Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has been preparing to release its next flagship device, the Mi5, alongside its phablet variant called the Xiaomi Mi5 Plus, in July, though the launch was later reported to have been pushed forward to October or November this year. But new reports now claim that the Xiaomi Mi5 and its larger and more powerful variant, the Mi5 Plus, will become available only in to early 2016.

Xiaomi's leaked roadmap had indicated the launch of the Mi5 by November 15 this year. Earlier leaked specifications of the Xiaomi Mi 5 had suggested that the handset would sport a 5.5-inch QHD sapphire glass (1440 x 2560 pixels) display and will be powered by the Snapdragon 820, paired with Adreno 420 GPU and 3GB RAM. The Xiaomi Mi 5 is expected to feature a 16-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front camera and a 3,600mAh battery, and will be available in 16GB/64GB built-in storage models. Xiaomi's upcoming flagship device will sport a fingerprint scanner, along with USB-C standard, and ship with the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system out of the box.

Previous reports had also claimed that the Xiaomi Mi 5 would be released alongside its phablet variant called the Xiaomi Mi 5 Plus, boasting a much larger 6-inch capacitive touchscreen display (2560 x 1440 pixel resolution). The Xiaomi Mi 5 Plus is expected to be powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor inside the Xiaomi Mi 5, along with 4GB of RAM and a 16-megapixel camera with OIS (optical image stabilization) and running Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

The latest reports now claim that Xiaomi could announce the Mi5 and Mi5 Plus in November this year, but release them only in early 2016. Xiaomi has reportedly changed its release schedule as it had announced the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro flagships in January this year, and is launching the Mi5 and Mi5 Plus as its fifth generation devices and successors to the Mi4. The Xiaomi Mi5 could sell for $371, while the Mi5 Plus could cost about $425.