Xiaomi has officially revealed the Redmi 3 ahead of its scheduled launch tomorrow. The device has been listed on the website in China and is priced at CNY 699, which is about Rs. 7,100. The device comes with a 5-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. It is powered by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor with four cores clocked 1.5Ghz and the other 4 clocked at 1.2GHz. The smartphone also comes equipped with 2GB of RAM with 16GB of onboard storage which can be expanded by up to 128GB via a microSD card. There is a 13MP camera located on the back of the device with a 5MP front facing camera. The device comes with a large 4100mAh battery and runs MIUI 7 layered over Android Lollipop. It also features an all-metal body with a textured rear panel and is available in Gold, Grey, and Silver colour variants.
Last week, the company had posted a teaser on its official Weibo account which showed the textured rear panel of Redmi 3 along with is launch date, January 12. The smartphone had also appeared on Chinese certification website, TENAA, last month. It is not known if and when the device will be released in India. The Xiaomi Redmi 3’s predecessor, the Redmi 2 was launched in India in March. At launch, the device was priced at Rs. 6,999 and offered a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 SoC with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It also featured a 4.7-inch HD screen and had an 8MP rear camera with 2MP front camera. There was also a limited edition variant of the device which had 2GB of RAM.
In August, Xiaomi launched the Redmi 2 Prime in India. The device was the company's first ‘Made in India’ smartphone and is manufactured in Foxconn’s plant located in Andhra Pradesh. However, it isn’t the company’s only smartphone to be made in the country. The company launched the Redmi Note Prime in India last month. The phone is priced at Rs. 8,499 and is available on Amazon and Mi.com. The device comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display and is powered by a Snapdragon 410 processor with 2GB of RAM. It also comes with 3100mAh battery and 16GB of storage that can be expanded by up to 32GB. At the back of the device is a 13MP camera with a 5MP front facing camera.
Xiaomi is also expected to finally launch the Mi 5 next month. The company's co-founder and VP, Liwan Jiang has finally confirmed that device will launch in February and that it will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor. In his personal Weibo account, he said that the Mi 5 will be released after the Spring Festival, which is scheduled to be held on February 8. The Mi 5 is expected to come with a 5.2-inch QHD screen with 3GB or 4GB of RAM. Leaked renders suggest that the device will be available in Black, Gold, Pink, and White variants. Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun had earlier said that the company was not focused being the first to come with a Snapdragon 820 SoC. It was instead focusing on user experience. It was believed that the Samsung Galaxy S7 would be the first smartphone to come with the processor, but it was in fact, LeTV who would launch the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone. It’s Le Max Pro is the first to come with Qualcomm’s new flagship chipset.