As expected, Xiaomi also referred as Apple of China on Tuesday has officially took the wraps off the much awaited successor of last year announced Mi3, called the Xiaomi Mi4. The smartphone comes with upgraded design, build quality and hardware. The Mi4 comes in black and white colours and is priced at 1,999 Chinese Yuan ($322/Rs. 19,400) for the 16GB variant and 2,499 Chinese Yuan ($403/Rs. 24,220) for the 32GB variant.
According to Xiaomi, the Mi4 comes with plastic back but has a stainless steel machined frame, as rumoured. It also comes with range of customizable back cover including wooden, fabric, bamboo, sticks, marble, leather and more. The smartphone would go on sale in China starting July 29th on China Unicom telecom operator, with other telecom operators to get in August.
Talking about the specifications now, Xiaomi Mi4 comes with a 5-inch Full HD IPS OGS display with 441 ppi pixel density and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB RAM and Android 4.4 KitKat based MIUI v6 on top. The smartphone is 8.9mm thick and weights 149 grams.
Other specifications include an 13MP rear camera with LED flash, 8MP front facing camera, 16GB / 64GB internal storage and 3,080 mAh battery. Connectivity series include 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and GPS / GLONASS. The smartphone also comes with support for Infra-red sensor and nano-coating. The 4G LTE supported variant of Mi4 would launch in September.
In addition to the Mi4, Xiaomi has also debuted its first fitness tracker called the Xiaomi Mi Band. Similar to aggressive smartphone pricing, the Mi Band is priced at just 69 or 79 Yuan, which translates to just $11 or $13. Xiaomi Mi Band comes in wide range of colours and design options. No word on availability yet.
The Mi Band comes with Bluetooth 4.0 LE and can be connected to your Android smartphone with B4.0 LE. It has three notification LED lights which glows when a message or call arrives on the connected smartphone and even vibrates. The band has 41 mAh battery that can last upto 30 days on a single charge and is also water resistant.
Mi Band tracks your sleep and monitors your fitness. It can also be used to unlock your smartphone when in proximity. Also, the band can help you wake up after certain sleep cycle by vibrating.