The Chinese company that made shocking headlines last year, Xiaomi, has just made a new device behind closed doors according to these leaks. The new leak in question exposes the Mi3S — the second generation Mi3 said to be coming out this year. All this just months after the announcement that they had stolen away Hugo Barra from Google.
It has been a while since we have gathered news from Xiaomi. The last time was the lead up to the Red Rice handset that cost just $85 to fully assemble and that had us all thinking that they were going to be making some inroads out west and not just in their native China. Xiaomi then went on to sell 100,000 Redmi units is just over half an hour so it is fair to say that the lead up to the ultimate press release of the Mi3S is going to be an exciting one.
The new Mi3S will be the flagship for 2014 if it does end up being a factual report that it exists and let’s face it, we are all expecting it to be since it would signal huge red flags if there isn’t one and there is nothing to suggest that Xiaomi are not doing well.
Rather than going backwards we are tipping this manufacturer to go up and everything is suggesting that is true with a more premium feel rumored to headline this years flagship over the original that came out last year in 2013.
The source of this news is My Drivers and thanks to some cooperation from Google translate we are able to point out some specs that they have written down. This smartphone will have a Snapdragon 801 system chip and a 13 megapixel camera combined with another 8 megapixel front-facing snapper. If this report is true then this handset will stack up very well against phones like the HTC One M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 which are two of the best phones America has right now. Furthermore, a front snapper at 8 megapixel that is mainly used just for taking “selfies” is a high quality camera for there. We traditionally see a low amount of megapixels coming from this area so that is impressive to see.
If I were shopping for a new mobile phone I would want the 801 Snapdragon sooner rather than later as I know that it will soon seem old by the time we get to July when the new 805 chipset is revealed. In saying that, this is China and the market are different compared to what we know in the western world. Don’t be surprised if you see a Samsung Galaxy S5 carrying much better hardware in less than 6 months, in China, however.
As for looking at it and wondering if it will ever come to us to buy, I would not hold my breath at this point. It does not resemble a handset that will make it out in time to be viewed as a good buy and assuming that they would have a high value on it, many masses might look at other flagship devices instead of the Mi3S.