Will this be the first Xiaomi phone for the West?

Xiami
Eastern promise

If you live in the UK, US or Australia then you might've heard of Xiaomi phones without seeing one in the (metal) flesh - the Chinese manufacturer sold 61 million handsets in 2014 though has yet to release a single one in Western markets.

All that could be about to change with the arrival of its next flagship phone (presumably called the Xiaomi Mi 5) later this month. Xiaomi has scheduled a press conference for January 15 where it's expected to unveil the handset.

So what do we know about it? Officially, only that it's new and that it's going to be thinner than an insect's wings (according to the teaser poster) - so probably very, very thin then.

International expansion

Unofficially, plenty of leaked photos and specs lists have been floating around on the web. There's talk of a Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM, a 4K 5.7-inch display, 4G LTE support and a 20.7-megapixel camera, but how informed those leaks are remains to be seen. A price of CNY1,999 (about $320, £210, AU$400) has been mooted.

It'll definitely be slim though, and quite possibly mark Xiaomi's expansion into new markets, as we speculated last month - with strong domestic performance the firm can now afford to dip a toe into the international waters.

There were indications that the Mi 5 (the successor to the Mi 4) would be shown off at CES but that hasn't happened - all eyes will now be on Beijing on Thursday the 15th.

Via GizmoChina

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.