For the past several weeks, rumours have been rife that Xiaomi would soon bring the third generation Google Android One phone -- Mi A3--to India and now, the company's new teaser hints, the launch is just around the corner.
Xiaomi vice president (global) & managing director (India), Manu Kumar Jain on Twitter has posted a teaser video almost confirming the Mi A3 will soon hit stores. In the video, he is shown to be using a glossy Xiaomi phone. Then, he launches the Google Assistant on the mobile, asking which company is the number one mobile company in India, follows it up with another one asking which Android One model was the best seller in India in 2018. To that, the voice assistant replied Xiaomi has the top firm and Mi A2 as top mobile, respectively.
After that, Jain asked the fans to guess when the new Android One from the house of Xiaomi would come to India. Lucky contestants who answer the correct date with hashtag #XiaomiAndroidOne and tag the company MD's Twitter ID will stand a chance to win the mystery Xiaomi phone, Jain said.
For the uninitiated, Xiaomi Mi A3 comes with a moderate upgrade over the predecessor. It is a bit similar to the Redmi Note 7 Pro in terms of exterior outlook, but with a better camera. It has glossy 3D curved glass on the shell and also on the front.
Inside, it houses an 11nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core backed by 4GB RAM, 64GB/128GB storage and a 4,030mAh battery with a 10W charger out-of-the-box. It also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 18W fast charging.
As far as the photography hardware is concerned, the Mi A3 houses a feature-rich triple-camera, one 48MP primary sensory, 8MP wide-angle camera and 2MP depth sensor on the back. On the front, it features 32MP snapper.
Since the Mi A3 is a Google affiliated Android One series, it will be one of the first phones to get Android Q and also eligible to receive Android R in 2020 in addition to monthly security patches for three years.
Considering the fact that the most, if not all Xiaomi devices sold in India are assembled locally, the Mi A3 is likely to be retailed with cost-effective price. Depending on the configuration (RAM+ storage), it will cost anywhere between Rs 13,000 and 18,000.
UPDATE: Xiaomi has confirmed to host Mi A3 Android One launch event on August 21.
Xiaomi Mi A3 Android One vs competition:
Once launched, the new Mi A3 will be up against the Honor 20i, Realme X, Motorola One Vision, and it may also affect its own Redmi Note 7 Pro series.
In a related development, Xiaomi opened the new Mi Store in Bengaluru, which is said to be the company's 2000th physical retail unit in India. That's really fast considering the fact that Xiaomi opened its first Mi Home only in May 2017.
“With the beginning of 2017, we started our offline journey in India. It has led to a lot of learnings and today we have been able to establish our presence in the retail industry. Mi Stores was a big leap in the retail industry where we took the premium shopping experience to rural markets. We have approached 2000 Mi Stores in record time across 600+ cities and extremely proud to be bringing the best specs, with the highest quality at an honest price to millions of our Mi Fans,” Manu Jain, vice president (global) and managing director (India), Xiaomi, said
The company aims to open over 10,000 retail stores across its four offline channels in the nation by the end of the year 2019. In addition, 50 percent of Xiaomi smartphone sales is forecasted to happen from the offline market by end of this year.
Key specifications of Xiaomi Mi A3 Android One:
Display: 6.08-inch HD+ (1560 x 720) AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
OS: Android 9.0 Pie (will get Android Q later this year and Android R in 2020)
Processor: 11nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core CPU (2GHz Kryo 260 x 4 + 1.8GHz Kryo 260 x 4) with Adreno 610 GPU
RAM: 4GB LPDDR4x RAM
Storage: 64GB / 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage, expandable up to 256GB via microSD card
Primary camera: 48MP rear camera (with 1/2.0-inch Sony IMX586 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, F1.79 aperture) + 8MP (with 118-degree ultra-wide angle lens, 1.12μm pixel size, F2.2 aperture+ 2MP depth sensor (with 1.75μm pixel size and F2.4 aperture) with Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) and LED flash
Front camera: 32MP sensor with F2.0 aperture
Battery: 4030mAh with 18W Quick Charge fast charging
Network: Dual 4G-LTE
Add-ons: Hybrid Dual SIM (nano-SIM 1 + nano-SIM 2 or microSD), In-display fingerprint sensor, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band, Bluetooth 5, GPS/ GLONASS/ Beidou, USB Type-C, 3.5mm audio jack, Infrared sensor
Dimensions & Weight: 156.48×71.85×8.47 mm; 173.8g
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