This morning, Beijing-based electronics company Xiaomi launched its budget Redmi Note 2 and Redmi Note 2 Prime handsets, putting them in direct competition with Motorola's 2nd generation 4G Moto E, the Huawei-backed Honor Holly and Samsung's new Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ phablet phones.
The Redmi Note 2 4G dual-SIM handset boasts full HD display capabilities of 1920 by 1080 pixels, a 2.0 GHz MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core processor, a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with a 3,060 mAh removable battery, an infrared blaster to talk to your home entertainment system, not to mention 16 GB storage and 2 GB RAM.
The Redmi Note 2 Prime — which is mostly identical to the Note 2 aside from an upgraded onboard memory of 32 GB and a more powerful 2.2 GHz processor chip — is the first device to come out of the company's new manufacturing facility in India's Sri City. Not bad for a couple 5.5-inch Android devices. However, wait till you hear the price.
The Redmi Note 2 costs a reasonable $125, while the Redmi Note 2 Prime comes at a price of $155. That's so cheap, it's almost suspicious.
The two devices, which come in a range of pastel colors or black or white, will ship with Xiaomi's MIUI 6 OS on August 16th. The company also announced an OS update to a new MIUI 7, which will be announced at a separate event in New Delhi, India next week.
