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 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.

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Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Redmi 2A reach 13 million sales

Xiaomi has managed to sell more than 13 million units of its Redmi 2 and Redmi 2A smartphones in around five months, it's been revealed today.

The news comes straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. The information was made public by Lin Bin, the company's President, on the Chinese microblogging network Weibo, and was then promptly reshared by CEO Lei Jun.

The Redmi 2 was unveiled this January as the successor to the original (and also highly successful) Redmi or Hongmi smartphone and its 1S reinterpretation.

The Redmi 2A (pictured above) is Xiaomi's cheapest smartphone ever, now selling for as low as $80in the Chinese market. It shares its design with the Redmi 2 but comes with a different chipset which we assume is cheaper to procure. Just on the day that new pricing went official, Xiaomi reportedly sold 300,000 units.

The Redmi 2 devices aren't the only ones made by Xiaomi to ever pass 10 million sales. In fact, they join the Mi 2, Mi 3, Mi 4, original Redmi, and the Redmi Note in this select club.

Xiaomi's sales are still severely limited by its very restricted geographical footprint, yet the company seems intent on expanding slowly and cautiously to new markets.

Source (in Chinese) | Via