Looks like someone understands the budget of a lay man’s pocket, Xiaomi today took the wraps of off its newest smartphone, the Mi 4i, at an event in New Delhi, India. The device is the first Xiaomi product to be designed outside of China. Xiaomi has customised the device specially for its Indian fans and will sell the same device in other Xiaomi markets too.
The Xiaomi Mi 4i is a more-affordable alternative to the Xiaomi Mi 4 and comes with a polycarbonate unibody.
The Mi 4i a five-inch,1080p display and impressive 13-megapixel rear-facing camera within its Mi Note phablet, composed of a five-element lens.Xiaomi’s VP of Global, Hugo Barra, who introduced the device, also revealed that its ‘beautify’ technology is now enabled by default for taking selfies… wrinkles be gone, as he demonstrated on his own photo.
Xiaomi is putting a lot of emphasis on photo taking with its new phone.One glancing addition is a technology called ‘Sunlight Display’ which, as Barra demonstrated, increases the visibility of images on the display during harsh sunlight conditions. Xiaomi has also packed more into its HDR feature. The quest, it seems, is to help users take photos like the pros.
Size-wise, the device is 7.8mm thick, weighing in at 130 grams, with 3120 mAh battery. Barra said the phone’s quick charge feature enables a 40 percent charge within a hour, or a full charge inside three hours.
On the software side, Xiaomi is powered by its own MIUI 6. It is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop For better experience. Xiaomi has also developed a few interesting new features, like IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition), to simplify annoying service line calls.
Under the hood, the Mi 4i is powered by a second generation Snapdragon 615 from Qualcomm, which includes an eight-core 64-bit processor. There’s 2GB RAM and 16GB of on-board memory — the Mi 4i is dual-SIM and includes support for 4G within both slots. That’s a pretty impressive return for your investment.
The most impressive bit about the Xiaomi Mi 4i however is its pricing. The smartphone will cost $205 (INR 12,999) when it launches on April 30
India is an important market for Xiaomi. It has already announced that it will not be selling phones exclusively on Flipkart anymore, and Snapdeal and Amazon will also be stocking Xiaomi phones. To reach out to more customers in India, Xiaomi has also decided to shed its ‘online-only’ image and team up with retail chain ‘The Mobile Store’ to sell select Mi smartphones, including the Xiaomi Mi 4.
