Xiaomi Mi5 released in India: Priced at Rs 24,999, here are the complete specifications

New Delhi, Mar 31: China-based tech firm Xiaomi released its much-awaited smartphone Mi5 on Thursday. The product has been priced at Rs 24,999. Similar to Mi4, the gadget does not have 4G enabled. The striking features of the phone are – 3GB RAM, Snapdragon 820 processor and an expandable memory of 128 GB.

The first round of flash sale for the product would be done on April 6. Unlike its previous releases, Xiaomi has failed to generate euphoria surrounding its product. The key feature of all Xiaomi phones which grabbed headlines, were the extraordinarily low price for a solid hardware system. However, the previous market experience of Mi series phone has turned the company averse towards offering the gadgets at lucrative prices. According to tech pundits, the price of Mi5 is at par with what the company is charging for the same gadget in China. 

Xiaomi Mi5 specifications:

Mi5 offers a solid rear camera of 16 megapixel, along with full HD recording. The screen size is 5.15 inches, with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. Battery size is quite impressive. The phone is powered by non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery. Operating system in the smartphone is Android 6 (Marshmellow).

Processor	Snapdragon 820
Memory	4 GB (128 GB expandable)
Primary Camera	16 MP
Rear Camera	4 MP
Screen size	5.15”
Screen resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels
Display protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Operating system	Android 6 (Marshmallow)

Samsung launches Galaxy J3, Xiaomi launches Mi5 with aim to increase market share in India

The top two players in the hotly contested Indian smartphone market — Samsung and Xiaomi — have made new launches at the opposite ends of the price spectrum, but with a common goal — a stronger play in the world's fastest growing market at a time when global sales are expected to grow in single digit in 2016 for the first time ever.

Xiaomi launched its premium flagship Mi5, priced at Rs 24,999, a few weeks after launching the affordable Redmi Note 3 to claw back in India after having lost ground in 2015. Market leader Samsung, on the other hand, launched the Galaxy J3 with S Bike mode for Rs 8,990 to strengthen its portfolio in a segment that records the most volume sales.

"While the developed markets have already matured, India's smartphone market opportunity is still huge," said Vishal Tripathi, research director at Gartner.

Research firm Gartner said on Thursday that global smartphone sales are estimated to grow only 7 per cent in 2016 year on year, to reach 1.5 billion units, while overall phone market would reach 1.9 billion units. India though will continue to exhibit double-digit growth in the next two years.

Both Samsung and Xiaomi's latest smartphones will be available exclusively online, though with different retail partners. Xiaomi's Mi 5 will go on sale from April 6 on Mi.com, and eventually on Flipkart and other sites, while the Galaxy J3 will be available on Snapdeal from Thursday.

Xiaomi, which has seen its popularity dip in terms of market share over 2015, came out all guns blazing with Redmi Note 3 in the sub-Rs 10,000 segment in March and now wants to carve out a share of the mid-segment with Mi 5.

"The above $300 (Rs 20,000) category is much smaller — it was 5.7 million units in 2015, this year it may reach 7.5 million as per IDC — and is dominated by two players... we think we belong in that category with Mi 5," Xiaomi's head of international operations Hugo Barra said.

The company, which currently sells about 90 per cent of its phones online in India, its top key market outside China, is expanding its offline presence with Direct-To-Retail — a pilot running in several cities in South India where Redington directly distributes to few thousand mom-and-pop retail shops.

The pilot, which will now be expanded to another region by June, can provide an 8-12 per cent savings on margins by removing three to four distribution layers — each layer taking up 2-3 per cent margin — in the chain.

"This is a more capital efficient model, which cuts out the entire channel cost, and works on a week-on-week pull (read demand), therefore people are willing to work at even lower margins, because they don't need to invest a lot of capital," said Xiaomi's India head Manu Jain.

On the other end, Samsung, which has a massive distribution network in the country, will restrict the sales of Galaxy J3 to online, but believes the newest model's sales will propel its market share in the Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 price bracket.

Senior vice-president Asim Warsi said that the company leads with a 50 per cent share, citing GFK figures for February. "The S Bike mode is an India-specific feature and can be extended to other (developing) markets very swiftly."

The S Bike Mode informs callers that a biker is unable to take calls because he's on the move and they would have to press 1 to take the call forward.