Xiaomi announced its latest Mi 5 flagship smartphone at Mobile World Congress on Wednesday. It has some of the best specs around and comes with a low price tag. The top-end Mi 5 costs $400, while Samsung's latest Galaxy S7 costs more than $700 for about the same specs.
It's beautiful, but after years of being criticized for copying Apple, it looks like Xiaomi has found a new source of design inspiration: Samsung. The new Mi 5 appears to be heavily influenced by Samsung's latest designs. Specifically, the Mi 5's home button looks a lot like the Galaxy Note 5's.
And the back's curved-edge design looks nearly identical to the Galaxy Note 5's back. The sloping corner is unmistakably similar to the Note 5's corner. Also, the antenna strips on the bottom edge look nearly identical on both phones.
That says a lot about the state of Samsung. Last year, the company introduced the Galaxy S6, a gorgeous phone that leapfrogged Apple's iPhone design. The Note 5 and new Galaxy S7 are variations on the S6 design, and are even more impressive.
Until now, the iPhone's design was the envy of the smartphone world. Apple's lead designer, Jony Ive, blasted copycats like Xiaomi in 2014, calling what they do "theft." Now that influence seems to be waning and Samsung has the upper hand. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and now we're starting to see others flatter Samsung instead of Apple.
