Xiaomi has announced its flagship smartphone for this year: the Mi 4. The Xiaomi Mi 4 comes with a 5-inch 1080p, fully laminated display and top notch hardware: it runs on the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 system chip clocked at up to 2.5GHz, and comes with a plentiful 3GB of RAM.
Xiaomi promises to offer premium craftsmanship into its new flagship. The Mi 4 now comes with a metal frame which undergoes delicate treatment with fine chamfered edges for an upmarket feel. The battery is a sizable 3080mAh pack that can last around a day and a half according to Xiaomi, more than most other 5-inch flagship phones. The Mi 4 also supports quick charging at 9V/1.2A so you can juice it up to 60% in an hour. As comparison, its standard 5V/2A charger does 40% in an hour.
In terms of cameras, the Mi 4 boasts a 13-megapixel rear f/1.8 shooter capable of recording 4K video, and a high-res, 8-megapixel f/1.8 shooter with a 80-degree wide-angle lens that will allow for more people to fit in selfies. The Mi 4 comes in two versions: one with 16GB of internal storage, and another one that makes a jump directly to 64GB, skipping a 32GB model. The storage is also of the fastest eMMC 5.0 kind. Like its current Mi 3, unfortunately there’s no expandable microSD slot. As an added feature, the Mi 4 also comes with an IR blaster at the top which can be used as a universal remote for your TV and various home appliances.
Finally, the Xiaomi Mi 4 comes with a nice surprise: its full retail price is just 1,999 Yuan (about RM1,025) for the 16GB model, and 2,499 Yuan (about RM1,280) for the 64GB version. Xiaomi is ramping up production to supply 1 million units in the next 2 months. China Unicom will be the first to get it next Tuesday, followed by other China operators in August. The 4G LTE version which only supports TDD-LTE standards will be released in September. For the rest of the world, we would need to wait a little longer for a 4G FDD-LTE variant which is being adopted by most international carriers including Malaysia.
For more information, you can head over to Xiaomi’s official Mi 4 product page.
