Xiaomi Announces Impressive $200 Smartphone And Prepaid Mobile Services In China

Xiaomi has announced its latest smartphone, the Mi 4c, an impressive $200 budget version of its flagship Mi 4 device. That’s not all: the Chinese company also ventured into mobile operator services after revealing two prepaid packages for customers in China.

Like the Mi 4i, a smartphone that Xiaomi launched specifically for India back in April, so the Mi 4c is aimed at its China-based customers. And it’s mighty impressive… on paper, at least.

The Mi 4i sports a five-inch display and is powered by a 64-bit processor, Xiaomi claims it is the first device equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808. There’s also a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a five-megapixel “selfie” camera, as the front-facing camera is increasingly referred to. Also notable, the Mi 4i includes the new USB Type-C and ‘Quick Charge 2.0’ to help manage battery life.

The basic Mi 4c comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB in storage and will cost 1299 RMB ($203), an enhanced version — 3GB RAM and 32GB storage — will be available for RMB 1499 ($235). Both models will ship with Xiaomi’s older MI UI 6 software, but the company said an upgrade to its new MI UI version 7 will be available soon.Releasing impressively specc’ed devices at seriously aggressive prices is what Xiaomi is renowned for — the Mi 4c is yet another very competitive offering that should worry Samsung and others — but mobile operators services is something new altogether. The firm is one of a bunch of non-telecom companies that snagged MVNO (mobile virtual network) licenses in China. That allows them to resell mobile packages from telecom companies using their brand/name, and now Xiaomi is putting that to use in China.

‘Mi Mobile’, Xiaomi’s mobile offering, has two initial services. There’s a pay-as-you-go tariff charged at RMB 0.10 (sub $0.02) per voice call minute, SMS, or 1MB of data, and a RMB 59 ($10) monthly bundle that gives users 3GB of data. The first option is available from September 23, while the second comes online in October — both will be available from Mi.com, Xiaomi’s online store, in China.

The mobile services ventures is an intriguing new business from Xiaomi. The company is the country’s top smartphone seller, and China accounted for the majority of the 34.7 million smartphones that Xiaomi sold in the first half of this year, but Xiaomi said it will fall short of its sales target for 2015. So, alongside its push to sell wearables and smart home devices, a move into mobile services is a way to strengthen its brand among customers and pick additional revenue.

Xiaomi Mi 4c goes official

As scheduled, Xiaomi has announced the launch of its Mi 4c smartphone today. The China-only device is priced starting at RMB 1,299 ($204), and will be available from September 23 (tomorrow) on Mi.com and Tmall.

Specs-wise, the handset is powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 808 chipset offering a hexa-core CPU with two Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, along with Adreno 418 GPU. It sports a 5-inch 1080p display, and comes in 2GB/3GB (RAM) and 16GB/32GB (storage) options.

In terms of camera, the Mi 4c features a 13 MP rear unit which supports phase detection autofocus (PDAF), and a 5MP selfie shooter.

Measuring 7.8mm and weighing in at 132g (which is 11g less than the iPhone 6s), the device packs in a 3080mAh battery, supports Quick Charge 2.0, and features a USB Type-C port having a reversible design.

There's also a built-in IR blaster that the company claims lets you control more than 2000 different appliances, including dSLR cameras, from the device.

On the software side, the smartphone comes with a new Edge Tap feature that allows it to respond to light taps. As the company explains, "A double tap on one side allows you to go back easily without having to stretch for the Back button, and a single tap on the side while in the camera app snaps a photo."

The handset runs the company's MIUI 6 OS, although Xiaomi says that an upgrade to MIUI 7 will happen soon. As for the price, the 2GB/16GB variant will cost RMB 1,299 ($204), while the 3GB/32GB variant will set you back RMB 1,499 ($235). Color options include white, grey, pink, yellow and blue.

Via

Upgraded Xiaomi Redmi 2A goes on sale today

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has announced a new version of his company's Redmi 2A smartphone model. The new, enhanced Redmi 2A will go on sale in China tomorrow.

Compared to the previous iteration of Xiaomi's cheapest device, the new Redmi 2A will be almost identical, save for two pretty important upgrades. Whereas the original model comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, the new one will double both of those.

So you'll get 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The price for the new model will be CNY 549 ($86 or €77 at the current exchange rates). That's CNY 50 ($7.85, €7.05) more than the original, but for most people the upgrade will probably be worth it.

Otherwise, the new Redmi 2A will share its specs with its predecessor. It will have a 4.7-inch 720p touchscreen, an 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front-facing unit, the Leadcore L1860C chipset with 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU, 4G LTE support, dual-SIM functionality, and a 2,200 mAh battery. Although this hasn't been confirmed, we expect it to run MIUI 6.0 based on Android 5.0 Lollipop just like the original Redmi 2A.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Xiaomi Mi 4c spotted at TENAA benchmark

Xiaomi Mi 4i was launched this spring as an alternative, more affordable version of the popular Xiaomi Mi 4. It features a 5" IPS 1080p display, a Snapdragon 615 chipset and s wrapped in plastic instead of glass.

Today a new Xiaomi Mi 4c leaked from various sources - the Chinese TENAA certification body, AnTuTu benchmark database, and previously it was spotted on Geekbench results.

The pictures from TENAA reveals absolutely the same body and measurements as the Xiaomi Mi 4i. It seems the new Mi 4c is just a small upgrade over the 4i and will keep the slim profile and matte rear cover. Its footprint and weight are absolutely identical with its predecessor, too.

But while the Mi 4c will offer the same 5" 1080p screen, it will bring an upgraded chipset - Snapdragon 808. The SoC, which debuted within the LG G4, packs a hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A57 at 1.8GHz and 4x Cortex-A53 at 1.44GHz, Adreno 418 GPU and 2GB of RAM.

The Android version has also been bumped up to 5.1.1 Lollipop, which suggests the Xiaomi Mi 4c will most probably run on the MIUI v7.

The rest of the specs confirmed by TENAA are the same as the Mi 4i - a 13MP main camera with dual-LED flash, a 5MP selfie snapper, 16GB non-expandable storage, LTE connectivity, and 3,100 mAh battery.

All of those leaks suggest the Xiaomi Mi 4c announcement should be happening very soon.

Thanks to everyone, who sent this in!

TENAA | GeekBench | Source | Via

Xiaomi sells record-breaking 800k Redmi Note 2 units in 12 hours

Xiaomi has managed to sell around 800,000 units of the Redmi Note 2 phone in just 12 hours, which is said to be a new record for domestic mobile sales. The device, which was announced in China last week, was up for flash sale in the country yesterday.

Specs-wise, the handset is powered by a MediaTek Helio X10 SoC with eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores, and sports a a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 resolution display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory, and packs in a 3,020mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the Redmi Note 2 features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. There is also dual SIM support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and IR blaster, and the device runs the new MIUI 7 out of the box.

The second batch of the smartphone will go on flash sale next week on August 24.

Source (Chinese) | Via

Xiaomi announces new MIUI 7 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop

Xiaomi has announced the newest version of MIUI alongside the new Redmi Note 2. MIUI 7 is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes with a bunch of new features.

One of the features is face detection mode in the Gallery app, that can recognize faces and sort images according to the people in it in the People tab. The software is even able to identify and differentiate pets.

MIUI 7 also has a handful of new themes, including a pink 'Goddess' theme targeted at women and as usual you can download more from the store.

MIUI also has a new feature called Mi Roaming, which acts as a virtual SIM for when you go out of your country, allowing users to purchase data packages from Xiaomi and use them instead of getting a new SIM. This feature is only available in China for now.

MIUI 7 can also let you set videos for contacts, which play when the person calls you. Lastly, there is also a Kids Mode, which restricts what content kids can access on the device.

MIUI 7 will start rolling out for Mi 2, Mi 2S, Mi 2A, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi Note, Redmi, and Redmi Note tomorrow in China. Xiaomi will be officially announcing MIUI 7 in India on August 19.

Source

Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 leaks ahead of announcement

Tomorrow Xiaomi is going to unveil its next-generation MIUI v7 launcher, but many rumors put devices such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, Mi 5 and Mi 5 Plus on the announcement queue as well. And while we are waiting for the event to happen here is some more news on the upcoming Redmi Note 2.

The most recent leak shows the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 in some blurry pictures, but with detailed specs. The latest information confirms the Redmi Note 2 will be built around a 5.5" 1080p display and will utilize matte plastic for its shell.

The chipset to power the Redmi Note 2 is displayed by AnTuTu as MT6795 Helio X10 - this translates into an octa-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A53 processor, PowerVR G6200 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The rest of the specs include a 13MP main camera, a 5MP selfie snapper, 16GB expandable storage and a 3,020 mAh battery. Naturally, the Redmi Note 2 should run on Android 5.1 Lollipop with MIUI v7.

A retailer already spilled the beans on the Redmi Note 2 by jumping the gun yesterday and putting it on pre-order. Its listing, which has been revised earlier today, confirms all of these specs. Yesterday the page described the Redmi Note 2 as a 5.7" phablet with a Snapdragon 615 chip, but today it just confirms the 5.5" screen and the Helio X10 MediaTek SoC.

The listing asks $199 for the Redmi Note 2 on pre-order, which might be its official price for Asia. Tomorrow Xiaomi and Samsung are making big announcements, so it will be a very eventful day. Stay tuned!

Source

Xiaomi tipped to launch a Windows 10 tablet soon

Xiaomi will launch a Windows 10-powered tablet in the ongoing quarter, according to a known Chinese analyst Pan Jiutang. The device will be the successor to the Mi Pad tablet (shown in the image below), which the company unveiled back in May last year.

However, there was no word on whether the new tablet will run the standard Windows 10 version or the mobile version, dubbed Windows 10 Mobile. It's worth mentioning that Microsoft recommends the standard edition for tablets with displays larger than or equal to 8-inches.

The device could be unveiled on August 16, when the Chinese company traditionally announces the new version of its MIUI user interface. Needless to say, none of this has been officially confirmed by the Xiaomi, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Via

Xiaomi may omit the charger in future phone bundles

Remember how the EU has been pushing for standardized chargers for smartphones for years to reduce environmental footprint due to having a separate charger for each new generation device you pick up? Well, the industry seems to have settled on the microUSB 2.0 interface for now, though there's still a huge variation in the output from charger to charger.

However, regardless of whether you plug your phone in a regular computer USB 2.0 port with 500mA output or a beefy 2A dedicated charger, current will still flow into your smartphone and the battery will charge, whether it's in a day or an hour. And seeing as how you probably already have a few of those lying around from previous devices, Xiaomi CEO is considering shipping future smartphones without a charger in the box.

To avoid potential uproar when consumers receive their next Xiaomi device, Lei Jun has asked the big question on Weibo, and is gathering user opinions on the matter. He is taking the environmental standpoint, though some may argue that the company is simply trying to cut costs. With a Xiaomi charger priced at CNY 19.9 or $3.20, and likely costing a tenth of that to manufacture, there's little merit to that claim.

There are practical considerations however, which may lead you to think it makes sense not to have a charger bundled. For example, if you have a smartphone, a tablet, and say, a smartwatch, that means having three separate chargers occupying three power outlets. Or you can grab an aftermarket charger with three USB ports and free the rest of the outlets, and also render three bundled chargers useless. Not to mention the trend towards power strips, which incorporate USB charging ports, with Xiaomi itself offering one with three AC outlets and three USB ports.

On the other hand, with the constant increase in battery capacity, fast charging has become a coveted feature, and it typically requires a special dedicated charger. Omitting it in the retail package and forcing you to use a legacy charger will increase charging times and won't be ideal.

There's obviously a middle ground to be found, and entry-level smartphones could ship without a charger, since they typically come with smaller batteries. On the other hand, power-hungry flagships could come with a fast charger included, as a couple of dollars will make little difference in the overall cost anyway. Adopting a no-charger policy across a company’s lineup may be a bit extreme at this point.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Xiaomi Mi 4i review: 10.Conclusion

Final words

The Xiaomi Mi 4i bridges the gap between the flagship Mi series and the Redmi lot, a likable gadget but not in the sense of a pet - it may be an affordable phone but not underpowered and full of compromise. No, on paper everything seems near perfect for the Mi 4i.

And for the most part, the Xiaomi Mi 4i lives up to its promise. Its 5" 1080p screen is great and the imaging department is quite capable as well. Both the 13MP primary unit and the 5MP selfie cam produce good images with great detail and subtle processing. The thoughtful design results in a great handling experience, the connectivity options are above average, and the battery backup is solid.

Among the few things the Mi 4i didn't get right video recording stands out, alongside the speaker quality and loudness. The higher clock speed of the CPU cores is causing some excessive heating. Occasionally, the Mi 4i would get dangerously hot and Xiaomi must've been aware of that. A firmware update arrived while we were testing, which did slightly improve the situation although at the expense of some performance.

This is the first Xiaomi phone to run Lollipop, but the MIUI 6.0 skins it inside out , so you'll be hard-pressed to spot many differences compared to, say, a Mi Note running KitKat and MIUI 5. The new stuff is under the hood, battery and performance optimizations. The OS is silky-smooth, while the latest MIUI is beautiful and capable.

Let's check out our key test findings.

• The Xiaomi Mi 4i has great build quality and attractive design.
• The 5.0" IPS screen is bright and offers great contrast and colors, and the sunlight legibility is above average.
• We rated the dual-SIM battery endurance at 64h, while the single-SIM rating is 67h.
• Great connectivity options including LTE and dual-SIM. NFC is missing though.
• The simplified MIUI interface is based on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, has better flat looks, and offers rich customization and security options. You may need to download Google's default apps separately though.
• The Snapdragon 615 chipset isn't top of the line, but sounds great for a mid-ranger. Unfortunately, the high-res screen cripples the overall GPU performance - this isn't a phone for gaming.
• We rated the loudspeaker loudness and quality as below average.
• Video player has rich video codec support, as well as seamless 1080p video playback. It only lacks subtitles support.
• Audio output quality is excellent, the Hi-Fi output is the loudest we've met
• The camera is quite good, with sharp and detailed images, great dynamic range and noise is kept in check. Built-in HDR mode does a nice job, too.
• Video recording quality is so-so: passable 1080p videos, no 60fps option.
• The front 5MP camera is great for selfies, but lacks auto-focus - that's not necessarily a bad thing as it allows for a much shorter shot-to-shot time.

Snapdragon 615-powered smartphones are multiplying by the day and the Mi 4i isn't short of competition. We've had the chance to test a few of those and we can say choosing the right one isn't a simple task.

Recently we reviewed the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua, a water and dust proof 5-incher, with great design, powered by same S615 chip and matching the camera - but not the screen - resolution. While the 13MP images aren't as good as Xiaomi Mi 4i's, you can shoot underwater too, which is nice.

 
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua • Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual

The stunning Oppo R1x is another 5" smartphone running on a S615 chip, with unique gemstone effect on its back and superb handling. It is a near perfect match for the Xiaomi Mi 4i, except it cannot quite meet its bargain price and thus you must really like the premium design to consider it.

Oppo R1x

The Samsung Galaxy A5 will give you a 5" Super AMOLED screen, but it comes with sub-par resolution and a less capable Snapdragon 410 chipset. The camera, video recording and multimedia performances are excellent, as is the battery life. The slim design with metal frame is nice, but we aren't sure those are worth the sharpness sacrifice.

The Lenovo Vibe X2 is another stand-out mid-ranger with enough horsepower under the hood. It's another match for the Mi 4i - a 5" 1080p display, a 13MP rear camera, an 8-core processor and Android Lollipop. Lenovo has been giving us a lot of great phones lately, so the tri-color Vibe X2 is a must-check before making any decisions.

 
Samsung Galaxy A5 • Samsung Galaxy A5 Duos

Finally, if you need an even more affordable Xiaomi, the Redmi 2 would serve you great too. Opting for the original and more expensive Mi 4 is also an option, but it heats up too, so you won't be avoiding those issues.

 
Xiaomi Redmi 2 • Xiaomi Mi 4

Overall, most people are likely to have relatively low expectations of a phone like the Xiaomi Mi 4i. Some of them will probably be surprised at it actually over-delivering. Not if you've had any experience with Chinese brands of Xiaomi's level. Affordable without feeling cheap, the phone does most things quite well: design, including the interface, connectivity with dual-SIM support and excellent still images. Not everything is perfect but when you're not paying over the odds mistakes are very easy to forgive.

Special thanks to HonorBuy.com for providing the review unit.

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Xiaomi Mi 4i review: 9.Web browser

MIUI Browser

The Xiaomi Mi 4i comes with the feature-rich MIUI Browser, now with new flatter looks. It does a great job browsing, it syncs with your Google account and supports downloads, there is a night mode, too. It is as almost fast as Chrome, but does not support Find on Page.

On the positive side, it has a built-in Reading mode, which isn't available in Chrome. It enlarges the text font and strips away unneeded elements, leaving only the article you are reading in focus.

The aforementioned Night Mode, which is something we really miss in Chrome. It inverts the background and font colors and is easier on the eyes at dark rooms.

   
Mi Browser • Night Mode • Reading Mode

Unfortunately, the MIUI Browser, even though updated, still had issues with some pages and our battery-test browsing script. That's why we suggest you install Chrome, at least as a backup, just in case you need to avoid crashes or you need to find something on a page. Plus it can sync with your Google account easily.

Other pre-installed apps

The Xiaomi Mi 4i offers a great file managing app called Explorer, which lets you browse the files in its internal storage and groups them by type.

  
Explorer

The MIUI v6 also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blocklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, clean some RAM, it can also manage the permissions of your installed apps.

   
Security app

The custom and now flat Calendar looks good, syncs with your accounts including Google, and offers Day and Month views.

  
Calendar

Xiaomi Mi 4i features the WPS Office suite, which supports creating, viewing and editing office files (docs, xls, ppt).

   
WPS Office

There are also the standard sound recorder, notes, flashlight, calculator, clock, and weather apps, among others, that are a given in any self-respecting Android package nowadays.

   
Voice recorder • Notes • Calculator • Weather

We really liked the new Compass app. It has very nice and clean interface, shows the directions and doubles as level. If you lift the phone up then you'll get a nice augmented reality view with real-time directions.

  
Compass app - compass, level, VR directions

Once again, if Google Maps, Drive, or any other Google-related app isn't installed on your unit, you can get it for free from the Play Store.

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Xiaomi Mi 4i review: 8.Camera review

Great 13MP snapper

Xiaomi Mi 4i features a 13MP camera, equipped with a dual-tone LED flash, a somewhat surpring upgrade over the Mi 4's basic LED flash.

The camera interface is fairly simple, though it has certainly changed since MIUI v.5. Now you have three panes - the default one shows the viewfinder with a virtual shutter, flash trigger and front camera key. Slide to the top pane and you'll get a choice of 12 filters with live previews. A slide to the bottom hides the advanced modes such as Panorama, Refocus, Delay Shutter, Highlight tones, Hand-hand twilight, and Manual.

The HDR switch is now placed next to the virtual camera shutter and offers Live HDR, Enhanced HDR, and Off modes.

 
 
Camera UI

The Manual Mode offers you manual settings for white balance and ISO. The Face Detection switch is within the additional settings.

  
More camera settings

The Xiaomi Mi 4i resolves plenty of detail and the noise levels are kept very low. The white balance is pretty accurate and we like the lively color rendition. The dynamic range is above average, too. Overall the processing is really mature and we consider those samples among the best 13MP ones we've seen so far.

   
   
Xiaomi Mi 4i camera samples

The HDR mode is available in Live and Enhanced modes, but we suggest using only Enhanced. While you won't be seeing the HDR effect in real time, the results are much better. The Enhanced mode is conservative enough and rescues both the highlights and shadows without making a flat contrastless mess out of the image. Those aren't the best HDR photos we've seen, but they certainly are among the better ones.

  
  
HDR off • HDR live • HDR enhanced

Panorama shots are available too. You can capture both landscape and portrait panoramic photos with a 180 degree field of view. Shooting is easy but the stitching takes a while to complete. The end result is rather disappointing though - the landscape shots come in 2250x400px pixels while shooting in portrait mode results in the more usable 1980x720px. The image quality is quite poor.

 
Xiaomi Mi 4i panorama samples in landscape and portrait modes

Xiaomi Mi 4i features a 5MP front-facing camera for high-res selfies. The images come out nicely detailed. This camera is among the best front snappers we've met - with excellent color rendition and the high level of resolved detail.

A 5MP camera sample taken with the front camera

Photo comparison tool

The Xiaomi Mi 4i is more than capable of pulling its own weight in our Photo Comparison tool. You can see it puts up an excellent fight against the other snappers we've tested and comes on top even against some far pricier options.

  
Xiaomi Mi 4i in our photo quality comparison tool

1080p video recording

Xiaomi Mi 4i camcorder has the same UI as the still camera. It supports slow-mo (the result is a 720p@16fps video) and time-lapse videos with customizable snapping interval.

 
Camcorder UI

The Xiaomi Mi 4i is capable or recording up to 1080p@30fps. The bitrate of the video recordings is poor at about 15 Mbps, while audio is captured at 96 Kbps with 2 channels (stereo).

The resolved detail in the videos is modest at best. The colors and contrast are good and the framerate is smooth and consistent at 30fps. The dynamic range is above average.

And here is a 1080p video we've uploaded on YouTube.

Video quality comparison tool

Here the Xiaomi Mi 4i enters our video comparison tool. There are plenty of 1080p camcorders you can compare it with. It resolves an average level of detail, but contrast and colors are good.

  
Xiaomi Mi 4i in our Video quality comparison

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