China Smartphone News: Xiaomi Mi 6 with Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB RAM launched in China: Price, specifications, features

Home > News > Xiaomi Mi 6 with Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB RAM launched in China: Price, specifications, features By Deepali Moray | Updated: April 19, 2017 1:13 PM IST Email @deepalimoray comments Tags: Samsung Galaxy s8 xiaomi Xiaomi Mi 6 News xiaomi-mi-6-china-launch

Xiaomi took wraps off its anticipated Mi 6 flagship smartphone today at an event in China. The home country has not been very kind to the manufacturer, which saw its shares crumbling owing to strong competition from other Chinese players such as Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo.

Among the talking points of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC – the same chipset that powers the Samsung Galaxy S8 — along with a new design and dual-camera setup. Built using the newer 10nm fabrication process, the chipset is said to offer higher performance and a better battery life. As rumored, the smartphone further packs in 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and Adreno 540 GPU. For those immediately looking out to see if the Mi 6 is at par with the Galaxy S8 with same configuration, Xiaomi revealed the AnTuTu benchmark scores of the smartphone, which places it notches above the Samsung's flagship device. The Mi 6 achieves a score of 184,292, while the Galaxy S8 stands at 164,095.

What helped Xiaomi taste immediate success was the premium experience it offered at a much lesser price when compared to incumbent players. While Xiaomi tried to aim for success, it had larger-than-achievable targets. The company not only missed these targets, but also lost one of its key executives Hugo Barra on its way. Xiaomi Mi 6, being the first flagship smartphone after Barra's exit, also serves as an important case study for analysts to gauge how much of a value Barra's presence brought to the company. It exceptionally well, not only in China, but also achieved the trust factor in countries such as India where it is counted as one of the leading smartphone brands.

In 2016, Xiaomi's smartphone sales in its home country fell by an alarming 40 percent in the second quarter as compared to the year before. With the Mi 6, Xiaomi not only aims to reach the same level of performance consumers expect out of a high-end premium device, but with an aggressive pricing, stand a chance to prove its mirth again in the crowded smartphone market. It is available in color choices of blue, black, and silver. It is unclear as to when the flagship product will mark its entry in India, where incidentally the Samsung Galaxy S8 is being launched today.

Xiaomi Mi 6 features and specifications

In terms of design, the Xiaomi Mi 6 features a stainless steel border running on the edges with a curved glass body. With the reflective mirror-like finish and the curved panel, the Mi 6 looks similar to the recently launched Honor 8. The placement of the dual camera module is also similar to what we have seen on the Honor 8. The Mi 6 features a home button on the front panel that doubles up as a fingerprint sensor and is said to be 'non-porous'. This essentially makes the structure of the home button more durable and resistant to soiling.

In a bid to thin down their devices, manufacturers are increasingly choosing to ditch the headphone jack. The Xiaomi Mi 6 also opts out of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack for a USB Type-C port for charging, data transfer, as well as audio. Speaking about audio, the smartphone comes with dual-speakers that help in getting a stereo sound effect. In terms of physical buttons, the volume rockers and power button are placed on the right side while the left features the SIM tray. Xiaomi says that not only is the smartphone splash-resistant, but the SIM tray is also sealed to protect internal components from damage.

Now, if we look back to the year 2016, Xiaomi had cleared the air about adding water resistant capabilities to its smartphones. The reason given by Xiaomi founder Lei Jun was that when a smartphone falls down and gets damaged, the waterproofing capabilities also tend to deteriorate and if users accidentally happen to drop the smartphone, the sealant used to resist water from entering the circuit board may not work as expected. It appears that the company is finally trying to catch up with the industry trend where durability, along with design aesthetics, have taken precedence.

With a strong focus on its 3D glass design, Xiaomi has put equal emphasis on the display of the Mi 6. It packs a 5.15-inch screen, and is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 835 SoC.

The USP of the otherwise familiar looking smartphone is its camera. At the back is a dual-camera setup — 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with 4-axis OIS + 12-megapixel telephoto lens. This setup is not unlike what is available on the Apple iPhone 7 Plus. Speaking about iPhone 7 Plus, the Mi 6 also comes with a dedicated Portrait Mode, which aids in clicking photos with blurred background. The Mi 6 For selfie lovers, there's an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera also supports 4K video recording. Fuelling the Mi 6 is a 3,350mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 4.0. On the software front, the smartphone runs Android Nougat out-of-the-box with MIUI layered above.

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