Xiaomi has redefined the meaning of a budget smartphone in the country ever since its entry into the market back in 2014. The company’s first device, the Xiaomi Redmi 1s was the most affordably priced device back then, and the firm has been continuing to dominate in the budget segment so far with its Redmi series of phones.
Recently, Xiaomi India said that they would be launching a new Redmi phone in India this month which will be the Xiaomi Redmi 4. You must be wondering why we are specifically pointing our fingers at Redmi 4 as the company has various other Redmi phones that have been launched in China?
Well, here’s the answer. At the launch event of Redmi 4A back in March, Xiaomi said that it would be launching upgraded models of last year’s Redmi 3s and 3s Prime soon. In China, the Redmi 3s and Redmi 3s Prime were replaced by Redmi 4 and Redmi 4 Prime.
Although at this point, it’s still uncertain whether Xiaomi will bring the Redmi 4 Prime to India or not, the vendor will surely launch the Redmi 4. Speaking about the specifications of the Redmi 4, it has a 5-inch HD display and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset. The smartphone has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
The Redmi 4 rocks a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing camera. A 4100mAh battery backs the entire package, and the device boots Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow based MIUI 8.
The Redmi 4 Prime, on the flip side, has a 5-inch Full HD display and gets Snapdragon 625 under-the-hood. It has the same camera setup and runs MIUI 8. However, the phone comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Both the phones feature metal bodies and offer support for dual SIM and 4G VoLTE.
Redmi 4 is rumoured to bear a price tag of Rs. 6999, whereas the Redmi 4 Prime could be the cheapest Snapdragon 625 powered smartphone in India at Rs. 8,999 or Rs. 9,499.
That said, chances are, Xiaomi will change the hardware of the Redmi 4 and launch it with Snapdragon 435 chipset in India keeping other specs similar to the Chinese variant. We’re assuming it because the Redmi 3s had the same Snapdragon 430 SoC and it doesn’t make any sense for Xiaomi to launch an upgraded device with the same processor. There are other possibilities too. The company could use the same Snapdragon 430 or Snapdragon 435 chip and bump the storage, RAM and release it as Redmi 4 Prime.
All the scenarios mentioned above are possible. Regardless of the pricing and specifications, the phones will sell like hot cakes, like other Xiaomi phones. The Apple of China has launched the Redmi Note 4 in January 2017, but the phone still goes out of stock within seconds on the sale day. The same case applies to the Redmi 4A as well. Even the Redmi 3s/3s Prime go out of stock within few seconds from the commencement of the sale.
Such is the popularity of Xiaomi devices in India. Xiaomi is bringing the Redmi 4 to India at the perfect time as Nokia is planning a comeback to the Indian market in June and is looking to put a brake to Xiaomi’s success spree in India. Clearly, Xiaomi is looking to own the budget smartphone segment in the country once again with the launch of Redmi 4.
