14.4 million people set to buy the Xiaomi Mi 5 tomorrow

With less than 24 hours to go before the Xiaomi Mi 5 goes on sale, the company has announced that more than 14.4 million people have already registered for the opportunity to purchase the phone when it goes on sale tomorrow morning in China. While the number is staggering, there’s no guarantee that all 14 million people will actually fork over their hard earned cash to buy the phone.
Priced at RMB 1999 ($306 USD), the base level Mi 5 will have a 1.8GHz Snapdragon 820, 32GB of storage, a glass back, and 3GB of RAM. The RMB 2299 ($352 USD) tier will have a 2.15GHz Snapdragon 820, 64GB of storage, and 3GB of RAM. The RMB 2699 ($413 USD) tier is the Pro model, offering a 2.15GHz Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 3D ceramic back.
The phone itself may not look as appealing as Samsung’s Galaxy S7 edge, but it’s definitely worth considering since it’s only half the price of what Samsung will be asking for its flagship smartphone. Samsung and LG has the advantage of being available in North America and Europe, but Xiaomi has been hinting that its 2016 flagship may make an appearance outside Asian markets sometime this year.