Xiaomi announces an international version of its Mi Band 5

For the first time ever, Xiaomi’s popular, low-cost wearable device Mi Band is officially available for sale outside of China. Until now, if you wanted to purchase a Mi Band internationally, you had to buy it through the grey market. But today, Xiaom...

Xiaomi Overtakes Samsung as China’s Leading Smartphone Vendor

Xiaomi Mi4

An anonymous company not long ago, Xiaomi has managed to take the throne from Samsung as the largest vendor of smartphones in the world’s largest market: China.

With 15 million shipped devices that secured Xiaomi 14% of the Chinese smartphone market in the second quarter of 2014, the Beijing-based company outshined Samsung, which only sold 13.2 million smartphones that represented 13.2% of the total. Just to put things into perspective, Xiaomi experienced a growth of 240%.

Xiaomi achieved this by doing something that’s unconceivable for manufacturers outside of China. This manufacturer sold its devices at a price that exceeds by a little the cost of the components. While this might not make sense for other manufacturers, it’s perfectly logical for Xiaomi, which keeps its devices on the market for 18 months. In all this time, the cost of the components drops, and the company starts making profit. Besides that, outside of China, the same devices have much greater prices, and even the ones found on Chinese websites are overpriced.

Jessica Kwee, a Singapore-based analyst for Canalys, pointed out that “Xiaomi does have the potential to be a disruptive force beyond China and international vendors should take note.” In other words, international vendors should be less greedy and have greater care for their customers, instead of just trying to rob them. It’s really inexplicable how the flagship smartphones coming from big names are twice as pricey as their Chinese counterparts, while clearly underperforming.

Xiaomi does not only make top notch smartphones, but also accessories (such as the MiKey shortcut key for Android devices and the Mi Band smart wristband). On top of that, Xiaomi’s custom version of Android, known as Miui, is something that people can’t get on other devices. To make things even better, Miui gets updated weekly, on each Friday, fact that indicates just how much this company cares about its customers’ feedback.

The goal of this company is to show that affordable devices (well, not cheap by themselves, but in comparison to others) can be great, thus proving that being cheap is not always a bad thing (Tele2′s Frank the Black Sheep would definitely agree with this.)

Ten new markets, including Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey will get the chance to buy Xiaomi devices right away, as the company continues to expand. That can only be good news for anyone who’s looking to buy an affordable phone with a stellar performance.

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Xiaomi Mi 4 and Mi Band Wearable, or How to Use Tech for World Domination

Xiaomi Mi4

Being called the “Apple of Asia” wasn’t enough for Xiaomi, and this Chinese company went to great lengths to prove that they’re even better than that. Xiaomi Mi 4 and the Mi Band wearable are the latest proofs of that.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun unveiled at a press-conference in Beijing the company’s latest flagship smartphone and its debut in the world of wearable tech. Xiaomi Mi 4, the Chinese manufacturer’s latest phone, features a metal back that could make some people think of the iPhone, but all similarities stop there.

Lei revealed his confidence that the Xiaomi Mi4 is superior to Apple’s smartphone: “Our product really is better than the iPhone. Even our white color is whiter!” Of course, his claim is backed not only by the ridiculously low price of only $320 (less than half than the $700 price tag of the iPhone in China), but also by the device’s performance.

This company made a habit from creating powerful devices, the Mi Pad tablet, which is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra K1 SoC, being one of the latest such examples. Xiaomi Mi4, on the other hand, is powered by Qualcomm’s 2.5 Ghz Snapdragon 801 CPU. On top of that, the flagship is equipped with a 5-inch FHD display, 3GB of RAM, an 8 MP front-facing camera and a 13 MP rear-facing one. In terms of storage capacity, Xiaomi Mi 4 will come either with 16GB or 64GB of internal memory. Everything is powered by a 3,080 mAh battery that should be more than enough for a work day.

Mi Band, the other piece unveiled at Xiaomi’s most recent press conference, is a wearable that while doesn’t impress with its functionality, it does so with its design. This fitness and sleep tracker is water-resistant (being IP67 certified), and has 30-day standby power, which is quite a lot in terms of wearable battery life.

Unlike typical sleep trackers, the Mi Band will also act as a smart sleep cycle alarm. In other words, it will wake you up when you’re the most invigorated. This piece of wearable tech will also enable you to unlock your smartphone without a password, and I tend to believe that it will work with all Android phones, not just with Xiaomi’s. Best of all, the Mi Band will be around $13, a fraction of the price of items made by more “reputable” manufacturers.

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