Xiaomi has announced that its upcoming flagship handset, the new Redmi 3, will be released on Jan. 12 to customers in China at a retail price of about $106.
The new Redmi 3, which had been teased a number of times in the past, is finally landing on store shelves to eager Redmi fans who had been expecting to get the company's latest flagship with enhanced specs and features.
Apart from confirming the phone's price and release date, Xiaomi also gave details on the handset's full specs lineup. The new Redmi 3 will be powered by a Snapdragon 616 64-bit octa-core processor and will come equipped with Adreno 405 graphics. The battery is quite impressive at 4,100 mAh, which is notably bigger than the Redmi 2 Prime's and Redmi Note 3's 2,200 mAh and 4,000 mAh batteries respectively.
In the company's official post at Google Plus, it was also revealed that the new Redmi 3 will feature a gorgeous diamond-patterned metal frame along with 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera.
Other notable highlights to expect from the latest Xiaomi flagship include a 5-inch display with HD resolution of 1,280 x 720, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128 GB through the microSD card slot and Android Lollipop-based MIUI 7.
The phone also has a number of connectivity options that include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS.
As for the phone's dimension, it is said to measure 5.48 x 2.74 x 0.33 inches and will tip the scale at 0.32 pounds. Apart from the phone's premium metal magnesium alloy build, customers can also choose from four popular color options that include Silver, Dark Gray, Gold and Classic Gold.
With the release of the Redmi 3, it will be interesting to know how the company's latest flagship will influence its currently held top spot in the China market. Early in December, Xiaomi gained 14.7 percentage of the smartphone market share in China for the Q1 to Q3 periods of 2015. Apple and Huawei came second and third with minimal gap at 14.1 and 14.0 percent respectively. Rounding up the top five are Samsung with 8.0 percent market share and Vivo which earned 7.9 percent.
Xiaomi is yet to announce when the Redmi 3 will launch in other regions ouside of China. While it has confirmed that the device will retail at CNY 699 (roughly $106), it is highly likely that the global pricing will vary depending on the location.
