Xiaomi Mi 5C announced, packs the first Pinecone Surge S1 SoC!


Well we knew all about it so it cannot be a surprise don’t you think? The Xiaomi Mi 5C is official after its grand unveiling at the National Convention Center in Beijing by Xiaomi officials.

It packs the first in-house chipset named Pinecone Surge S1 and comes with impressive design and quality built, along with some interesting mid-range specs. The most awaited device comes with a  5.15” display, a 12 MP main camera and a 8 MP snapper on the front along with a fingerprint scanner below the display.

It offers 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage but unfortunately it packs a really small 2860 mAh battery that should be enough for 1 day of full use, but thankfully it supports 9V/ 2A fast charging. It comes with Android 7.1 Nougat and MIUI out of the box, but the most important novelty is its 8-core Pinecone Surge S1 SoC inside.

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The in-house chipset comes with 8 Cortex A53 cores, half of them clocked at 2.2 GHz and the other half at 1.4 GHz, along with a Mali-T860 GPU for intense gaming and VoLTE support. It is based on the 28nm architecture and has “lower power consumption for daily use” according to Xiaomi engineers, so the small 2860 mAh battery should be able to cope with it.

The Xiaomi Mi 5C comes with a main 12MPixel camera on the back, with dual ISP algorithm that basically improves  the camera speed by up to 150%, dual noise optimization feature that reduces digital noise in photos and offers pixel level dynamic range adjustment.

The Xiaomi Mi 5C will be available for your purchase needs on March 3, priced at 1499 Yuan (~218) for the 3GB + 64GB version, which sounds really interesting.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

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58 Comments

  1. realjjj
    February 28, 2017

    You do realize that the SoC is a Helio X10 competitor just 2 years late.
    Would be great in a 100$ phone and hopefully they do that soon but this phone at 1500CNY is a joke.

    • February 28, 2017

      Helio X10 is quite better considering that all cores are running at same speed. It is more of a Helio P10 competitor.

      I wouldnt consider buying any of those phones at that price. There are better phones with better SoCs out there.

      • Flipp0
        February 28, 2017

        The SOC is important but other factors also come into play such as thiness and build quality, screen and camera quality etc.

        • Guaire
          February 28, 2017

          It’s a flop. For a 100 yuan more there is 32GB Mi5.

      • Ekeluo Chukwuogor
        February 28, 2017

        The x10’s GPU performance was not as good, this has Mali t860mp4

      • Kamui
        February 28, 2017

        Lower speed cores means less consumption. big.LITTLE is a standard technique now and I think it’s a must for an 8core SoC to have 2 or even 3 groups of cores clocked properly for the corresponding needs.

        • Lazar Prodanovic
          February 28, 2017

          Big litle is stupid all do it whose needed with previous big core’s & lithography, with A73 & FD-SOI – 10nm FinFET not anymore. The litle litle is more stupid & three cluster one is moronic.

          • Muhammad Yasir
            February 28, 2017

            you’re so harsh !

            • Wolvie
              March 1, 2017

              But it seems he does know deeper about soc than us.

              I do think that the best move now is to make a powerful soc with powerful GPU but at low price to beat the monopoly of qualcomm.

              It just doesn’t make sense to spend money doing soc research and development if in the end only can produce soc to compete with mediatek because mediatek soc itself always selling their soc at low prices.

            • Kamui
              March 8, 2017

              I really do not agree on that. It’s like you are being the victim of marketing they want you to be (I am talking about everyone, no offense my friend). At the end of the day, as I said before, many many people pay $200, max $300 to buy a smartphone and not $700-$1000 for an iphone or a Galaxy S7.

              So much power in a device which maybe only the 10% of their owners actually (know to) use…the rest just showoffs.

              The $200-$300 range has a very big market share and many many great devices that are actually the best for most people’s needs, though they don’t know it.

              The only thing the $200-$300 range is jealous about is the great cameras. But I think that also is a marketing strategy rather than the inability to make medium level phones capture great pictures.

          • Kamui
            March 1, 2017

            FD-SOI, 10nm FinFET and A73 cores (which still support big.LITTLE with A53s) are technologies for the high end flagships, don’t you think? We are talking about a $200 phone here for daily use and not for the new Samsung, LG, Apple or whatever $700+ phone you have in mind.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              March 1, 2017

              No I don’t! Quad core A73 cluster would cost approximately same as two A53 clusters. We sow the 2×4 A53 on the 14nm FinFET SoC’s that found their place on sub 200$ phones (S625 on Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime). So it’s perfectly possible to make a A72 quad core with a Adreno 510 grade GPU on the 22nm FD-SOI (as it costs around 20% less than 14~16nm FinFET) & there for sub 200$ phone. All do I would rise bar to 250$ with better camera sensor (around 3$ for the 16MP Sony one found on Xiaomi Mi5), better display (still LCD but JDI IGZO self refresh, CABAC around 10$), good dedicated AMP & DAC (around 15$) and rest culd go on the SoC for the GPU (a quad cluster power VR 8GEX Plus modified design) and much better DSP (Cadence Tensilica Vision P6 DSP is my current choice).

        • Guaire
          March 1, 2017

          Yeah, it’s an industry standard now. Even Qualcomm and Apple too has adopted it for power saving.

          ARM knows its business.

    • Assefa Hanson
      February 28, 2017

      Ahh a realjjj post been a while since i saw one

    • darkvadur
      February 28, 2017

      ? it’s more a snap 626 competitor

    • goodwill
      February 28, 2017

      The GPU on this has more cores than of the MTK counterpart.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 28, 2017

      Well with a decent enough GPU & dual IPS it’s more of a P25/S625 competitor & will lose from both of them regarding performance & power consumption on a CPU front but it will be on pair with X2x/S65x siblings regarding GPU performance. Not really satisfied but it’s not bad for a first try.

      • Muhammad Yasir
        February 28, 2017

        what do you do by profession?

        • Lazar Prodanovic
          February 28, 2017

          I am profesor of Philosophy and Sociology.

          • Muhammad Yasir
            February 28, 2017

            wow

            yet you know so much about microelectronics .. it must be a really beloved hobby , i believe. amirite ?

            also , if you don’t mind me asking … where do you teach ?

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              February 28, 2017

              Actually I wanted to study Cybernetics but didn’t had a chance for it. It’s quite a bit of a hobby & a little bit of talent.

            • Muhammad Yasir
              February 28, 2017

              nice !

    • Muhammad Yasir
      February 28, 2017

      @realjjj:disqus , where do you go off into hiding time and AGAIN ?!

      i need help with GPGPUS !

      also , why do you think this SoC is bad ? i think it’s a pretty good offerring ! kindly justify your point !

  2. Yeti hand
    February 28, 2017

    looks it’s a bird, no it’s a plane, no it’s a JOKE

    • Muhammad Yasir
      February 28, 2017

      it’s a decent offering imo

  3. Ekeluo Chukwuogor
    February 28, 2017

    The benchmarks posted by Xiaomi on Twitter aren’t a joke tho. Seems decent, esp in GPU performance. Remains to be seen how much 28nm affects power efficiency.

  4. goodwill
    February 28, 2017
  5. realjjj
    February 28, 2017

    You do realize that the SoC is a Helio X10 competitor just 2 years late.
    Would be great in a 100$ phone and hopefully they do that soon but this phone at 1500CNY is a joke.

    • Michael Ogbonnaya
      February 28, 2017

      Helio X10 is quite better considering that all cores are running at same speed. It is more of a Helio P10 competitor.

      I wouldnt consider buying any of those phones at that price. There are better phones with better SoCs out there.

    • Flipp0
      February 28, 2017

      The SOC is important but other factors also come into play such as thiness and build quality, screen and camera quality etc.

    • Assefa Hanson
      February 28, 2017

      Ahh a realjjj post been a while since i saw one

    • eghr
      February 28, 2017

      ? it’s more a snap 626 competitor

    • Ekeluo Chukwuogor
      February 28, 2017

      The x10’s GPU performance was not as good, this has Mali t860mp4

    • Kamui
      February 28, 2017

      Lower speed cores means less consumption. big.LITTLE is a standard technique now and I think it’s a must for an 8core SoC to have 2 or even 3 groups of cores clocked properly for the corresponding needs.

    • Guaire
      February 28, 2017

      It’s a flop. For a 100 yuan more there is 32GB Mi5.

    • goodwill
      February 28, 2017

      The GPU on this has more cores than of the MTK counterpart, I think. I could be wrong tho.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 28, 2017

      Well with a decent enough GPU & dual IPS it’s more of a P25/S625 competitor & will lose from both of them regarding performance & power consumption on a CPU front but it will be on pair with X2x/S65x siblings regarding GPU performance. Not really satisfied but it’s not bad for a first try.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 28, 2017

      Big litle is stupid all do it whose needed with previous big core’s & lithography, with A73 & FD-SOI – 10nm FinFET not anymore. The litle litle is more stupid & three cluster one is moronic.

    • Guest
      February 28, 2017

      @realjjj:disqus , where do you go off into hiding time and AGAIN ?!

      i need help with GPGPUS !

      also , why do you think this SoC is bad ? i think it’s a pretty good offerring ! kindly justify your point !

    • Guest
      February 28, 2017

      you’re so harsh !

    • Guest
      February 28, 2017

      what do you do by profession?

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 28, 2017

      I am profesor of Philosophy and Sociology.

    • Guest
      February 28, 2017

      wow

      yet you know so much about microelectronics .. it must be a really beloved hobby , i believe. amirite ?

      also , if you don’t mind me asking … where do you teach ?

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 28, 2017

      Actually I wanted to study Cybernetics but didn’t had a chance for it. It’s quite a bit of a hobby & a little bit of talent.

    • Guest
      March 1, 2017

      nice !

    • Kamui
      March 1, 2017

      FD-SOI, 10nm FinFET and A73 cores (which still support big.LITTLE with A53s) are technologies for the high end flagships, don’t you think? We are talking about a $200 phone here for daily use and not for the new Samsung, LG, Apple or whatever $700+ phone you have in mind.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      March 1, 2017

      No I don’t! Quad core A73 cluster would cost approximately same as two A53 clusters. We sow the 2×4 A53 on the 14nm FinFET SoC’s that found their place on sub 200$ phones (S625 on Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime). So it’s perfectly possible to make a A72 quad core with a Adreno 510 grade GPU on the 22nm FD-SOI (as it costs around 20% less than 14~16nm FinFET) & there for sub 200$ phone. All do I would rise bar to 250$ with better camera sensor (around 3$ for the 16MP Sony one found on Xiaomi Mi5), better display (still LCD but JDI IGZO self refresh, CABAC around 10$), good dedicated AMP & DAC (around 15$) and rest culd go on the SoC for the GPU (a quad cluster power VR 8GEX Plus modified design) and much better DSP (Cadence Tensilica Vision P6 DSP is my current choice).

    • Guest
      March 1, 2017

      But it seems he does know deeper about soc than us.

      I do think that the best move now is to make a powerful soc with powerful GPU but at low price to beat the monopoly of qualcomm.

      It just doesn’t make sense to spend money doing soc research and development if in the end only can produce soc to compete with mediatek because mediatek soc itself always selling their soc at low prices.

    • Guaire
      March 1, 2017

      Yeah, it’s an industry standard now. Even Qualcomm and Apple too has adopted it for power saving.

      ARM knows its business.

    • Kamui
      March 8, 2017

      I really do not agree on that. It’s like you are being the victim of marketing they want you to be (I am talking about everyone, no offense my friend). At the end of the day, as I said before, many many people pay $200, max $300 to buy a smartphone and not $700-$1000 for an iphone or a Galaxy S7.

      So much power in a device which maybe only the 10% of their owners actually (know to) use…the rest just showoffs.

      The $200-$300 range has a very big market share and many many great devices that are actually the best for most people’s needs, though they don’t know it.

      The only thing the $200-$300 range is jealous about is the great cameras. But I think that also is a marketing strategy rather than the inability to make medium level phones capture great pictures.

  6. Yeti hand
    February 28, 2017

    looks it’s a bird, no it’s a plane, no it’s a JOKE

    • Guest
      February 28, 2017

      it’s a decent offering imo

  7. Ekeluo Chukwuogor
    February 28, 2017

    The benchmarks posted by Xiaomi on Twitter aren’t a joke tho. Seems decent, esp in GPU performance. Remains to be seen how much 28nm affects power efficiency.

  8. Muhammad Yasir
    February 28, 2017

    JUSTIFY YOUR POINTS PEOPLE !

    Argument 1 : this SoC SUCKS ! … Justify why.

    Argument 2 : this SoC DOESN’T SUCK … Justify why.

    • Ishti
      March 6, 2017

      SoC suxxx because it comes close to the 625 in Redmi Note 4. and note 4 is much much cheaper, lmao !

  9. Guest
    February 28, 2017

    JUSTIFY YOUR POINTS PEOPLE !

    Argument 1 : this SoC SUCKS ! … Justify why.

    Argument 2 : this SoC DOESN’T SUCK … Justify why.

    • Ishti
      March 6, 2017

      SoC suxxx because it comes close to the 625 in Redmi Note 4. and note 4 is much much cheaper, lmao !