Xiaomi Mi Max, MIUI 8 launched in India; here is all you need to know

New Delhi: Chinese consumer goods manufacturing company Xiaomi has finally launched its latest 6.44-inch phablet Mi Max and announced the availability of the latest MIUI 8 OS, at an event in New Delhi today.

The Mi Max, which was launched last month in Beijing, finally made its way to the Indian smartphone market. The bigger attraction, however, was the new MIUI 8 OS, which was also announced.

The Mi Max

The Mi Max phablet features a 6.44-inch FHD (1080p) display, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and has a sleek design. At just 7.5mm, the phone is really thin and easy to carry. The ultra-thin metal body of the device along with dual 12.5D curved glass design, and chamfered edges makes it look really elegant.

It will be available in two variants - a 3GB RAM with 32GB storage powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 SoC and a 4GB RAM variant with 128GB storage  powered by Snapdragon 652 SoC.

As for the camera, all the Mi Max variants will sport a 16MP rear-sensor with PDAF and LED Flash, while the front camera will sport 5MP sensor.

It scores high in terms of connectivity options including support for Quick Charge, 4G LTE with VoLTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, GPS and Bluetooth connectivity.

Moving on to the battery, it packs a gigantic 4,850mAh capacity for uninterrupted entertainment. According to Hugo Barra, the battery is extremely potent and can last up to 14 hours after running high quality 1080p videos.

The phablet runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which will soon be replaced by MIUI 8 when a stable version of the OS is launched on July 16.

It will be available in three colours - silver, grey, and gold. The Mi Max 3GB with Snapdragon 650 SoC and 32GB version will retail at Rs 14,999 and the 4GB variant with Snapdragon 652 SoC and 128GB RAM has been priced at 19,999.

Other than there two, there are two other variants, including a 2GB RAM variant with 16GB storage and a 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, which were not released in India.

In addition, the first one million customers will get free 3 months of movies from Hungama and one year of free music too. The smartphones will go on sale starting July 6 on mi.com; all other partner platforms including Paytm will start selling it from July 13.

Marking a major step forward in Xiaomi’s content strategy, the first one million users of Mi Max, Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3 will get a three-month movie subscription and and one year of music for free when they download the Hungama Play or Music apps.

The first 10,000 Mi Max users get to watch one of this year’s most exciting blockbuster movies, Warner Bros' Batman versus Superman, for free. In addition, all Mi Max users will be able to enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the movie. This special footage will only be available in India to Mi Max users.

MIUI 8 OS

Apart from the smartphone, the company’s latest OS offering, MIUI 8, was also announced today. It features lock-screen wallpapers, a Gallery app—which will let users to add filters, crop-images and include videos editing tools too, and an advance calculator app—allowing users to convert live currencies, temperature from degrees to Fahrenheit and vice-versa along with other conventions. 

Apart from it, the interface is also featuring a Note app— which can be secured using a password or a fingerprint, a text message filter—which warns users of fraud messages, and a power saving mode—which freezes background app, saving device’s battery life.

The MIUI 8 ROM will be available for most of the Xiaomi smartphones such as Mi 2, Mi 2s, Mi 3, Mi4, Mi 4c, Mi4s and Mi 5, and is also compatible with Xiaomi’s Redmi and Notes series.

Here are some of the interesting features on the MIUI 8:

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Second space: Taking the concept of "Dual apps" to another level, Second space enables users to have two smartphone instances on the same device. Using a different lockscreen password or fingerprint,users can set up two entirely different home screens, with different apps, separate user data and independent photo storage.

Scrolling screenshots

Manage your accounts better

Dual WhatsApp accounts