April 16: Will the Xiaomi Mi 6 launch affect the Samsung Galaxy S8?

Xiaomi had a great run with the Mi5 last year and are hoping to follow it up with a sequel that is fit for being the next Xiaomi flagship. As it stands, rumours indicate that the company will be releasing its Mi 6 sometime around April 16.

The new Mi 6 is the successor to the Mi 5 and Mi 5S

Whether that is true or not has not been confirmed by the company, but it does set a good time for Xiaomi to place themselves just between the flagships that they can compete against. It is probably waiting for the Galaxy S8 to be revealed so that it can have its share of the Snapdragon CPUs for its own smartphone. As of now, the specifications of the upcoming phone seem to be nothing but the most hopeful – the Snapdragon 835, 6GB of RAM, 128GB internal storage, 5.2-inch OLED QHD display with dual curved glass, dual lens set up at the rear optics – 16MP + 4MP, and a 5MP front snapper. It most definitely will come with Nougat, of course.

This will be the first phone to come with the latest Snapdragon chipset and will not be under-clocked as well, which some rumours had suggested it would be. Other features included a ceramic body, and the curvature of the glass on the screen would be a 2.5D curve. We hope that there is minimal refraction and bending along the edges as well. The dual lens set-up also hints that the company will be following in the footsteps of the Xperia XZ Premium, but as to its emulation, that is still up to speculation.

According to MobiPicker, Xiaomi is hoping for its Mi 6 to be the first Chinese device to carry the Snapdragon 835 SoC. This seems like a high possibility, since there aren’t any other Chinese manufacturers who have shown plans to create a new flagship with the new chipset. As for the pricing, the base variant is expected to be priced at about $290 and the top-end variant with 128GB will be priced at $370. The pricing does seem appropriate for a brand like Xiaomi, but whether they will follow this pricing strategy is yet to be seen.

Xiaomi will do great to disrupt the flagship segment if they can release the handset at the right time. Those Snapdragon 835s aren’t going to last any longer.

COMMENTS