Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, who is better known to all for its budget smartphone offerings is now planning to join the bad-boys of high-end smartphone market. The company which has been previously pretty adamant about releasing budget quality smartphones, now wants to introduce some major strategy changes.
Xiaomi is now ready to join the likes of its Chinese brethren, OnePlus, who has been delivering budget smartphones with top-of-the-line specs and dubbing them ‘flagship killers’ for the past three years. The company just weeks ago introduced its third flagship device, the OnePlus 3 via a live VR event. The phone which packs a punch, and a 6GB RAM, 64GB ROM and powered by the latest Snapdragon 820 SoC has been released to the Indian masses at Rs. 27,999/-.
According to reports by GizmoChina, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is now readying itself for a price-wise strategy change and is planning to introduce a 4000 Yuan(or $600) smartphone by the end of this year. Liwan Jiang, co-founder and Senior VP at Xiaomi says that,
The company will definitely be releasing a high priced phone this year and even though it’s going to be costly, we should expect that it will feature much better quality than the price it will be sold for, as that is one of the company’s core values.
He also adds that even though the company will be introducing a superior quality device in the Chinese and Asian markets in the near future, it will not stop making ‘High-End Low-Budget’ anytime soon. And to prove that said fact, the company has already released a new teaser for its next smartphone release — which is likely to be the Mi Note 2.
Mi Note 2 Teaser Release
Just a couple days after the launch of the humongous phablet ‘Mi Max‘, Xiaomi has dropped a new teaser for its upcoming smartphone on Weibo. The image attached below denotes a ‘2>5’ and is accompanied by a caption that roughly translates to ‘Love it, no one’s loss‘
There is currently no confirmation from the side of the company, but the rumor mill points towards the launch of the Mi Note successor, Mi Note 2. And the ‘2>5’ might indicate the improvement in performance of the budget device as compared to its recently launched flagship device, the Mi 5.
Mi Note 2 will be a successor to the Mi Note phablet device that was launched over an year ago in China. The smartphone packed a punch as it was powered by a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor paired with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. But as rumors now suggest, the company is upping its game to compete with global smartphone players.
The Mi Note 2 is expected to pack a 5.7-inch Quad-HD display, and powered by the latest Snapdragon 625 SoC. The smartphone is also expected to sport a dual 12MP camera, a 4000 mAh battery and Apple-like 3D touch technology.
In addition to this, the smartphone — as we’ve come to expect — will be available in multiple models. The company is expected to debut three models, including a 4GB/32GB, 6GB/64GB and a 6GB/128GB(seriously!!). There is currently no word on the pricing on the smartphone that is expected to make an appearance by the end of this month.
‘Is venturing into the high-end flagship smartphone market a smart move on Xiaomi’s part?’ Comment your thoughts down below! And be sure to return for more updates on Xiaomi’s latest smartphone releases.
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