Xiaomi has confirmed its latest flagship phone, the Mi 4i, revealing a host of high-end features packed into a handset it plans to move at an aggressive price point.
While the Mi 4 is more powerful than the new handset, the Mi 4i boosts a sleeker and lighter design. The Mi 4i, which goes on sale on April 30, has a very targeted launch.
The "i" tagged to the end of the refreshed Mi 4 indicates just how narrow of a focus Xiaomi has with its latest handset. The "i" stands for India, the place where Xiaomi announced the handset and the only country it will initially be available in.
The Mi 4i is Xiaomi's first phone it has designed specifically for India, and the handset's launch evidences the company's efforts to establish itself in the country.
"It speaks volumes to our focus on India, our intentions and really putting our investment where we believe the future of the company is," said Xiaomi Global Vice President Hugo Barra.
The Mi 4i, priced at about $205 USD, will run on Xiaomi's MIUI 6 OS, which was developed from the vanilla version of Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The handset features a second generation Snapdragon 615, an octo-core processor that will feature four 1.7 GHz cores and four energy efficient cores clocked at 1.1 GHz. The Mi 4i's 3120 mAh battery, according to Xiaomi, is about 38 percent larger than flagship handsets from rivals.
The smartphone will come fitted with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of long-term storage space, though it's unclear how much of that will be usable after the OS gets its share. The Mi 4i lacks a card slot, which could have alleviated the congestion likely to occur when the phone is in the hands of power users.
There's a 13 MP camera on its back and a 5 MP chat cam on its face. Behind the protection of Corning OGS Glass, the Mi 4i's 5-inch screen outputs a 1080p. Additionally, to combact the sunlight, the Mi 4i's display hardware adjusts the screen's contrast to compensate for the rays:
The handset's hardware is packaged in a unibody design that has what Xiaomi calls an "ultra-compact frame" and it is available in black, white, red, pink and cyan. The smartphone is 12 percent thinner and 13 percent lighter than the Mi 4. Also, that ultra-compact build is able to stand up some abuse, according to Xiaomi:
Check out the Mi 4i's launch trailer below:
