Redmi 3S Plus, Xiaomi’s first retail-only smartphone launched

For the first time Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has released a phone that will be sold exclusively through offline stores in India. The Redmi 3S Plus was launched on Saturday with a price tag of Rs 9,499 (roughly $140).

Redmi 3s Plus sports a 5-inch HD display and has a has a 64-bit class Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor under the hood (Xiaomi)

Redmi 3s Plus sports a 5-inch HD display and has a has a 64-bit class Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor under the hood (Xiaomi)

Sporting a premium metal body, the 5-inch HD display device houses a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. The 64-bit processor takes 4 performance cores to perform intensive tasks and 4 power-saving cores for extra power efficiency. Playing games or streaming high quality videos will be a breeze.

In terms of camera, the Redmi 3S Plus has a 13MP full-feature camera, which comes with built-in HDR and 12 playful filters. It is equipped with Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF), a feature only found in professional DSLRs. With PDAF technology, the camera takes just 0.1s to focus on objects. PDAF makes a one-time calculation to adjust lens focus.

In addition to a 13MP camera, the Redmi phone boasts of a 5MP front camera with ‘Beautify’ mode. There are over 36 smart beautify profiles to enhance skin tone, brighten eyes, reduce blur and much more.

Towards the battery, the device has a 4100mAh capacity, twice that of Redmi 2. This despite the fact that the body is only 8.5mm thin. Xiaomi says Redmi 3S can last 2 days with moderate use without charging. As for connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, Micro-SIM, and LTE.

Available in three colours – grey, silver and gold, Redmi 3S will be sold at more than 7,500 stores across India.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi has tied up with online retailers Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal to sell its phones and accessories during the annual sales in the first week of October.

The Amazon India sale will be from October 1-5, while home-based e-tailers Flipkart and Snapdeal start a day later, October 2-6. Redmi Note 3, Mi 4, Mi Max, Mi 5, Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime are those that will see a massive price drop.

“Each year we are celebrating the festive season with Mi fans in a bigger and better way. We have exciting plans for 2016 and I am thrilled to announce our festive offers for Mi fans on our partner platforms as we come together to celebrate. We are making all the offers across platforms the same and we are looking forward to an amazing month of celebrations,” Raghu Reddy, Head of online sales, Xiaomi India said.

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