Xiaomi, the Chinese tech startup company that grew to the top in just five years, will announce their flagship smartphone for the year 2015. Weibo, the Chinese website, had tipped the world with the Xiaomi invitation to an event marked for July 16, 2015. The teaser invitation mentions that Xiaomi is all set to announce a new product release in a conference. The teaser also shows off the side profile of a product, most prominently a smartphone, with the characters ‘PK’. The letter K was made up of the product itself.
While ‘PK’ could be said as Phablet Killer (logically speaking), it is more of a Chinese term or acronym ‘PiiKee’ aka ‘Player-Killer’, another possible name for flagship killer. PK also refers to ‘one who kills other players’. It makes sense as a flagship killer, since the device is all set to make a difference in the smartphone industry (against its rivals)— premium build quality together with high performance for a lower price.
Xiaomi had launched their previous flagship Mi 4 on July 22, 2014 and this time again the plan is to launch in the same month the following year (possibly on the lines of Apple and Google events). However, Xiaomi chooses the dates carefully. Each product launch is planned for an auspicious day, according to the Chinese calendar. July 16 is a very auspicious day in China according to the Chinese calendar. Best things to do on this day is ‘Consecration Ceremony’, ‘Pray for Good Luck’, ‘Break Ground’, ‘Ground Breaking Ceremony’, and a few others.
Therefore, the teaser, the dates and the month, all point out to the launch of a new flagship product, which is definitely got to be the Xiaomi Mi 5.
Online reports and rumours have been stating that the Chinese tech giant will be announcing two smartphones at the launch—the Mi 5 and Mi 5 Plus. This could be a possibility since the Mi Note and Mi Note Pro were announced at the same time and almost all smartphone giants have been announcing two smartphones at the same event. If true, we could see the Mi 5 launching with a Snapdragon 810 or a Snapdragon 820 chipset and the second phone a possible Snapdragon 808 chipset.
All said and done, we look ahead impatiently to see what Xiaomi has in store for us this time and how they will try to lead the smartphone race. Xiaomi has now been known to produce premium smartphones with high-end hardware and using metal for the chassis construction.
On another note, the launch for the unveiling of OnePlus 2 flagship is also 10-days apart. Samsung will also announce their next phablet series in the coming month, and post that, all eyes will be eagerly waiting for Apple and Google to announce their next product—the iPhone and Nexus.
Stay tuned.
