’t count on it for a while as most stock they have will have been bought in at the original higher price.

The price drop sounds like it’s bad news for Xiaomi, but in actual fact it might not be so worrisome. Over the past few months we have heard rumours of an updated version of the Mi5 named the Mi5S which could launch with a faster processor and updated camera hardware due later this month, the price drop might simply be away to move stock before launching this new phone.

What do you make of the Xiaomi Mi5 price drop?

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21 Comments

  1. Karly Johnston
    August 16, 2016

    Xiaomi getting desperate.

  2. Sbz
    August 16, 2016

    No, thanks. I’ll gladly pass

  3. Conrad Aquilina
    August 16, 2016

    How about the gizchina shop? Is the price non-dropping also applicable?

  4. August 16, 2016

    I have the Xiaomi Mi 5 – great phone, best I ever owned – for battery life especially, my number one criterion. Shame they need to lower the price at all.

  5. Lolly
    August 16, 2016

    Mi5 is my first phone with MIUI, and it will also be my last. Hardware is great, but I’m going to sell it off and get a device with a near stock rom. MIUI is unbearable.

  6. Bailey
    August 16, 2016

    I suppose nobody will believe me when I say I really enjoy using my mi5 it’s my daily driver and I have no complaints.

    • balcobomber25
      August 16, 2016

      I know a lot of people that love them, when it first released it suffered from a lot of issues but Xiaomi fixed them all in updates.

      • Bailey
        August 16, 2016

        I got it when it first came out my only issue was with android pay. Which is sorted as I have used it a couple times. I am never a person fussed on phone camera as to me they are all rubbish and don’t come close to my DSLR camera although Samsung phones aren’t bad

        • SnowyCat
          August 16, 2016

          to be fair only a fgew people got a dslr and a lot of people got a phone these days to take vacation pics and stuff :p

          • Bailey
            August 16, 2016

            Yep I am totally aware of that as I did mention Samsung in my comment ?

  7. balcobomber25
    August 16, 2016

    If Xiaomi wants to boost sales it is very easy to do in 2 steps:

    1. Offer global LTE, most of their competitors do. No reason the biggest in China cant.
    2. Make the black version more readily available.

    • SnowyCat
      August 16, 2016

      you can rpetty much buy the black versiona t a lot of stores and it costs the same as the white version

      • balcobomber25
        August 16, 2016

        But you can’t get it with global LTE.

        • SnowyCat
          August 16, 2016

          yes but thats the case for most chinese phones

          • balcobomber25
            August 16, 2016

            Not really: Huawei/Honor, OnePlus, ZTE, Alcatel (TCL), Blu (Gionee) and Zuk all offer US LTE. Several others offer band 20 for Europe.

            • SnowyCat
              August 17, 2016

              but not with their chinese versions..at least huawei/oneplus ..and only the z2 pro supports band 20

  8. greg
    August 16, 2016

    Globlal LTE bands is the answer to increase sales.

  9. Tomer Yona
    August 16, 2016

    Whats the difference between the mi5 and the new Redmi PRO- seems not far from each other and looks like being sold in the same price range in international re sellers online stores.. which would you choose?

    • Tano
      August 17, 2016

      Mi5 is a flagship phone, Redmi is a mid-ranger, quality in this one is worse. That’s the big difference

  10. SnowyCat
    August 16, 2016

    i dont know how trustworthy the seller is as i only made one purchase there but oppomart reduced the price from 300€ 3/32 and 345€ 3/64 to 270 and 315 all inclusive with sf express

    seems rather good..was temped in the past but i would have to buy the black version for the bezels..but i prefer white phones 🙁

  11. August 17, 2016

    Maybe after this sale they will move up to third place in China ;).