Xiaomi just announced its flagship Mi 6 smartphone at an event in China, as it had promised. It packs a 5.15-inch 1080p display similar to the Mi 5S. It also has reading mode that cancels blue light and 1-nit ultra dark night display for reading at night. This is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 processor, has 6GB of RAM and also comes with 12-megapixel dual rear cameras, one with wide-angle lens and other one with telephoto lens. It also has portrait mode, similar to the iPhone 7 Plus for blurring background objects and 2x optical zoom. There is also four-axis optical image stabilization (OIS) to help take steady shots and videos.
It has a stainless steel frame with 3D curved glass on four sides and comes with stereo speakers, one embedded into the earpiece and the other on the bottom. It also has an under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint sensor at the front that can also be used for Alipay and WeChat payments, infrared sensor on the top but it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack since it uses USB Type-C audio. The phone is also splash resistant. Xiaomi says all openings including the SIM tray is properly sealed and protected with nano coating but it is not certified for water resistance.
Xiaomi Mi 6 specifications
- 5.15-inch (1920×1080 pixels) Full HD display with 600 nits brightness, 94.4% NTSC color gamut, 1500:1 contrast ratio
- 2.45GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 64-bit 10nm processor with Adreno 540 GPU
- 6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB / 128GB (UFS) internal storage
- Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with MIUI 8
- Dual SIM (nano + nano)
- Splash resistant
- 12MP rear camera with 1.25μm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, 4-axis OIS, 4K video recording, secondary 12MP camera with 1.0 μm pixel size, 52mm portrait lens, f/2.6 aperture
- 8MP front-facing camera
- Ultrasonic Fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor
- Stereo speakers
- Dimensions: 145.17x 70.49×7.45 mm; Weight: 168g / 182g (ceramic)
- 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, USB Type-C
- 3350mAh (typical) / 3250mAh (minimum) battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, 18W fast charging
The Xiaomi Mi 6 comes in Bright Blue, Bright Black and White colors and also comes in Silver Edition with reflective mirror finish Stainless steel frame as well as Ceramic version with 18K gold finish around the camera.
It is priced at 2499 yuan (US$ 360 / Rs. 23,420 approx.) for the 6GB RAM with 64GB internal storage version, 2899 yuan (US$ 421 / Rs. 27,190 approx.) for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version and the same 6GB RAM with 128GB storage version with ceramic body costs 2999 yuan (US$ 435 / Rs. 28,100 approx.). It will be available in China starting from April 28.
Commenting on the announcement, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said:
Mi 6 is the culmination of our seven years of research and development in the smartphone industry, and represents the pinnacle of our journey thus far. Besides being a performance beast that is powered by Snapdragon 835, Mi 6 also demonstrates how we are constantly refining our design and pushing the boundaries of materials technology with the use of four-sided 3D curved glass and ceramic. I’m really excited to join our Mi fans today to introduce Mi 6, which once again defies price expectations, and I’m looking forward to unveiling even more amazing products in the year to come.