Xiaomi’s first fingerprint phone, metal chassis leaked

Robin MaxwellOctober 31, 2015

Rumour has it that Xiaomi are working on a new model for the Redmi range and it will come with a meta chassis and fingerprint scanner. More details of the purported Redmi Note 2 Pro after the jump.

Although fingerprint technology is nothing new to the smartphone world, Xiaomi have managed to resist the temptation of adding one to their latest phones so far. While Meizu, Huawei, LeTV and even smaller brands Bluboo, UMi etc are all adding fingerprint scanner to their phones the Xiaomi range doesn’t have one, yet.

It’s no secret that Xiaomi are planning to release a new flagship Redmi phone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Pro, and if this leaked chassis photo is to be trusted it is also now no secret that it will come with a scanner on the rear.

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This leaked photo also shows that the upcoming Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Pro will have a metal chassis with curved sides. The metal unibody design appears to be limited to the main center section of the phone while space at the top and bottom is likely to be finished in plastic.

The leak shows us that a large camera lens will sit above a dual LED flash and touch fingerprint scanner on the rear. The Mi logo and the same rectangular speaker design of the Xiaomi Mi4c is mirrored on the metal on the lower section.

The phone buying public are current split on if they prefer a fingerprint scanner on the front or rear of their phones. On the rear the scanner takes up less space and makes for a shorter handset, while on the front mean a home button can be incorporated in to the design.

What do you make of these Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 rumours? And do you think the phone will launch on 11th November as rumoured?

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About the author

Robin Maxwell
Hi, Robin Maxwell here! Mobile technology is my passions, and while I've been known to dabble with iOS devices I'm a firm Android convert, currently waiting for the Oppo Find 5 to launch!!

- Joel Adames
  October 31, 2015
Joel Adames
October 31, 2015
Houston!!! We arrived to a power plateau …
“””LET THE PRICE FIGHT BEGIN”” !!! :-). 🙂
Tajwar
October 31, 2015
- balcobomber25
  October 31, 2015

balcobomber25
October 31, 2015
Not excited for this, but excited for the prospects of what’s to come from Xiaomi.

Guaire
October 31, 2015
This one leaked 4 months ago first time as upcoming Redmi Note 2.
https://www.gizchina.com/wp-content/uploads/images/b4a56101jw1etpsz2qotoj20js0ptab8.jpg
Though photo quality is quite bad and that make it harder to judge, its backside doesn’t look good as Meizu Metal or LeTV 1S.
Back design of the Metal is seamless despite the metal build and camera isn’t protruding despite it isn’t a thick phone by any means. I know that under paint, top and bottom parts still made of plastic, but it’s kinda inevitable after all. 2.5D glass on the front side is a nice touch. Fingerprint scanner on the front side seems nice also. Overall you can’t say it looks like a budget phone at all. Also it has a super power efficient display type.
Le 1S has a really nicely crafted frame and it’s record breakingly thin and narrow for the class. It was a very rare thing that silver and gold color option. It’s bringing a lot of other features to the class like fast charge, large aperture camera, 4K video, 120fps video, Dolby audio, Dirac sound, USB 2.0, Type-C connector etc. Moreover they are not asking extra money for 32GB storage and 3GB RAM.
On the other hand that one seems one step behind design wise for several reasons like not quite good looking loudspeaker grill, not quite fitting top and bottom parts and assymetric position of the USB port. Red capacitive buttons of the Redmi line can ruin the front side assuming it will be there. I doubt that they will have thin bezels. Being coming late doesn’t help also if these leaks is true.
Some rumors says it can be came with the SD808 16GB/2GB for 1099 yuan, 32GB/3GB for 1299 yuan and 64GB/4GB for 1499 yuan. First option doesn’t look that good.
I think these budget phablets with Helio X10 reached a satisfactory point performance wise. Further improvements should be over design and features. If they are gonna neglect these things even with a more powerful chip like the SD808 might not be enough to beat the contenders.
At this point Xiaomi already released Redmi Note 2 and Mi 4c not a long time ago. A new phone with these specs has a potential to hurt Mi 4c’s sales. Considering what they did with Redmi Note 2 in order to make it less threatening to Mi line, they might make it uglier and feature poor, they might build it with inferior quality and with subtly inferior components like power hungry display.
Kingu Prima
November 1, 2015