Xiaomi Mi4 debuts in India, priced at Rs 19,999

Xiaomi, known as the Apple of China, has been making news around the world, lately. With two new weapons pitched against smartphone giants Apple and Samsung, the Mi Note and Mi Note pro are set to change the way smartphones are priced by the rivals.

Xiaomi set foot in India in July, last year, and has been making a good progress by capturing the smartphone market with great speed. Retailing high-end smartphones on a minimal profit has been Xiaomi’s way to make profits and boost sales, and capturing the smartphone market in the bargain. Last year, the Chinese smartphone giant has moved higher, to take the top 3 position in the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers list.

Xiaomi debuted in India by launching the Mi 3, one of the most powerful smartphones with a pocket friendly price tag. Later, the smartphone inventory for India was exhausted and Xiaomi put the Redmi 1S and Redmi Note 3G and 4G handsets on the Indian market.

The Mi 4 was launched a few months ago in China. However, Xiaomi did not bring the handset to India citing regulations and clearing a few certifications in India. On the other hand, the MIUI operating system it runs on was also not ready for the Indian continent. This caused a delay and hence the Mi 4 has arrived late in the country.

Finally, the Mi 4 has been debuted in India on January 20, 2015 and it has been priced at Rs 19,999. India may only see the 16GB variant of the Mi 4 for now. The international price for the Xiaomi Mi 4 presently stands at $370, which is approximately Rs 23,000. The Xiaomi website is retailing the device in China for 1,999 Yuan (approx Rs 20,000).The Xiaomi Mi 4 sports a 5-inch, full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. Under the hood is a powerful Snapdragon 801 processor with four processors clocked at 2.5GHz, which is coupled with 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU. A 13MP sensor is provided for the rear camera while the front camera sports an 8MP sensor.

The internal storage lies at 16GB and cannot be expanded using a micro SD card. However, the device features USB OTG, which allows you to plug in conventional USB pen drives for additional storage. Connectivity options include 4G, LTE, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Infrared (IR), GPS and GLONASS.  The Mi 4 is fuelled using a 3080mAh battery and is powered by Xiaomi’s own custom Android ROM, MIUI.

The Xiaomi Mi 4 will have its first flash sale on February 10, 2015.