Chinese handset maker Xiaomi unveils Mi Note & Mi Note Pro phablets, takes the battle to Apple and Samsung

Within days of introducing the successor to its budget smartphone offering Redmi 1S, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has now unveiled two new flagship devices at an event in Beijing. However, instead of the rumoured Mi 5, the company has introduced not one but two new phablets called Mi Note and Mi Note Pro.

Xiaomi's new phablets will directly compete with Apple and Samsung's popular phablets offerings iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4. While the iPhone 6 Plus is available for a starting price of Rs 62,500, Galaxy Note 4 has been priced at Rs 58,300 in the country.

In comparison, the 16 and 64GB models of Mi Note will be available for purchase for Rs 22,893 and Rs 27,872 respectively in the Chinese market as early as next week. The Mi Note Pro will be launched for Rs 33,162 by March 2015-end. The company is yet to reveal an India pricing or exact launch date for the phablets.

Here is a look at the specifications of the devices.

Mi Note

The phablet sports a 5.7 inch full HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display (1920×1080 pixels resolution) with 386 ppi pixel density. It runs on the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system that has been optimised with MIUI. Powered by a 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with Adreno 330 GPU, the phablet has 3GB of RAM. Users will have the option of choosing between 16 and 64GB of internal memory, but further memory expansion is not available.

Mi Note has a 13 megapixel autofocus rear camera with dual-LED Flash and a 4MP front facing camera for video calling. Both the cameras can also record full HD videos (1080p) at 30 frames per second. Additional features of the camera include geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, and High Dynamic Range (HDR), among others. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G LTE, as well as a microUSB port.

The dimensions of the device are 155.1mm x 77.6mm x 7mm and its weight is 161gm. Xiaomi has provided a 3,000mAh battery in the device, which the company claims can be charged up to 60 per cent in just 30 minutes with Quick Charge 2.0. The phablet comes with GPS (with A-GPS support) and dual-SIM capability, and will be available in black and white colours.

Mi Note Pro

This one sports a 5.7 inch 2K IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display (2560×1440 pixels resolution) with 515 ppi pixel density. It runs on the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS that has been optimised with MIUI. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64 bit octa-core processor with Adreno 430 GPU, the phablet has 4GB of RAM. The internal memory of the device is 64GB, but further memory expansion is not available.

The camera and connectivity features of the phablet are similar to that of Mi Note. The dimensions of the device are 155.1mm x 77.6mm x 7mm and its weight is 161gm. Xiaomi has provided a 3,090mAh battery in the device, which the company claims can be charged up to 60 per cent in just 30 minutes with Quick Charge 2.0. The phablet comes with GPS (with A-GPS support) and dual-SIM capability, and will be available in black, white and gold colours.

In addition to the phablets, the company has also launched a new set-top box 'Mi Box mini', as well as over-the-ear headphones called Mi Headphones.