Over the weekend Xiaomi bosses have hinted that they will launch a new flagship device in July, but what could it be?
With the Xiaomi Mi5 already launched, the Beijing phone maker already has a device running the latest hardware, but come next month a new device is teased to be released sporting even more impressive specs.
The only phone that seems to fit the bill would be a 2nd generation Xiaomi Mi Note, or Mi Note 2, and in fact it has already been reported that the new device might be the first Xiaomi to launch with a curved display like the Vivo Xplay 5 and Samsung S7.
Gizchina News of the week
Chances are the Mi Note 2 will boast a 5.7-inch FHD display, Snapdragon 820 chipset, 6GB RAM, and there is even a chance Xiaomi might install dual rear cameras on the phone too!
However, could we be totally off the mark? Could this new ‘flagship’ device not be a phone at all and in fact end up being the much anticipated Xiaomi notebook?
My penny goes on MI Note.
It’s going to be priced at 2499 yuan and nobody will care that much because of the lack of European and north America bands.
If it is still running the buggy MIUI of the Mi5 that is another reason to pass.
I have been using the Mi5 for a month and have not found anything to be buggy. You are just repeating nasty gossip.
I had it for 10 days and my Mi4c ran Chrome twice as fast. It also had network issues.
You were unlucky then because mine is fast and problem-free. Had the Meizu Pro 5 before that – no problems with that one either but I had to install Google Play on it and all installed apps were Chinese, plus got occasional Chinese notifications, but still it was a great phone. Both were fast and problem-free.
Yep, nobody will care because the price from Xiaomi may be reasonable but obviously by the time anyone in Europe or America gets their hands on it via a re-seller it’ll be a very unattractive price (coupled with crap availability…) – Mi5 as the case in point…
Basically, they really, really, really need to start selling directly in the EU and US, it’s starting to look silly for them now…
With ZuK,Oneplus,Leecho, and ZTE offering the same stuff at the same price with the addition of all the LTE bands it’s going to be hard for Xiaomi this year.
Couldn’t agree more the Mi5 was a monumental letdown when compared to the OP3, Z2 Pro, Huawei P9, Axon 7 and Honor V8 among others.
I don’t even care on checking in this new device, there wouldn’t be much of surprise anyway and for sure it will only work on bands 1-3-7.
In my opinion this is the first time that Xiaomi has to follow the others.
They better hurry up or its going to be a lost for them
The biggest problem is the Chinese market is matured, the only room for growth for Xiaomi is internationally. They are already screwing over India and several other Asian countries with limited releases and horrible customer service. It’s sink or swim in the cell phone market, and Xiaomi is treading water right now. Hugo Barra needs to actually look at what his competitors are doing or Xiaomi will go the way of HTC.
They are going way too slow.
LeEcho have bought a lot from Yahoo in the silicon valley and they are planning on hiring over 1000 people for their entry in the US market which is going to happen soon.
By the fall we will have several Chinese phones available in the US and Xiaomi is not one of them.
Barra launched a MI Box for the US market and it’s going to stay on “coming soon” probably for several months which is a huge time span in the electronic field.
The SoC is already from last year.
I might going to get a fire TV if they won’t launch it by the time I come back from vacation
Problem is only so far only 2 countries that Xiaomi selling at their original cheap price (China and India) as for other countries, Xiaomi always sell on their official online shop much more expensive.
If xiaomi keep doing like this, oversea buyers will refrain themselves to buy Xiaomi products.
This is BS. I live in Canada and have had no trouble ordering about a half dozen phones from various Chinese online retailers over the past year. I got my Xiaomi Mi5 from this website’s shop – GizChina, came fast and had no Chinese apps or notifications once I chose English as my language. All Google services were already installed and running fine. Works perfectly on LTE band 7 in Canada. I paid $449 for the 64 GB version but you can get it now for as little as $395 to $419.
Good for you, if you’re ok with spending the extra then that’s your deal, I especially wouldn’t order from Gizchina shop though for a few reasons, one being that I asked Andi several times if they could add on ‘£’ GBP as a currency and that never got done, also they always seem to be pretty much the most expensive re-seller around and the 3rd issue is that they don’t offer Free shipping which obviously inflates the price even more!
From another point, the Mi5 you ordered, are you sure it’s flashed with an official MIUI Rom? It’s all well and good the re-seller doing all the ‘Google Play Services donkey work’ for you etc, but often this then means you won’t get any OTA updates as it’s been flashed on to a dodgy fork of the developer rom for example… So ye, whilst it will carry on working fine for the time being, you might not get all the goodies that an official selling source would offer unless your flashed it manually onto the official channel…
*This has been typical of GearBest selling the Redmi Note 3 Pro for example… (And not just GearBest!) but basically, their MIUI 7 was fine, nothing wrong with it, came with the Google Services happy days, but no OTA updates and then the question is always there, what else have they got running in the background that Xiaomi wouldn’t..?
I leave you with that… 😉
I don’t know why you need to pay in Pounds. I live in Canada and have no problem paying in US dollars. I already got one OTA update, no problem. I don’t want free shipping as it takes several weeks so I paid for DHL. I shop around several Chinese retail sites and I bought the Mi5 from Gizchina as it was a bit lower in price than others, such as Gearbest, Pompmall, Everbuying, Geekbuying, and Oppomart. Also, I wouldn’t let the lack of OTA updates bother me as I am comfortable downloading updates and installing them myself from my computer. There are easy to follow instructions available that anyone can follow.
He pays in pounds because he lives in the UK. I like to see priced in dollars because I live in the US. That isn’t an unreasonable request, nearly every online reseller offers prices in whatever currency you prefer.
My biggest problem with the GizChina Shop is how much they charge for DHL. As someone who has bought dozens of phones from China, I have never paid more than $15 for DHL to the US. Gizchina shop charges $19.50. Here is what I paid for the last few resellers I used:
TVCmall – $13
HK Goldway (Aliexpress) – $12
Geekbuying – $4
DX – FREE! DX offers free expedited delivery on most products, and it takes about the same time as DHL.
I can’t believe anyone could quibble over a price difference of $4.50!!! I wouldn’t buy a phone from Geekbuying. OK, they may have some occasional deals but most of their prices are quite high. I shop around and have bought phones from Pompmall and Everbuying. It was only my last purchase that was from GizChina, but would buy from them again.
The price difference isn’t $4.50:
TVC – $6.50
HKG – $7.50
Geekbuying – $15.50
DX – $19.50
I can’t believe someone actually is arguing that he wants to pay more for the same product. Not to mention several of those are selling the actual device cheaper. TVC sells the same Mi5 64GB for $374. That means it is $32 cheaper for the Mi5 + DHL than just for the price of the Mi5 on Gizchina Shop. I don’t know about you but I don’t like paying more for the same product.
Further to my other comment. I regularly check about 8 different Chinese online retailers and Gizchina is not, in my experience, anywhere near the most expensive. Gearbest has some nice sales but often are very expensive, as is Geekbuying and Pandawill. Pompmall is often more expensive but they too have some good deals occasionally. Honorbuy and Gizchina may be associated because they often have the same prices and they are generally reasonable. I browse these sites and others at least 4 times a week.
As a longtime Xiaomi fan there is very little reason for me to select them over another brand this year. Almost every other brand has stepped up in a major way while they are still up to the same old tricks. I have owned every Mi device since the Mi2s, I had zero interest in the Mi5 and I am not alone in that thought. I know several Mi fans that for the first time every didn’t buy a Mi phone. They have to seriously step their game up to win me back as a customer.
Open Google, type xxx USD to GBP and you have your price in pounds. The actual conversion rate when you pay may cost you +/- 1 or 2 pounds. There never is a big difference. It makes no difference what currency it is listed in. The payment processor automatically converts it to your home currency and you are charged the appropriate amount.
That’s not BS at all, you pay a premium to buy Xiaomi phones because they aren’t sold directly to Western countries. Also warranty coverage can be hit or miss when buying from a reseller. Two of it’s biggest competitors, Huawei and OnePlus sell directly to western countries without issue. There is no reason Xiaomi, who is one of the biggest companies can’t.
I don’t think selling direct to Western countries is that simple. There are huge regulatory and patent issues to deal with first. As far as paying a premium is concerned, even buying Xiaomi phones from China is less expensive than some of Huawei’s flagship phones and a lot less than Samsung’s, Sony’s and HTC’s top phones.
It is simple enough that OnePlus, Huawei, ZTE, Gionee (Blu), TCL (Alcatel), Zopo and even Coolpad have all managed to figure it out. There is little reason one of the biggest companies in China can’t.
There are still only a small number of Chinese phones that have a wide selection of bands. Meizu, like Xiaomi and probably 80% of phones made in China have only bands 1, 3 and 7. I don’t actually know why more phones don’t have every available band but it must not be all that easy or this wouldn’t be an issue.
There is no excuses to make for Xiaomi (yet you continue to try) when Huawei, ZTE, Zuk and OnePlus have all figured it out.
Meizu is a much smaller company than Xiaomi and they don’t aspire to be an international company, Xiaomi does.
I picked up my mi5 for £260 black 32gb model. Which I know there was a mark up but I still think it’s not bad.
You are wrong about the “lack of European and north America bands.” It is only the US that is missing out. Nearly all Chinese phones have LTE bands 1, 3 and 7. Most European countries have at least one carrier with either band 3 or band 7 and Canada has two carriers with band 7, which is how I can use the Xiaomi Mi5 in Canada – Rogers plus their sub-brand, Fido and Bell have LTE band 7.
You might be new here, otherwise you would have known that the majority here don’t care of band 1,3,7 but they only demand band 20 (800 MHz).
I’m happy for you that 1,37 works well in Canada
What you say may be true of a few countries but I doubt that covers what you call “the majority here”. Band 20 is mostly common in Africa and the Middle East, also some European countries, but there are several carriers in most European countries that have either bands 3 or 7 as well as 20. Check Wikipedia’s list of LTE Bands by country where you can see that bands 1, 3 and 7 are fairly common. Bigger South American countries have either bands 3 or 7 as well as many European countries including the UK. Vodafone has both bands 20 and 7, for example.
I would agree with him the majority of people here from Europe always complain about Band 20 not being included. 1, 3 and 7 are fairly common in Europe but only in the major cities in those countries. Once you leave the major cities you need Band 20 or you have no LTE. Even in some of the major cities I have been too, LTE can be inconsistent without 20.
Sorry to hear that only band 20 is available in rural areas, but how many people these days don’t live in major cities? This band issue is a problem, I agree, but my main point is that bands 1, 3 and 7 are not as uncommon as some people think. Often, people who make comments to that effect are from the US and they just assume that, because they don’t have these bands, virtually nobody else has them.
Often people who make comments like “how many people don’t live in major cities” have never travelled to European cities and experienced it first hand. They are just relying on something they read on Wikipeda. Let’s take a look at a country I was in a few months ago, Germany.
Population – about 80 million.
Population of it’s major cities:
Berlin – 3.3 million
Hamburg – 1.6 million
Munic – 1.2 million
Cologne – 1 million
Frankfurt – 800,000
That means just about 10% of the German population is living in one of those 5 major cities. I visited a few of these and LTE reception was hit or miss, Berlin was the only place I never had a dropped signal. Bands 1, 3 and 7 are the most widely used bands in the world but there are still hundreds of millions of people who don’t use them. There is no excuse in 2016 for Xiaomi not to include every band or near every band. Zuk, OnePlus, Huawei all do, even my Nextbit Robin which is a small startup has nearly every band available.
Yep, that’s pretty much spot-on.
“Having” them doesnt mean that they are used…
Germany might have 3 and 7 in that list but it is only used in the centres of the 5-8 largest cities.
LTE Maps for Germany indicate that Band 20 covers about 80% of the area while 3 and 7 together only cover about 15% of the area
Canada also uses bands 2, 4 and 17 which are far more prominent than band 7. Are you really arguing against having better LTE reception?
No, I’m just saying that if you want to try a Chinese phone, Canada is better off than the US because of Band 7 availability in Canada which no US carrier has. I have no problem with LTE reception on Fido.
No, he isnt wrong… I live in Germany and Band 20 is BY FAR the most common!
Two out of the four major carriers here use it exclusively, one doesnt offer LTE at all and the last (and by far the most expensive) offers 3, 7 and 20 but 3 and 7 only in bigger cities
Maybe the announcement of the Redmi Note 3 Special Edition, which is tailored to Taiwanese customers but features all relevant European FDD-LTE-bands?
http://www.mi.com/tw/note3/specs/
The problem is that if all they can offer at 1999CNY is a cut down MI5, how much will this one cost?
Hi. I’m Qasim Ala from South Africa. I have been seeing you quite often on gizchina. You have a passion for tech just like I do, especially Chinese products. You also seem to know what you’re talking about. That’s why I wanted to contact you with an idea that I had.
I order plenty of products from websites like everbuying.com. in fact even as I type this email, I have more then 30 different products on the way. These aren’t all my stuff though, (if only…) They are products that my friends, classmates and family members are interested in and have ordered. However I’m the one with the know how and the PayPal so I do all of the ordering.
I recently had an epiphany! I thought, why not review every item that I buy before I give it to the owner (with his/her permission of course). This could be a YouTube channel as well as a site like gizchina or devicespecifications etc with news and rumours as well as reviews. I don’t want to do it all on my own though and I thought that if I collaborate with someone, it would be even more successful especially from someone who has alot of experience in the Chinese market as I understand you do. The website doesn’t have to be restricted to Chinese products though. The place that I’m studying at has alot of different students so there are a plethora of devices that I could borrow and review. I’m sure you also get your hands on some interesting tech from time to time and would be interested in reviewing it.
I would like to know if you would be interested in collaborating with me on this project and any ideas that you may have.
I couldn’t get your email so I just found a really old post and replied to one of your comments. You may email me at qasimala@yahoo.com
Thanks.
Qasim Ala.
xiaomi needs to follow leEco to the us market.. they have great gear and prices, and a lot of variety in their gadgets too
not excited one bit, xioami needs to work on their camera performance
I would love to see a Mi5c that fixes all that was wrong with the Mi5. Improve the camera, get rid of that hideous black border (or have wider availability of the black model to hide them), improve the build quality and include international LTE bands and I will be first in line to buy it.
They could first start by selling the existing 4GB RAM Mi5 model (ceramic black) in all the markets they operate for a start. Xioami must be high if they think their global fan base is going gobble the overpriced lackluster Mi5 3GB RAM + 32GB storage ‘flagship’ (also only in white). The angry mobs on their Facebook clearly show that they have drop the ball on their Mi5 global launch/availability.
mi note 2. thats what its gonna be !
They would have to make a bloody good phone to win me back. They’ve been making some very good low budget phones like the Redmi 3 Pro and Redmi Note 3 but their “flagship” models have been rather crap this year. The Mi5 was ugly and uninspiring and the Mi Max had nice specs but was far too big. I’ve been waiting too long for a successor to the Mi Note and I’ve just gone and ordered the OP3. You’re too late to the party Xiaomi.
All-in-all though this year has been very lacklustre in the phone market. The only phone I’ve liked is the S7 Edge and the OnePlus 3. ZUK Z2 Pro almost did it for me but the smaller size coupled with very limited availability has left me passing on that one. OP3 are pretty much selling a £309/$399 (= ~2499RMB without taxes) true flagship. Only con I can see with the OP3 is the lack of aptX and a relatively small battery. Others might be bothered by only a 1080p pentile AMOLED panel and lack of microSD but they don’t bother me. The design is uninspiring but look at all the other 2016 phones, none of them are.
I don’t think we’ll see Mi note 2, any time soon
Mi Note was a mid-range phablet. Mi Note Pro was a flagship phablet.
I highly doubt that they release a Mi Note 2, that would be a mid-range phablet, which they have enough of already:
– They already have a shitload of low and mid range phablets (Redmi series)
– They already have 2 non-phablet flagships (Mi5 series)
A Mi Note would get in the way of the Redmi series
A Mi Note Pro would fill a new spot: flagship phablet which they don’t have yet for this year.
But there is a reason no other brand released a flagship specs phablet: The market is too small, there is no demand for high-specs expensive 6″+ phones. Huawei Mate 8 is a mid-ranger, LeEco Max is a mid-ranger, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 are mid-rangers.