Xiaomi launches cheaper, thinner, more colorful Mi 4i in India

Xiaomi vice-president Hugo Barra (pictured above) today launched its newest phone, the Mi 4i, at a global premiere in Delhi, attended by both founders Lei Jun and Lin Bin. That it chose to premiere a new gadget in India underlines the importance of this smartphone-hungry, cost-sensitive market to the Chinese company. The name of its new flagship phone is an acronym of “Mi for India.”

The price for this “flagship device designed for India” is India-friendly. The Mi 4i costs INR 12,999 (US$205), Barra announced to loud cheers and wolf whistles. Registration starts tonight at 8 pm IST and the phone goes on sale on April 30. It’s a phone designed for India, but it’s a global launch – so it comes out in other markets too.

Xiaomi is dangling the perfect carrot before India’s value-for-money consumers with the Mi 4i placed between the budget Redmi and the higher end Mi 4. Just a week earlier, Xiaomi dropped the prices of Mi 4 from INR 19,999 (US$325) to INR 17,999 (US$285).

Now, a quick look at this latest Xiaomi phone, which is 12 percent thinner than the Mi 4. “We built our smallest and densest motherboard… It took us 18 months to build this phone,” said Barra. “Innovation made compact” is the catchline.

The Mi 4i weighs the same as the iPhone 6 but is 10 percent larger in screen size at 5 inches, pointed out Barra. It also has a 3120 mAH battery, which is the highest for any 5-inch phone. One charge should last a day and a half.

The 1080p and 441 ppi resolution makes it sharper than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus, said Barra, whose presentation was a straight comparison with the Apple flagship.

It has Corning Concore, which is tougher than Gorilla Glass, according to Barra. It uses OGS (One Glass Solution) and a new technology called “sunlight display,” said Barra.

It has a 13 MP camera at the rear with two-tone white-and-yellow flash and a 5 MP camera in front with a “beautify” feature and a selfie timer.

The body has a soft matte feel and comes in five colors – white, yellow, blue, pink, and grey-black.

Now for the hardcore tech specs: a second generation Snapdragon 615 processor created by Qualcomm India running Android Lollipop with MIUI 6.

An India first feature is visual IVR (Interactive Voice Response) which makes it easy to use IVR in situations like phone surveys. This is being developed by the MIUI community, and currently supports six Indian languages.