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China's Xiaomi Aims Its Priciest Phone at Huawei and Apple (bloomberg.com)
Xiaomi really wants to shed its down-market image. China's No. 2 smartphone maker is counting on its most expensive device yet to face off against Huawei and Apple at home while carving out a bigger footprint in Europe. From a report: The Chinese smartphone maker on Thursday unveiled the MIX 3, the fourth generation of a series introduced in 2016. Xiaomi's latest effort to acquire a premium gloss features a bezel-less 6.4-inch screen, Qualcomm processors and slick ceramic body. It now sports front-facing cameras on a sliding structure nestled behind the screen, doing away with the notch popularized by the iPhone. The device will go on sale from November starting at 3,299 yuan ($475) and going all the way up to 4,999 yuan for a "Forbidden City" special edition. It marks Chairman Lei Jun's effort to make greater headway into a more profitable premium market dominated by Apple, Samsung and -- to an increasing extent -- Chinese rival Huawei. That's where customers have deeper pockets to pay for services such as music and games that Xiaomi deems the future of its business. Xiaomi claims that its MIX 3 handset is the first commercial handset that is 5G ready (though the variant with 5G capabilities will go on sale in Europe only in the first quarter of next year.) Other specs of the handset includes: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845; Screen: 6.39-inch FHD+ AMOLED (1080Ã--2340, 19.5:9 aspect ratio); RAM: 6/8/10GB; Rear camera: 12-megapixel, f/1.8 + 12-megapixel, f/2.4; Front camera: 24-megapixel, f/2.2 + 2-megapixel; Battery: 3,200 mAh; Internal memory: 128/256GB.
Communist Party of China monitoring app is pre-installed.
.. but when I stop and think about it, if I'm spending $700+ on a phone, I don't really care about brand. I prefer Android so in a toss up between Samsung, LG, and Xiaomi, I'll really just go for the one with the most features appealing to me.
I have a Samsung phone right now (first Samsung..) but with all the bloatware, I'm not going to buy another*
*I can't root it as my company's UEM software will flag it as rooted and quarantine it *sadface*
Everyone is trying to be the Rolex of Phones. However such devices depreciate in value, so they cannot be priced as such. So while the $1000 phone is on the pricey side, it isn't really something you can go to a stereotypical snobby party and impress your peers with. That Premium Luxury phone is so common that you will fail to impress the blue collar worker, who may have the same model (but may had to sacrifice a bit more to get it) And within 3-4 year. The price would depreciate so much that they cannot be given away.
Unlike a Rolex Watch which if I got one 50 years ago, it would still be worth a lot of money, probably more then you bought it for, and would still be useful and valuable.
These phone makers are trying to be the big name in premium, while not making a premium product. Mostly because technology depreciates so quickly, and are still priced at a level people can afford if they really want them.
Sure these devices are something that is always on you, and probably should look good as well be functional. But these companies put a lot of effort into trying to be something they will not become.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
it's pre-installed on the iPhone and Androids too. They're a Kleptocracy, so they keep a close eye on everybody.
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Uh-oh. Mechanical moving parts are a weak point, another thing to possibly go bad. Fuck this anti-bezel madness... I understand that the phone would look more elegant if you could make it "all screen", but if the alternatives are added mechanical complexity or an ugly notch, then both alternatives are worse than what they're trying to replace.
Circumcision is child abuse.
I'll keep my Microsoft Windows 10 phone. It's the cat's meow!
Down-market image? Er, Xiaomi is exactly the opposite of that. It is the luxury Chinese brand with top build quality, but a 5% profit margin which gives you great phones at a low price. They are quite "Apple-inspired", as their target market for quite some time now - high-end Chinese users - is fond of Apple, but they've been making some industry leading devices for a while now. E.g. their first Mi Mix was the first really thin-bezel phone of note. I have the Mi Mix 2, which is even better (and I came from expensive Samsungs which always sort of disappointed me).
The only issue was that you couldn't easily find them outside China, although they now are imported in some European countries.
And if you are worried about Chinese spying, you are being spied anyway, does it matter that much if it's the Russians or the Americans or the Chinese?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
They can try all they like to shed their "down market" image. The bottom line is that I, like many other folks, wouldn't pay top dollar for a Xiaomi piece of garbage.
If I'm going to pay that much for a phone (which I'm not, but anyway), it'll be to a company at least theoretically within my country's jurisdiction ...
Typically my only reason to get some exotic Chinese thing (as opposed to some non-exotic merely Chinese-made thing) is price. If the price is the same high price, what's the point?
The are totally pumped for the new Huawei phone. I do not know much about this, because I use my phone only for making phone calls, but Huawei seems to be the most attractive brand among their peer group. Of course they will not get it, as I will not shell out 1000€ for a phone, because I am neither moneybags nor a moron.
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let everyone know you've got a lot of money. The trouble is it's hard to tell one phone from another because at the end of the day it's just a square. That worked for a while with iPhones until there were enough of them on the secondary market to dilute the value.
It's called a Veblen Good. The Rolex doesn't really have any more value than a watch a 1/10th it's price (sometimes less, you'd be surprised what you can get for $500 or less if you're a hiker). But if you're a sales person trying to show off an aura of success or a guy trying to pick up girls the Rolex is worth every penny. So was the iPhone and "Beats by Dre" not too long ago.
If it were me I'd do what Toyota did with the Lexus: Make some kind of exclusive club that felt luxurious and only let the folks who bought the expensive product in. If you want to sell Veblen goods you have to let people show off their purchase and feel smug about it.
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With that screen resolution and cpu, and only 3200mah battery, that wont have a long runtime between charges.
Everything they make is a garbage knock-off of a real phone, you don't know what you're talking about. Volume != quality.
No, you're a moron. I hope your sons have smallish penises so they fit into their chosen peer subgroup, gaijinn san.
doing away with the notch popularized by the iPhone
That is enough right there to get it on my Christmas list.
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Xiaomi is hardly down market; maybe in USA where they are a relatively unknown as they don't really sell to US market but in China they are one of the best known brand. Also Chinese phone market is like at least 5-10x (didn't even bother to check) than US. If we exclude Apple the difference is even larger.
I own a Mi Mix 2s and it is brilliant. $399 gets you a Snapdragon 845, 6GB RAM, 64GB flash, good camera, and a 6" screen with tiny bezels and no notch.
And Android will send all your data to Google and straight through to NSA.
Yawn.
I live in Hong Kong these days where you can find xiaomi here and there. I must say that I like their attention to design, almost everything they make (and that includes watercookers etc) is pretty with a good feel to it.
I have one xiaomi product, and I really love it: their “urban” backpack which is well designed (for example it has a waterproof little side compartment for an umbrella), good quality and looks much more office-like than most backpacks, and priced well too. Worth checking out.
We can debate all day about whether or not a bezel-less phone is a good idea, but since one has never existed, it's not a current issue. This phone, and every other described as 'bezel-less' to date, has in fact had them. Small bezels are still bezels. Galaxy Edge devices lack them on two sides, but not on the other two. Stop with the false claims of bezel-less.