Xiaomi Mi 5’s Benchmark Visit Reportedly Shows Underclocked Snapdragon 820 For Base Version

Xiaomi Mi 5's base variant apparently comes with an underclocked Snapdragon 820. Reuters

Introduced at the MWC 2016 event, Xiaomi’s Mi 5 has apparently made a visit to a slew of benchmark testing sites revealing a key configuration unknown to public so far.

The flagship Xiaomi Mi 5 comes as three variants. These variants are differentiated based on the design, RAM and memory configurations, which in turn affect the price of the device. The base or standard edition reportedly comes equipped with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in storage space, Phone Arena noted.

The high-end variant features 3 GB of RAM and 64 GB of native storage space. The special edition, on the other hand, sports a stunning ceramic back, and it packs a punch under the hood with a killer 4 GB of RAM and a whopping 128 GB of storage.

Under the hood, all the aforementioned variants come powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC. However, as it turns out, the standard edition with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage comes with a different clock rate when compared to other Xiaomi Mi 5 variants.

The 32 GB standard variant has been priced at 1,999 Yuan in China, which translates to about $306. This model is reportedly underclocked to 1.8 GHz. The high-end and special editions are priced at 2299 Yuan (about $350) and 2699 Yuan (about $411), respectively. The housed processor in these two variants apparently runs at a maximum speed of 2.15 GHz, Gizmo China reported.

Speaking of benchmark score, the 32 GB standard edition apparently tallied a brilliant 110K points at the AnTuTu site. In the GeekBench single core test, the same variant reportedly scored 1,901 points, while the multi core test results stood at 4,707 points. This is by no means a bad score for a $300+ handset.

However, upon comparing this base model to the high-end variants of the Mi 5, the performance reportedly dropped by a good 20 percent, Gizmo China reported. In any case, the small difference in the clock rate will apparently not affect the performance of the Xiaomi Mi 5 drastically. However, gaming enthusiasts may have to purchase either the high-end or the special edition model for smooth performance.