The world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, Xiaomi, announced that the newly released Redmi Note 2 sold 800,000 units within 12 hours when the company decided to conduct its first-ever flash sale in China on August 16.
Although the sales record did not break the feat set by the Beijing-based electronics company last April, where they were able to achieve a new Guinness World Record for selling 2.11 million mobile phones within 24 hours, Xiaomi once again proved how influential their brand is when it comes to handsets. It seems that the tech company is determined to conquer the Chinese market and conducted another flash sale on August 24 which resulted to the same level of success.
However, the international market is still waiting to join the latest Redmi craze. In order to meet the requests of those living outside China, the website, GearBest, is selling the smartphone for an additional charge of around $40. In the website, the seller indicated the price of Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 at $168.85 when, in fact, the handset can be bought in China for only $125.95.
Nevertheless, even with an increased price, the smartphone is still considered affordable and budget-friendly. GearBest is having the pre-sale of Redmi Note 2 until September 16. Once the pre-sale ends, the seller will start shipping the orders so the buyers can receive their respective handsets around September 21.
The battle of the phablets
With the phablet’s popularity, smartphone users cannot help but compare the Redmi Note 2 with famous brands like Samsung and Lenovo including another Chinese brand Meizu.
Both Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 were released this month. On the other hand, Meizu m2 Note was received by the market in June while the Lenovo K3 was launched last March. In terms of the phablets’ price range, Samsung is the only one among the four phablets that have not been included in the list of affordable handsets, being the most expensive of the lot.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 belonged in the price group of $350 while Redmi Note 2, K3, and m2 Note fall under the price range of below $200. In the market, both Lenovo K3 and Meizu m2 Note can be bought for only $154 while Redmi Note 2, as cited earlier, can be purchased at only $125.95 in China.
The three phablets which belong to the below $200 price group feature 5.5-inch displays with 1080 x 1920-pixel screen resolutions. On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Note 5 proved its superiority with its 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display and its impressive 2560 x 1440-pixel Quad HD resolution.
As for the camera, Samsung once again leads the phablets for having a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel front snapper. Meanwhile, all three affordable handsets share the same camera feature of the 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front shooters.
It is clear that Samsung features more premium specs, but Redmi Note 2 along with the other inexpensive phablets prove that they can still meet the needs of the market while selling the devices at almost half the price of the flagship brand.
Xiaomi unravels MIUI 7 beta ROM
The official website of MIUI, which stands for Mi User Interface, announced on August 24 that they will proudly introduce their latest MIUI 7 Global beta ROM to support various Xiaomi handsets. MIUI was developed by Xiaomi Tech, which is an aftermarket firmware for tablets and smartphones based on the Android OS.
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