Chinese company Xiaomi are one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world based on numbers, but they are often overlooked here in Australia, mostly because it is difficult to buy one here. Many of their phones match and often better the specs of the flagships of any other major manufacturer. The newly leaked Mi Note 2 is no exception, according to a Powerpoint presentation leaked via Weibo today.
The slides from the presentation show that the Mi Note 2 will sport a 5.7-inch SAMOLED display with Force Touch with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. Powering this impressive display will be the same processor that the Pixels have, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad core CPU and Adreno 530 GPU. As most companies do these days, it will be available in 2 different internal storage varieties, each with different amounts of RAM. The 64GB version will have only 4GB of RAM while the 128GB version features a massive 6GB of RAM. The rear camera is a dual camera (like a certain other phone out there) setup with a 23MP camera and a 12MP camera. The 23MP camera has a Sony IMX318 sensor and the 12MP camera has a Sony IMX378 sensor. For those who love selfies (let’s face it, we all love selfies) there is an 8MP front facing camera.
Leaked photos do not show a fingerprint sensor and it seems that that is because the Qualcomm-made ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is embedded under the display. With Quick Charge 3.0 to charge the 4100mAh battery, NFC and an iris scanner this promises to be an absolute monster of a device. For those who manage to find an importer for this, and there will be some out there, it won’t set you back too much with the 64GB version retailing for 2799 CNY, and the 128GB version for 2999CNY. This equates to around $585AUD and $630AUD respectively, amazing prices considering the price of current flagships in Australia — if only it ran stock Android.
With it being officially announced on October 25 keep an eye out for local importers if you are interested in this. I certainly will be.
Xiaomi Note 3 already exist, how come the name is Note 2?? just wondering
THey have two series that I’m aware of. The Mi series and the Redmi. There is a Redmi Note 3
Am I right in thinking that the Xiaomi phones don’t support Google Play Store? If so it would be well worth mentioning because that could be a genuine show stopper for many people.
It seems not at stock no. Unsure if they have included it in this phone? Maybe Ausdroid knows?
According to my Chinese phone expert the xiaomi global roms come with play store and with the Chinese roms it is easily installed with a simple one click installer.
Stock android doesn’t make me look elsewhere. In more cases than not, manufacturers have apps added more suited to the performance of the phone abilities. And look at how many apps people add to “stock android” because its limited. Such as improving camera performance for one.
This phone is certainly bang for buck, so time will tell if it can handle the everyday wear and tear (so to speak).
Sounds like a fantastic device.
“Xiaomi … are often overlooked here in Australia”
That’s not really a fair statement when the company does not sell their phones into the Australian market, nor support many of the LTE frequencies in use here. It would have been more appropriate to talk about their devices being difficult to obtain.
They are overlooked in Australia because they do not sell many of their phones here, and because they don’t support many of the LTE frequencies… The article seems to be a fair summary of the situation…
I would still argue that a company can only really be overlooked if their products are available but just not purchased.
Ah, I understand what you’re saying now. I was thinking of “overlooked” more in reference to tech talk online etc, more than just people not buying what is available in stores. I.e. we think Xiaomi and just dismiss it out of hand because of the above access and compatibility issues. But yes, I agree with your point.
My first thought is: will it support all the LTE bands used in Australia. Gonna keep an eye on it for sure!
For sure. Xiaomi historically do a poor job of supporting our bands other than a few specific models.
It would be nice if these phone got more custom ROM support (like CM).