Chinese handset maker Xiaomi launches flagship smartphone Mi 4 for Rs 19,999 in India

Within days of unveiling two new flagship phablets called Mi Note and Mi Note Pro at an event in Beijing, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has now launched Mi 4 smartphone in the Indian market. The device has been priced at Rs 19,999, and will be available for purchase exclusively on Indian e-commerce major Flipkart.com in the country.

While the smartphone will go on sale on Feb 10, 2015, pre-registrations for the same will begin at 6pm today. Mi 4 was first unveiled in July last year.

In addition to the smartphone, the company has also introduced MIUI 6, a major update to its software. According to the company, the new software is MIUI redesigned in its simplest form, with all unnecessary distractions stripped away so users can focus on their content.

Specifications

The smartphone sports a 5 inch full HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display (1920×1080 pixels resolution) with 441 ppi pixel density. It runs on the Android 4.4.4 KitKat operating system that has been optimised with MIUI 6. Powered by a 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with Adreno 330 GPU, the smartphone has 3GB of RAM. The internal memory of the device is 16GB, but further memory expansion is not available.

Mi 4 has a 13 megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED Flash that can record Ultra HD videos at 30 frames per second (fps) and full HD videos at 30fps. The device also has an 8 MP front facing camera that can record full HD videos. 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 and 3G, as well as a microUSB port.

The dimensions of the device are 139.2mm x 68.5mm x 8.9mm and its weight is 149 gm. Xiaomi has provided a 3,080mAh 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 smartphone comes with GPS (with A-GPS support), FM Radio, and will be available in white colour.

According to the company, the smartphones after-sales service will be supported by Mi India's over 66 service centres, including five exclusive Mi service centres in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Cochin.

In its price range, the device will compete with the likes of Huawei Honor 6 and OnePlus One that are available for Rs 17,999 and Rs 21,999 respectively. However, it is interesting to note that OnePlus One offers four times (64GB) the internal memory of Mi 4, while Huawei Honor 6's internal memory can also be expanded up to 64GB with a microSD card.

Last month, Xiaomi had received $1.1 billion in fresh funding from All-Stars Investment, an investment firm launched by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji, besides Russian investment firm DST Global, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Hopu Fund, and Yunfeng Capital, among others. The round valued Xiaomi at $45 billion.

Around the same time, the company claimed to have sold a million smartphones in India within five months of its launch in the country. Already one of the leading smartphone manufacturer's in China, Xiaomi had made its debut in the Indian smartphone market in July last year with the launch of the Mi3 smartphone.