Xiaomi Mi A2 Android One launches in India at Rs 16,999

After announcing their latest Android One series of smartphones at an event in Spain last month, Xiaomi has launched the Mi A2 in India. The new midrange smartphone starts at Rs 16,999 for the 4GB/64GB variant. There will also be a 6GB/128GB variant. Customers can pre-order it from 9th August, with sakes beginning from 16th August. However, the more affordable Mi A2 Lite isn’t coming to India anytime soon.

The Mi A2 is essentially an evolved form of the Redmi Note 5 Pro that was launched earlier this year. The A2 features a 5.99-inch 18:9 fullscreen display, protected by a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 panel. The construction includes an aluminium unibody design with a curved back panel. It also sports a USB-C port, but loses out on the 3.5mm headphone jack. The Mi A2 is kept alive by a 3010mAh battery with support for Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 support.

Xiaomi has stressed on the optics more than before with a 20MP Sony IMX376 front camera and a 12MP + 20MP AI dual camera. The 20MP front sensor features Super Pixel technology that combines four pixels to create one large 2.0µm pixel, which Xiaomi claims to improve the sensor’s light sensitivity for brighter images in low-light conditions. It is also coupled with effects such as AI Portrait, AI Beautify 4.0 and HDR, as well as a 4500K front flash.

The rear 20MP camera features the same Super Pixel-enabled sensor with a ƒ/1.75 aperture. The secondary 12MP camera has 1.25µm large pixels and a ƒ/1.75 aperture as well, meant for beautiful bokeh effects. Users can manually select between the 20MP or 12MP rear camera according to environment lighting.

Underneath, the Mi A2 is built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chip with Kryo architecture. It is coupled with up to 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM. The A2 is presently on Android 8.1 Oreo, with Xiaomi promising monthly security software updates. The Mi A2 also supports Google’s Project Treble, resulting in faster and easier system updates.

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