Xiaomi has a 5G phone and its killer feature is the price

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is known for launching full-featured phones with low prices, and the company’s event ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona did not stray far from that concept. 

On Sunday, Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix 3 5G, a powerful phone with 5G capabilities that costs 599 euros. 

The Mi Mix 3 5G is exactly the same as the regular Mi Mix 3, only it comes with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 855 chips and the company’s X50 5G modem. Xiaomi claims the X50 allows for really fast 5G performance; one example says users will be able to download a 15-minute 1,080p video, or twenty-six 320 Kbps mp3 files, in just 1 second. 

The company did a live demonstration on stage in Barcelona with a short 5G video call, which went well but the call’s quality didn’t really give a good feel for how fast the connection really was. Ultimately, it’s likely that the quality of the 5G network you’re connected to will be the bottleneck for speeds, so you shouldn’t worry too much about the phone’s 5G performance. 

Even though the Mi Mix 3 5G is based on a phone that launched back in October, it still has pretty impressive specs: a 6.39-inch notch-less Super AMOLED screen (the selfie camera is revealed via a manual sliding mechanism), 6/8/10GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, a dual 12-megapixel rear camera, a dual 24/2-megapixel selfie camera, and a 3,200mAh battery. 

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G will be available in May in authorized mi stores and through Xiaomi’s main retail channels. It will be available in two colors: onyx black and sapphire blue. There’s no word on pricing in the U.S.

The Mi Mix 3 5G is an interesting device. It’s coming to market pretty fast, the price is good, the specs are great and the phone’s 5G capabilities will make it a part of a very small group, with some competitors — say, Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G — being far more expensive. We’ll have to wait for other Chinese smartphone makers, including Huawei, Oppo and OnePlus, to properly launch their 5G phones, but Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 3 5G will probably be very competitive.