Xiaomi Mi 5s review: Ever changing

3. Display, battery life, connectivity

Display

The Xiaomi Mi 5s features a 5.15" IPS display of 1080p resolution, similar to the one utilized by the original Mi 5. A density of 428ppi is more than respectable and leaves the Snapdragon 821 chip with power to spare on tasks and productivity, so we don't mind the lack of Quad HD resolution.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi didn't mention any specific glass protection for the screen and we can confirm the Gorilla Glass 4 is gone for good. The Mi 5s acquired lots of big scratches on top of its display just in the week we had it for a review. We suggest that you apply a screen protector on it as soon as you take the phone out of its box.

Other than that, the screen offers great viewing angles and there is hardly any color shift or contrast loss when looking the Mi 5s display at an angle.

Xiaomi claims the screen will provide up to 600 nits of max brightness. Our test results confirmed and even exceeded the claim for maximum brightness as we measured 650nits worth of luminance.

The minimum display brightness is 1.1nits, which is perfectly suitable for late-night reading in a dark room and it's even lower than the Galaxy S7's. The screen's contrast ratio is excellent as well at 1294:1, though slightly less than the promised contrast ratio of 1500:1.

Display test	100% brightness
Display test	Black, cd/m²	White, cd/m²	Contrast ratio
Xiaomi Mi 5s	0.51	660	1294
Xiaomi Mi 5	0.51	628	1227
Samsung Galaxy S7	0.00	391	∞
Samsung Galaxy S7 max auto	0.00	563	∞
Apple iPhone 7	0.35	561	1603
Apple iPhone 7 (max auto)	0.40	656	1640
nubia Z11	0.43	513	1196
ZTE Axon 7	0.00	352	∞
Sony Xperia XZ	0.37	502	1349
Sony Xperia XZ (max auto)	0.46	608	1336
Meizu PRO 6	0.01	360	40000
HTC 10	0.29	428	1543

When it comes to color rendering, the Mi 5s has an excellent color rendering with an average DeltaE of 3.5 and a maximum deviation of 4.5 in the gray color. If all colors stay below 4, the screen is considered to be of perfect calibration level accuracy and the Mi 5s almost achieves that.

Note that we did our color test in Standard (constant) screen mode. If you opt for the Auto one, you will get punchier colors at the expense of color calibration.

Finally, the bright screen of the Xiaomi Mi 5s performed excellently in our sunlight legibility test, too. Posting a very high value for a non-AMOLED panel, the Mi 5s ranks the same as its predecessor.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
4.615
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
4.439
OnePlus 3
4.424
Samsung Galaxy S7
4.376
HTC One A9
4.274
Samsung Galaxy Note7
4.247
Samsung Galaxy A3
4.241
ZTE Axon 7
4.154
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
4.124
Samsung Galaxy Note5
4.09
Huawei Nexus 6P
4.019
Vivo Xplay5 Elite
3.983
OnePlus X
3.983
Oppo R7s
3.964
Apple iPhone 7
3.964
Huawei P9 Plus
3.956
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
3.918
Samsung Galaxy C5
3.911
Samsung Galaxy C7
3.896
Samsung Galaxy A5
3.895
Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
3.879
Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
3.873
Samsung Galaxy A8
3.859
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
3.817
Motorola Moto X (2014)
3.816
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode
3.802
Xiaomi Redmi Pro
3.798
LG V20 Max auto
3.798
Sony Xperia XZ
3.795
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
3.789
Apple iPhone 6s
3.783
Meizu Pro 5
3.781
Microsoft Lumia 650
3.772
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
3.756
Oppo F1 Plus
3.709
Vivo X5Pro
3.706
Sony Xperia X Compact
3.694
Apple iPhone SE
3.681
Samsung Galaxy A7
3.679
Meizu PRO 6
3.659
BlackBerry Priv
3.645
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
3.588
Apple iPhone 6s Plus
3.53
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode
3.523
Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
3.523
Acer Jade Primo
3.521
Microsoft Lumia 950
3.512
Oppo R7 Plus
3.499
nubia Z11
3.466
Samsung Galaxy J7
3.422
Meizu MX5
3.416
LG V20
3.402
Oppo R7
3.320
Xiaomi Mi 5s
3.276
Xiaomi Mi 5
3.240
Samsung Galaxy J2
3.235
Sony Xperia X Performance
3.234
Motorola Moto X Play
3.222
Huawei P9
3.195
Lenovo Vibe Shot
3.113
Motorola Moto X Force
3.105
LG Nexus 5X
3.092
Huawei Mate S
3.073
Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
3.065
Sony Xperia X
2.989
Samsung Galaxy Note
2.97
Huawei Mate 8
2.949
Xiaomi Redmi 3S
2.913
Sony Xperia XA Ultra
2.906
LG G5
2.905
HTC One S
2.901
Sony Xperia Z5
2.876
Microsoft Lumia 550
2.851
Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
2.803
Sony Xperia Z5 compact
2.784
LG V10
2.744
Xiaomi Redmi 3
2.735
Sony Xperia M5
2.69
Huawei P9 Lite
2.679
Vivo V3Max
2.659
Xiaomi Mi 4i
2.641
Sony Xperia XA
2.609
Xiaomi Mi 4c
2.574
LeEco Le Max 2
2.567
Microsoft Lumia 640
2.563
Lenovo Moto G4
2.544
Oppo F1
2.528
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
2.525
Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c
2.506
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
2.503
Oppo F1s
2.481
Motorola Moto G
2.477
Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
2.473
Huawei G8
2.471
Huawei nova
2.467
Sony Xperia Z
2.462
Lenovo Vibe K5
2.459
Huawei Honor 7
2.406
Sony Xperia E5
2.386
ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
2.382
HTC 10
2.378
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
2.378
Huawei nova plus
2.329
HTC One E9+
2.305
Alcatel One Touch Hero
2.272
Apple iPhone 4S
2.269
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
2.254
Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
2.253
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
2.249
Sony Xperia C4 Dual
2.235
Xiaomi Mi Note
2.234
Motorola Moto G (2014)
2.233
LG Nexus 5
2.228
Huawei P8
2.196
Huawei Honor 6
2.169
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
2.166
OnePlus Two
2.165
HTC One X
2.158
LG Aka
2.145
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
2.145
Archos 50 Diamond
2.134
Xiaomi Redmi Note
2.119
Acer Liquid X2
2.084
Huawei P8lite
2.078
Moto G 3rd gen max manual
2.026
Xiaomi Mi Max
1.996
Sony Xperia E4g
1.972
OnePlus One
1.961
Meizu m3 note
1.923
Meizu m2 note
1.892
BlackBerry Leap
1.892
HTC Butterfly
1.873
ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
1.759
Sony Xperia U
1.758
Asus Zenfone Selfie
1.68
Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
1.675
ZTE Nubia Z9
1.659
Jolla Jolla
1.605
Motorola Moto E
1.545
Sony Xperia M
1.473
HTC Desire C
1.3
Sony Xperia C
1.283
Meizu MX
1.221
Sony Xperia E
1.215

Battery life

The Xiaomi Mi 5s is powered by a 3,200mAh battery, which seems more than enough for a 5.15" device. It's also 200mAh beefier than the one inside the original Mi 5.

We ran our battery test, and the Xiaomi Mi 5s scored an 84h rating, which means you can count on the battery to last three and a half days if you do an hour each of calling, web browsing and video playback a day.

While the browser and video playback times are similar to the ones we got from the Mi 5, the call test and the standby performance turned out a bit lesser and thus the reason for the lower final rating.

If you want to use the phone with two SIM cards, you'll end up with an 80h rating.

While the rating is quite good for a flagship, we are a bit disappointed. The Mi 5s should have brought us better battery life thanks to its bigger battery, energy-efficient chipset, and optimized MIUI 8, but apparently - this didn't happen.

The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Connectivity

The Xiaomi Mi 5s supports 9 LTE bands, quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G connectivity with HSPA support. You can tap to an LTE network on either SIM, but once you do, the second one will be limited to 3G or GSM connectivity. You can even have both registered on 3G networks, when 4G is not available.

The rest of the connectivity features include single-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS with GLONASS and Beidou.

There is no FM radio support.

Xiaomi Mi 5s comes with USB Type-C port. Media transfer mode is supported for accessing the phone's built-in memory over a USB connection. The port also supports USB On-the-go for connecting USB peripherals such as pen drives, keyboards or USB hard drives, but you'll need to buy a proper adapter for that.

Wireless screen mirroring is available via the Miracast protocol.

There is no IR blaster on the Mi 5s. The MiRemote app is on board, but it can only control smart devices connected to the same wireless network.

Next Page » 4. Software overview

3. Display, battery life, connectivity

Reviews Xiaomi Mi 5s reviewPage 3