This year was kind of a breather year for Xiaomi, a time they could relax specs and focus on build quality, but for 2015 they could be back to their old tricks again.
If you look at the top flagships from this year you will see that not a huge change has occurred. Most are still running 1080 FHD displays and Snapdragon 800 series processors and most are still running 13 mega-pixel main cameras.
The Mi4 is a good example of this. Not a huge amount changed from the Mi3, and the lull in performance updates allowed Xiaomi to focus on build.
For 2015 though we should expect a jump in specs according to analysts, who believe that Xiaomi will be eager to show that they are still capable to faking on phones such as the IUNI U3 and Meizu MX4 Pro.
Gizchina News of the week
Those in the know have told us that Xiaomi are now developing a Snapdragon 810 powered phone with fingerprint security and a 5.7-inch 2K display as a direct response to the latest Meizu phone. Sources say the phone could cost as much as 2499 Yuan at launch, more than previous Xiaomi flagships but still a low cost for such high specs.
What do you guys think of 2K panels and fingerprint scanners? Are they important parts of phone design or should companies be working on improving other areas?
[ Mydrivers ]
Honestly speaking Andi, i don’t really need 2K displays on my phone. Common guys, I’d rather have a full HD display with powerful gpu that can handle any game I throw at it than one that’ll struggle with 2K display panels.
Anything higher than full HD, the human eyes cannot discern the pixels anymore. 2K resolutions on phone to me are pure marketing gimmick.
I have two 2k phones and I really don’t see the difference between them and a 1080. Saying that though neither display really eats in to the battery life of the phone either though. Both the Vivo Xplay 3S and Meizu Mx4 Pro give me a day and half of battery life.
Well if I can’t differentiate between the 2K resolution and FHD resolution, why then do I have to pay a premium price to purchase a phone with a 2K panel that I won’t even need?
Instead I’d rather pay the normal price for a FHD panel and move on with my life.
It’s not about our ability to differentiate… more like that’s the way technology progressing. If 2K res has the same price/bat/performance than 1080 counterpart I’d definitely get one.
That’s where the problem lies. You have to pay the premium price to get hold of the 2K resolution smart phones and I’m not willing to pay that price when my eyes cannot differentiate between the 2K and FHD resolutions. I’d rather channel that extra money towards achieving something else instead of “wasting” it.
You, personnaly, do not see it but believe me, us chinese people see it when it comes to reading small chineses characters. It makes the reading experience much more confortable. And after all, aren’t these devices mainly tageting the chinese market?
no noticeable difference between 2k and FHD? thats why they can just put a FHD display and claim it as 2K, and sell it for a higher price. 🙂 FHD is best for a smartphone.
Xiaomi needs dual sim flagship for truly market owning
FHD more than enough. Higher is only marketing.
Fingerprint is the future so they should jump in.
Work on improving camera quality and battery performance. For the camera, especially slow-motion like Apple has been doing.
Improve software. Make it a true personal assistant.
Fingerprint might be handy but the 2k is a nonsense for such small screens. And also the screen size is way to big to be useful (at least for me…). I guess that I will be looking somewhere else if the phone is going to have specification like these…
i agree that 1080p is enough for me too, one more thing is that i dont like any mobile past 5 intches, 5.7 is way too much, they throw pixels at us while battery life is bad, they make bigger phones in order for them to have bigger batteries.
the perfect mi5 for me would be
1.5 inch 1080p display with sapphire glass
2.snapdragon 810.adreno 430 3gb ram
3.small bezzels,as thin as it gets with a 3.000mah battery
4.fingerprint scanner(yes i want this),ir blaster, sony new camera sensor with ois
5.fdd lte
6.micro-sd slot(plus point)
7.dual sim (plus point)
i think those things are the most important
now things that i dont want and i think they shove or will shove to our throat
1. bigger screen from 5 inches,
2. 2k screen
3, 4gb ram(3gb is enough)
i would pay 450e(max) for a phone that would have the things i listed, right now there isnt a good option out there for me,mx4 pro comes close but its too big, mx4 and mi4 both are missing vital things(one has no fddlte the other has only 2gb ram),honor 6 has crappy gpu..
i am buying a new phone this holidays, and i am between mi4 (320e)-mx4(320e)-mx4pro(400e)-lg g3 3gb(400e) .but i am still undesided and somewhat pissed off at manufacturers and thinking about vivo max 5x and oppo r5 justs because they are smaller…
Xiaomi mi4 Fdd-lte version will be launched this month. I will buy it
do you have any idea for FDD LTE band coverage, I am waiting for it too
I’m not interested in anything Xiaomi
Must work with most of all
This is really a very good spec. Display should not be more than 5inch
2k, finger print will be old school in 2015. Need some other breakthrough innovation.
I recently moved to a Meizu MX4 from a Xiaomi mi2s, and from that perspective I do believe Xiaomi are a bit ahead on software – Miui seems more polished and smoother, and overall the mi2s was a really solid device.
What made it so usable is the Snapdragon 600 Adreno 320 powering a modest 1280x720p screen that made it fly in all scenarios. Moving to 2k screens with the same smoothness will require much more powerful GPUs.
Andi – There may be a typo on para 4 line 2, I think ‘still capable to faking” should be taking.
2K display is not so imp. Full HD is enough. And form factor of MI4 is just enough. I think they should try to keep phone widh around 70 – 72 mm only. too big is not convenient …..
Camera should improve as overall combination, faster lance (big aperture), better software and processing of image rarher than just increasing pixels, low light performance should improve.
More battery life, faster charging, Better signal reception (Antenna) and more band coverage for LTE should be priority for the companies
Why they are going for bigger screen than 5 inch…. 4.7 inch to 5 inch is perfect…… Smaller form factor amongst flagship is one of the main features for MI4
Xiaomi’s niche is price, not specs. Remember Xiaomi is the frontline of the race-to-the-bottom, don’t expect anything shocking or cutting edge in the specifications department.
and what the hell is a “Analysits”?
Full HD is enough for me but what I would really like to see in Mi5 are O.I.S. and a really super high-speed video recording (720p/1080p @ around 500 fps).
There is no reason for 1440p phones to cost more in 2015 than 1080p phones in 2013. Panel prices decline all the time. A fingerprint sensor is some 4$ for area sensor (Meizu, Apple) and 2$ for swipe (Samsung so it doesn’t add much to cost.
If Xiaomi would launch such a device at 2500CNY it would be a major (and sad) shift in strategy.