Xiaomi Mi 4i to get a Snapdragon 808 refresh?

It’s a known fact that the Snapdragon 615 powered Xiaomi Mi 4i isn’t the fastest (or coolest) phone to have released this year. Xiaomi seem to release that, and are reportedly planning a switch to another SoC for the phone.

What we’ve known as the Xiaomi Libra might soon be sold under the Mi 4i brand. If you aren’t aware, a Snapdragon 808 powered phone was spotted at a benchmarks database recently. Besides the hexa-core CPU, codename Libra also features 2GB of RAM.

That only points to one thing, and that is the fact that the device will be a mid-ranger… and Xiaomi aren’t known to kill their own products with new launches sooner than buyers would expect, so its highly likely that the Snapdragon 808 powered Libra will be the new face of the Xiaomi Mi 4i.

Besides the processor, the Xiaomi Mi 4i is known to be a top device with a better than average build and a display worth dying for. A cooler, better performing SoC is the only thing that could make the Mi 4i even worthier.

Please note nothing’s official as of yet. We do believe this will be the new Mi 4i though, but stay tuned for more official news nonetheless.

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Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91

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balcobomber25
July 14, 2015
Unless it is the successor to the Mi4i, and they will launch a Mi5 with SD 820 and Mi5i with SD 808 together. This is around the time we should be hearing rumors of the Mi5.
- jolu
  July 14, 2015
  Yea, i think focusing in Mi5 and perhaps even a Mi5i is a better choice then trying to clear the Mi4i of its name ‘fail’. I have tried the Mi4i. It runs okay, not even as bad as some say.
  - balcobomber25
    July 14, 2015
    Yea I tried it last month in Malaysia and it ran no hotter than my Mi4 which I had side by side with it. Except when I tried to play Asphalt 8 on it then it really heated up.
- MaxPower
  July 14, 2015

Atomicrus
July 14, 2015
Xiaomi couldn’t beat the heat? If It is so, most of the 615 SoC owners could be pissed off.
Still waiting for my Mi4i to be shipped to me. But almost don’t want it anymore, unfortunately bought it for my wife, but reading so much articles of firmware and SoC problems i come to a mind of mi4i is a fail model. Trust no more to Xiaomi.
- balcobomber25
  July 14, 2015
  Its actually not as bad as it is made out to be. If you dont play a lot of intensive games it produces no more heat than any other phone running MIUI (which itself runs hot to begin with).
- Airyl
  July 14, 2015
  I don’t really think it’s that bad of a problem. Unless you’re a gamer (in which case you shouldn’t even be looking at a Snapdragon 615) then the device should be just fine.
- MaxPower
  July 14, 2015
  Qualcomm screwed up, i don’t think Xiaomi has many responsibilities.
  As a business Xiaomi is actually losing money and market share due to Qualcomm’s
  horrendous year.
  they are trying to see if it can be fixed software-side but the problem seems to be in the hardware.
  Other companies are still dealing with the first version of SD615 which is even worse than the one used by Xiaomi.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    July 14, 2015
    - MaxPower
      July 14, 2015
    - - MaxPower
        July 14, 2015
        hehe, i thought you hate your wife’s phone. let me guess… you hated the price!
        
        balcobomber25
        July 15, 2015
        No Samsung makes amazing phones and I dont mind paying for the quality. What I despise is Touchwhiz. I think it is the worst UI in the world. I can’t even describe my hatred for it lol.
      - Muhammad Yasir
        July 15, 2015
        is it cheaper than MTK chips ?
        tell me more about which company would be cheaper in bulk ….
        
        balcobomber25
        July 15, 2015
        Without knowing cost per unit prices which can vary from company to company if I had to guess I would say:
        Leadcore (Xiaomi)
        Mediatek
        Samsung
        Kirin (Huawei)
        Qualcomm
        But again this is just a guess.
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 15, 2015
        ofcourse MTK is the obvious winner … but i guess samsung has a fair chance too…
        look at that Qualcomm stove at teh bottom tho :p
        
        balcobomber25
        July 15, 2015
        Qualcomm is known for giving different prices to different companies. So for a company like Xiaomi who buys millions of chips from them it might actually be cheaper than to use MTK.
        Muhammad Yasir
        July 15, 2015
        hmm …
        but in that case , MTK should be even cheaper (the cheapest ever??) for companies that buy from them (iocean, siswoo, blackview,meizu , elephone , umi and names that could go on and on ) ?
        balcobomber25
        July 15, 2015
        Again we would need the actual per cost units to really know. And it varies between chips. For istance there probably isn’t a huge difference in price between the SD410 and MTK6753, both budget SoC’s.
    - Paap Mrittu
      July 14, 2015
      As Meizu has invested on Mediatek, there is a strong possibility that Xiaomi has to find another source for soc other than Mideatek.
  - balcobomber25
    July 14, 2015
    Well Xioami could have used MTK or Samsung SoC’s so they aren’t entirely balmeless here.
    - MaxPower
      July 14, 2015
      i didn’t say they have no responsibility :-p look, I’ve been cautious here.
      anyway, we don’t know the whole story and we can only assume what’s going on.
      who knows, maybe there are deals between manufacturers and suppliers that might prevent Xiaomi to go for Samsung for example? (just assuming here)
      MTK…i don’t know what happened back in time, but since you have bought Leadcore it might not be a viable option anymore (sigh)
      again, i don’t know the deal.
      Let’s say that they might have had options and they chose to go for SD, so yes, they had responsibilities on it, but still the bigger blame goes on Qualcomm IMO
      - balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015
        I am more than willing to bet there are deals between suppliers. And with all the negative press Qualcomm has to be paying a pretty penny to get these companies to stick with them.
        But my loyalty to Xiaomi ended the day I won a Meizu lol!
        
        MaxPower
        July 14, 2015
        you don’t want to lose Qualcomm only for a bad year don’t you? 🙂
        i don’t remember where, but i read that,according to Hugo Barra, Xiaomi is the 3rd biggest Qualcomm’s customer.
        I’m assuming that this might mean something when you do a balance.
        Its pretty realistic assuming than Xiaomi will pay the SD820 less than what XiaoloJiao would pay (with all due respect for XiaoloJiao).
        when you have a special deal and buy millions of units the price has to be different.
        with this scenario i understand why they didn’t try a different road.
        They tried with a 2nd version of SD615, they released the source hoping some developer would find a fix.
        I’m trying to open different scenarios before saying that they suck, they have been affected economically as well.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015
        In all honest I could never abandon Xiaomi, I am just sick of their games (only releasing white phones at first, limited stock etc). But their products are top notch and their support is unheard of not just for China but all smartphones. I am waiting on a new Mi Pad, I need a new tablet (still use original Nexus 7!).
        As for Qualcomm, I caved in and bought a Windows Phone, a Blu Win HD LTE with a SD 410. Surprisingly it runs incredibly smooth and fast with WP8.1. Gonna be my new work phone. I think Qualcomms just wasnt prepared for 64 bit but the SD 820 will establish them once again as the kings. MTK is gaining serious ground though.
        I believe Xiaomi is one of their biggest customers. Think about it, they are one of the top 5 manufacturers in the world. The other ones are Apple, Samsung and Huawei all which make their own chips.
        
        MaxPower
        July 14, 2015
        couldn’t agree more.
        the competition is there, they provide good quality phones with a good price as well.
        Mediatek is growing like crazy.
        today i would totally go for the Meizu MX5.
        i know they are attent to details to make money but they might lose a customer like me simply for not providing a black phone. silly isn’t it?
        
        balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015
        Personally I am sick of black and white phones. One of the reasons I love the MX5 is because it offers Grey. But my favorite is the Moto X which gives you a choice of 25+ colors.
        MaxPower
        July 14, 2015
        i don’t mind the grey version,i simply can’t stand the white
        
        MaxPower
        July 14, 2015
        i think they are the 3rd counting samsung and apple as first and second.
        i hope I’m not saying a BS here, im at the park with my son and i can’t check it, so please someone correct me if I’m saying something stupid.
        i heard that the first customer is supposed to be Apple because Qualcomm provides them the chip for radio connectivity (gsm or lte modem).
        balcobomber25
        July 15, 2015
        Yea Qualcomm offers many different products to these companies, modems is what they were originally known for. I was just talking about SoC sales but yea they also supply sound chips, charging ports, Bluetooth, even displays and software (through subsidiaries of theirs).
        As for the top 3 it fluctuates so much from quarter to quarter between Samsung and Apple vying for 1-2 and Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei vying for 3-4-5.
- King
  July 14, 2015
  My friends have it. They use it mainly for taking pictures. They love it. The storage could have been bigger though they say.
- Muhammad Yasir
  July 14, 2015
  ” unfortunately bought it for my wife ”
  May she have mercy on you 😀
Guaire
July 14, 2015
That’s coming from a Chinese analyst. He suggested Xiaomi going to release Mi4i in China with the SD808 some time ago. Later it passed through TENAA with the SD615.
Mi4i has a good base. Swap the SD615 with the SD808 and add 1GB RAM more and set the price to 240$. They can’t keep up with the demand.
But it would cannibalize Mi4’s sales.
- balcobomber25
  July 14, 2015
  They cant keep up with the demand now for the Mi4i. Even with the lower specs.
  - Guaire
    July 14, 2015
    I don’t think so. Open sales implies they can’t sell out it via flash sales.
    - balcobomber25
      July 14, 2015
      This is Xiaomis model, it has been for years now. They start with flash sales for the first few months when prices of components are high and then when the prices come down they have open sales. It’s how they make money, it’s similar to OPO’s invite system just with less restrictions.
      - Guaire
        July 14, 2015
        Open sales indicates now their supply is more than enough to meet the demand with a margin. If they couldn’t keep up with the demand, it would sell out regardless of what they call it.
        
        balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015
        And it will sell out, watch how fast this “open sale” lasts. It will be sold out in a matter of days if not minutes, just like every flash sale has been sold in seconds.
        
        Guaire
        July 14, 2015
        Definition comes from speed of the sales. They can say it’s on open sale, but if its sold out in minutes or hours it will end up as a flash sale.
        They can say it’s going to be a flash sale, but if it take days it couldn’t be defined as a flash sale.
        Right now it’s still available.
        balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015
        Now your just arguing for the sake of arguing, shocking coming from you. A Flash sale is a limited timed sale usually available on only one site (flipkart usually) where they have limited stock available. An open sale means you can buy it from a number of resellers and there is significant stock. It doesn’t matter how fast it sells out. When One Plus started their non invite sales (same as an open sale) it sold out in a matter of days and is still hard to get. That is not a flash sale it is a very good open sale.
        Guaire
        July 14, 2015
        Flash sales are limited, but with quantity not with time. I didn’t made up that explanation.

Yash Garg

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