.The Mi 5 runs Xiaomi's MIUI interface on top of Android, and comes with weekly software updates from Xiaomi's community. The phone will be available starting on March 1st and will be priced starting at $306 for an entry level model, with the high-end version costing $413, keeping in line with Xiaomi's tradition of offering a lot of specs for a low price. The Mi 5 will come in black, white, and gold color options.

Xiaomi has experienced explosive growth in its home market of China and surrounding Asian countries, but it has yet to bring its phones to Europe or North America. It utilizes a direct sales model, where it sells phones from its website in limited numbers direct to consumers. It sells its devices at near cost, with little to no profit margin, with the eventual goal of making a profit via services. Last year, it sold over 70 million phones this way, and demand for each of its releases often outpaces the company's ability to keep the phones in stock. Still, that impressive figure was short of Xiaomi's own predictions of 100 million phones in 2015, and competition from Huawei and other Chinese companies has slowed the company's growth.