With a new phone, Xiaomi looks for a boost from Samsung’s exploding Note 7

The new Xiaomi Note 2, pictured today at the launch event in China’s capital. Photo credit: Eva Xiao / Tech in Asia.

With Samsung’s exploding phone crisis resulting in the Note 7 being scrapped, now’s a good time for rival brands to show off similarly big-screened smartphones. And that’s precisely what China’s Xiaomi did today.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun unveiled the Note 2 at an event this afternoon in Beijing. It comes with a 5.7-inch curved screen exactly like the one on the discontinued Samsung Galaxy Note 7.

Photo credit: Xiaomi.

As is usually the case with Xiaomi, the new Note 2 will launch very soon in China – on November 1 – followed by rollouts to some of its handful of other markets. Available in either silver or black, it costs from US$410 to $515.

Xiaomi’s Note 2 looks very different from Samsung’s at the rear, with a classy housing for the monster 22MP camera.

Photo credit: Eva Xiao / Tech in Asia.

It comes with NFC as the company pushes Xiaomi Pay across stores in China.

Photo credit: Xiaomi.

The Note 2 screen is curved thanks to a bendable OLED screen.