T3 India

xiaomi

Xiaomi announces Redmi 4 and Mi Router 3C

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At an event in New Delhi today, Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi 4 and entered the networking category with the Mi Router 3C. While the Redmi 4 has been teased since the launch of the budget Redmi 4A, the arrival of the router was a surprise.

R4B
The Redmi 4 is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, Adreno 505 GPU, 4100mAh battery running on MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The 5″ HD display is protected by a 2.5D curved glass and the all metal body comes in black and gold colours. The device weighs 150g and has measurements of 139.2×69.6.x8.6mm. Coming to the optics, the 5MP front camera has a f/2.2 aperture while the 13MP rear camera has f/2.0 aperture, Phase Detection AutoFocus and LED flash. The Redmi 4 will be available in 3 different RAM+ROM combinations: 2+16,3+32 and 4+64.

Mi Router 3C
The Mi Router 3C has a sleek look and features 4 antennae with a dedicated PCB circuit. They work with an alternate 2xtransmit and 2xreceive antenna design for better performance and range. With in-built 64MB RAM, it can connect upto 64 devices including 44 IoT and 20 computing ones. It supports 802.11n Wi-FI protocol at 2.4GHz and a maximum speed of 300Mbps. On the back there is a 3 colour LED indicator, 2 LAN ports and 1 WAN port.

The Redmi 4 will be available from 23 May on Mi.com and Amazon India at a price of Rs.6,999 for 2GB RAM+16GB RAM and Rs.8,999 for 3GB RAM+32GB RAM. The 4GB RAM+64GB RAM variant priced at Rs.10,999 will be available at the end of June.

The Mi Router 3C costs Rs.1,199 and will be sold exclusively on Mi.com from 20 May for a limited period after which it will also be made available from 8 June on Amazon India and Flipkart. The devices will also be available in the newly opened Bengaluru store from 9AM on 20 May. Users can also pre-book on the Mi.com store for a token amount of Rs.1,000 to guarantee a unit.

Xiaomi opens its first Mi Home store in India

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Xiaomi has been making major moves to consolidate its position in India and announced the opening of its first Mi Home in Bangalore. While a sneak peak was given to the media, the store will open to the public on May 20. Users will be able to pre-book smartphones from May 16 against an advance payment of Rs. 1,000 assuring them a device on the day.

Mi Home will be closely interlinked to the Mi.com website and can be viewed as its physical avatar. Xiaomi VP, Manu Jain stated that they wanted to bypass the various inefficiencies of a traditional offline model like distribution layers, rent, promoters, scalability, load time and more by selling directly to the consumer. For now the stores will be operated by a partner until Xiaomi receives the license to operate a single brand retail in the country.

Anyone can walk into the store which can be located in varying areas like malls or even office buildings to view the devices. Larger Mi Home stores will feature an experience store that will display unreleased products in India. The company will be noting feedback on them and estimating interest on which ones to sell here. While nothing is set in stone, there were a few subtle hints dropped about releasing products made specifically for the local market.

The stores will be offering the entire Indian product lineup and promise to keep a ready stock of all products. In the scenario where a particular product isn’t available, the prospective customer will be handed an f-code at the spot which allows them to buy the product on Mi.com. The current Indian portfolio includes products like mobile phones, accessories, fitness bands and air purifiers.

Xiaomi will soon be opening similar stores in major metros like Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. In the next two years, there are plans to launch at least 100 stores across the country. Their newest product, the Redmi 4, will be hitting Indian shores next week.

Redmi 4A is the latest budget offering from Xiaomi

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Xiaomi has finally replaced its ageing budget offering Redmi 1S with the new Redmi 4A revealed at an event today. The company also took the opportunity to announce the opening of its second manufacturing plant in partnership with Foxconn at Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.

Coming to the Redmi 4A, it is the lightest Redmi device from the company till date having been built with polycarbonate. The device has received a major bump in specifications with double the amount of storage, RAM and battery life in comparison to Redmi 1S. The 4A runs on MIUI 8 based on Android Marshmallow which comes with 13 indic languages and also boasts of a completely redesigned IRCTC SMS display coming soon. It also packs in an IR blaster pre-programmed to control a large number of home appliances. On the connectivity front, the 4A is fully compatibly with LTE celluar networks supporting LTE Band 5 and VoLTE.

Priced at Rs.5,999, Redmi 4A will be sold from 23 March on Amazon India and Mi India online web stores. However, the Rose Gold variant will go on sale from 6 April next month on Mi India. Xiaomi also teased the successor to the Redmi 3S but did not mention any specific time frame.

Specifications:
Display: 5″ HD
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425
GPU: Adreno 308
Memory: 2GB RAM
Storage: 16GB (expandable upto 128GB via microSD)
Operating System: Android Marshmallow
Colour: Dark Grey, Gold, Rose Gold
Size: 139.5×70.4×8.5mm
Weight: 131.5 g
Camera: 13MP rear, 5MP front
Battery: 3120mAh

Xiaomi unveils Redmi Note 4 for India

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Xiaomi today introduced the Redmi Note 4 for the Indian market. While you’ll have to read T3’s upcoming issue for our in-depth analysis, the new Redmi Note 4 claims to turn the few Redmi Note 3 niggling issues to advantages. The new phone has a metal unibody design that makes it look more premium.

Moreover, the biggest change is in the processor, which now comes with Snapdragon 625 from Snapdragon 650. However, the thing that works for Snapdragon 625 is its an octa-core chip based on 14nm fabrication process, making it power efficient without compromising on the performance and battery life.

If we talk about the remaining hardware, the Redmi Note 4 has a 4GB/3GB/2GB RAM, 64GB/32GB internal storage, hybrid SIM slot, 5.5-inch Full HD display, 13 megapixel PDAF main camera, 5 megapixel front-facing camera and 4100mAh battery.

Redmi Note 4 price starts from ₹9,999 and goes up to ₹12,999.

Mi MIX is an edgeless design concept phone from Xiaomi

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Xiaomi’s latest creation has made bezel, a thing of the past. Known as Mi MIX this is a concept phone that features virtually no bezel around the display, except for a small chin at the bottom. The Chinese company says although the phone has a 6.4-inch display, it has a 91.3 percent screen-to-body ratio. There’s no physical earpiece or proximity sensor on the phone but instead uses piezoelectric ceramic acoustic technology, in which a ceramic drive unit converts electrical signals into mechanical energy that allows to user to listen and an ultrasonic proximity sensor that works like a regular infrared proximity sensor.

Mi MIX is designed by designer, Philippe Starck that comes with a full ceramic body and if we talk about the hardware, it has a Snapdragon 821 processor (up to 2.35GHz), up to 6GB RAM, up to 256GB UFS 2.0 storage, 4400mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0, 16MP PDAF camera, 5MP front-facing camera and custom 17:9 display with 16:9 viewing area even with soft keys.

The phone will go on sale in China in two variants – one is a 4GB + 128GB standard version priced at RMB 3499 and a special limited Mi MIX 18K edition at RMB 3999 version that features 6GB of RAM, 256GB of UFS2.0 storage, as well as 18-karat gold rims around the rear camera and fingerprint sensor.