Xiaomi, one of the leading smartphone manufacturer, is mostly known for its budget smartphone offerings. But now, it seems that the brand is actively trying to get a foothold in the premium smartphone segment, which offers more margin than others.
In line with this, the Chinese brand has introduced Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 smartphone at a launch event in China — the fourth smartphone in the Mi MIX series that introduced its first “bezel-less” smartphone in 2016.
The newly launched Mi MIX 3 features a 6.4-inch bezel-less display with around 93.4% screen-to-body ratio. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC with up to 10GB of RAM, has support for Google ARCore. The device runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with support for AI voice assistant and has a dedicated AI button to launch it.
The phone has a slider design with neodymium permanent magnets, which according to the company makes the sliding screen more reliable and functional. For photography, there’s a 12MP rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor and a secondary 12MP telephoto lens with Samsung S5K3M3+ sensor. It has a 24MP front-facing camera with Sony IMX576 sensor and secondary 2-megapixel DOF sensor as well as selfie flash.
It has a ceramic back and comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. The device is backed by a 3200mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ fast charging as well as 10W wireless charging and comes with the wireless charger in the box.
The Xiaomi Mi MIX 3’s pricing starts at 3299 yuan ($474) and goes up to 4999 yuan ($719) for ‘The Palace Museum’ Special Edition. This makes the Mi MIX 3 Xiaomi’s most expensive smartphone to date. During the phone’s launch, Xiaomi said that it will launch the Mi MIX 3 5G in Q1 2019.
With such an expensive device, the company is trying to compete against the likes of Huawei, Samsung, and Apple, which dominates China’s premium smartphone segment. Huawei is currently the number one smartphone brand in China and is also grabbing the market share in the premium segment, thanks to its P series and Mate series devices.
Apart from the fact that Xiaomi wants a piece of pie in the premium market, the company also needs the Mi MIX 3 succeed to justify the $5.4 billion IPO. Xiaomi has lost roughly $13 billion or about a quarter of its market value since its debut.
