Xiaomi's latest budget smartphone, the Redmi 6 will be available for purchase today on Flipkart and Mi.com for the first time. Xiaomi already confirmed the Redmi 6 would also be available in Mi Home and Mi Preferred offline partner stores very soon, but it did not reveal the exact availability though. The Redmi 6, which comes as a successor to the popular Redmi 5 comes with various upgrades in the form of cameras, processor, but at the same time, it has some downgrades too. For example, Xiaomi has downgraded the battery size to 3000mAh from 3300mAh on the Redmi 5. Notably, the Redmi 6 also comes with Dual 4G functionality.
Xiaomi Redmi 6 Specifications and Features
The interesting aspect of the Redmi 6 is its specifications. For the first time in the last three years, Xiaomi has launched smartphones with MediaTek chipsets- the Redmi 6 and the Redmi 6A. The Redmi 6 comes powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 chipset, which other phones such as the Nokia 5.1 and Vivo Y83 also has it under the hood. The Helio P22 is the powerful chipset with clock speeds up to 2.0GHz, and more importantly, it's built on top of the 12nm manufacturing process. The chipset is mated with 3GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of internal storage. There's a dedicated microSD card slot as well for storage expansion up to 256GB.
The phone sports a 5.45-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 720x1440 pixels and 18:9 aspect ratio. Xiaomi claims an impressive 80.7% screen-to-body ratio for the Redmi 6, which is excellent for a smartphone priced under Rs 10,000.
One of the major upgrade on the Redmi 6 when compared to the Redmi 5 is those dual cameras on the rear side. The Redmi 6 rocks a 12MP primary sensor with f/2.2 aperture and there's a secondary 5MP depth sensor to provide bokeh effect. Frontal, Xiaomi has added a 5MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture. The Redmi 6 comes loaded with various AI features to enhance the imaging experience. The rear camera also offers a Portrait mode.
As for the connectivity options, the Redmi 6 has Dual 4G, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro USB port resides on the bottom. Unlike the Redmi 6A, the Redmi 6 has a fingerprint scanner placed on the rear side and the phone even offers Face Unlock functionality. As mentioned above, the Redmi 6 is armed with a 3000mAh battery and it boots Android 8.1 Oreo-based MIUI 9.6 out of the box. Xiaomi confirmed that the MIUI 10 stable update would be rolled out to the Redmi 6 in the coming days.
Xiaomi Redmi 6 Price, Sale Time and Launch Offers
Moving onto the pricing, the Redmi 6 comes in four colour options- Blue, Black, Gold and Rose Gold. As for the hardware, it comes in two variants- both sporting 3GB of RAM, but the variant priced at Rs 7,999 comes with 32GB and the variant priced at Rs 9,499 has 64GB of internal storage. This is a good move from Xiaomi as it offers a decent 3GB of RAM at Rs 7,999.
Launch offers include Rs 500 instant discount on HDFC Debit/Credit cards, which brings down the price to Rs 7,499 and Rs 8,999. The phone can be exclusively picked up on Flipkart and Mi.com at 12 PM today.
Xiaomi Might Increase the Price of Redmi 6 in the Coming Months
The pricing of the Redmi 6 is a typical Xiaomi pricing. We haven't seen a single smartphone until now with Helio P22 chipset under Rs 10,000, but Xiaomi has done it again. Time by time, the Chinese smartphone maker proved that it could undercut the rivals by a huge margin. Xiaomi did the same with Redmi 5 as well because no brand offered a Snapdragon 450 SoC-powered smartphone under Rs 10,000.
Coming to the Redmi 6, Xiaomi stated that it might hike the prices of the handset after two months because of rupee depreciation against the dollar.
