The latest flagship smartphone of Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, the Mi 5, has yet to hit the market this year but the company is said to be working now on its upcoming flagship handset for next year, the Xiaomi Mi 6, specifically intended for the US market.
On April 9, Xiaomi celebrated is fifth anniversary with a ‘flash sale’ of its current line of smartphones. As a result, the company sets the Guiness Book of World Records by selling a total of 2.11 million units of handset within 12 hours, reports Khaleej Times.
Lei Jun, chief executive officer of the Beijing-based Xiaomi said that the sales result was beyond her imagination as the half-day sales promotion netted 2.08 billion yuan or $335 million from the sales of Xiaomi handsets and other accessories.
The record was previously held by Alibaba’s Tmall, which sold 1.89 million units of mobile phones in November last year during a 24-hour sales event.
The Mi 5 in Europe, the Mi 6 in the US
Reports reaching the Android Info said that the Xiaomi Mi 5 will be invading mostly the European markets this year while the Xiaomi Mi 6 will be hitting the US retail industry next year.
Although at this point, the US Xiaomi Mi 6 is just mere speculation. However, initial information about the device which is rumored to be launch in July of next year, notes that it shall sport a 4K display and an octa-core processor clocked at 2.7 GHz.
It shall also feature a 25-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Reports also have it that the Xiaomi Mi 6 shall also feature the ultra-thin bezel and premium specs of the Xiaomi Mi 5.
Product cycle
Given the typical one-year product cycle of flagship devices, the Xiaomi Mi5 was supposed to launch in July this year. Perhaps that was the plan before the Xiaomi Mi Note and the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro came into the picture. Nowadays, July is off the picture for Xiaomi Mi5.
But the good news from the Chinese tech company is that there would still be a Xiaomi Mi5 that will come out from its end.
Instead of July however, the device, which will most likely become the next flagship smartphone from Xiaomi, will be rolled out towards the fourth quarter of the year. In all likelihood, it will come out before the Holidays and capitalize on the Christmas shopping frenzies all over the world.
Initial reports on the features and specifications of the Xiaomi Mi5 indicate that the device would be powered by either a Snapdragon 805 or Snapdragon 810 chips, both processors are 64-bit chipsets.
But there were also supposed leaked images in the internet of the Xiaomi Mi5 indicating that the device would be running on the less powerful Snapdragon 801 processor and it will only have 2GB of RAM instead of the previously rumored 3GB RAM.
In terms of appearance, the device is rumored to be only 5.1 mm thick and that it actually looks a lot like the iPhone 6 Plus and the Galaxy Note 4. The Xiaomi Mi5 also appears to have stick to the flat screen design although it looks like it was patterned after Apple’s device.