China’s Xiaomi has gotten a reputation for launching impressive devices with very low price tags — with some selling for under $200. Their new Mi Note shoots well past that mark, but at $370 it’s still a bargain compared to the iPhone 6 Plus.
Xiaomi was pretty clear about calling Apple’s slablet out as the competition. Their slide deck included several comparisons, from the Mi Note’s larger 5.7-inch display to its slimmer profile (6.95mm) and lighter weight (161g). The Mi Note’s rear-facing camera (which also uses a 13mp Sony sensor) is even flanked by a dual-tone flash, just like the one Apple uses — though Xiaomi’s shooter features OIS.
The Mi Note features a top-notch display, too. It packs a 1080p panel manufactured by Sharp/JDI, good for a pixel density of 386ppi — certainly solid for a phone at this price. The display also boasts a broad color gamut (around 95% of NTSC), improved outdoor usability, and reduced power consumption.
The phone is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz which has been paired with a generous 3GB of RAM. A 3000mAh battery should provide the Mi Note with plenty of juice. The $370 version comes with 16GB of internal storage, while an upgrade to 64GB will set you back another $80.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more money, Xiaomi is offering a premium model, too. The Mi Note Pro swaps the Snapdragon 801 for a 64-bit octa-core 810, bumps up the phone’s RAM to a whopping 4GB (blazing fast LPDDR 4, no less) and cranks the display resolution to 2560 by 1440. At $530 off-contract, it still seems like a heck of a deal when compared to other companies’ current flagships — it’s about $350 less than you’d pay for a comparable unlocked iPhone 6 Plus.
not available anywhere .
Active digitizer?
At $530, maybe they wouldn’t sell out as fast.
my thoughts as well. its a pretty damn good price for the phone, but still way higher than most like to spend. I suspect the lower end model will sell better, it appeals more to me at least.
Can’t wait until this company enters the US market. Great to see their pricing here.
If they have dual sim, I would be more interested, but if they did enter the US market, I doubt they would have dual sim. I hate Verizon’s data speed in my city, but can’t deny they have more coverage. I would love to have dual SIM in US where I could use Verizon network just for voice and TMO for data…atleast in my area.
Please – Ubuntu – just release some phone that I can buy. this Mi note looks amazing.
I won’t spend that much on a phone, but that is some seriously high end specs. sounds like the best phone available for purchase at this time.
its a bit too big for my tastes, but obviously will compete with the 6+ and the Note 4