Xiaomi will be making LTE phones super affordable

Mar 9, 2015 13:15 GMT  ·  By

Back in January, we told you about a rumor which said that Xiaomi might be looking to introduce a new, extremely cheap LTE-enhanced device.

The handset had been spotted on the Chinese certification website TENAA, so it was pretty clear that the device would launch at some point, we just didn’t know exactly when.

Now a new report coming out of My Drivers (as spotted at Gizmo China) claims that the Chinese device maker is getting ready to announce the device as soon as the end of this month.

The upcoming Redmi phone is expected to be offered with a price tag of $64 / €54, which is supposed to attract first-time smartphone users to join the ranks of Xiaomi supporters.

The sources haven’t said anything about the specifications of the device, but luckily we already know what they are, thanks to a previous leak.

Purported specs of Xiaomi's budget Redmi smartphone

If you have missed our earlier coverage on the matter, we’re taking the opportunity to remind you that the model is supposed to arrive with a 4.7-inch 720p display which is sustained by a Leadcore chip (the Xiaomi Redmi 2 has a Snapdragon 410 under the hood) bundling quad Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.6GHz and fitted with 1GB of RAM and dual-core Mali-T628.

In 2014, Xiaomi partnered up with local chip maker Leadcore Technologies which gave it access to LTE technology, hence the chip residing inside the upcoming budget offering.

The unnamed device brings forth an 8MP / 1080p main camera and takes advantage of 8GB of internal storage.

The specs aren’t mind-blowing, which is normal for such a low-end model, so for this price you shouldn’t be expecting something out of this world.

The phone will run Android 4.4.4 KitKat out of the box and you probably shouldn’t be holding your breath on Xiaomi pushing the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for it.

It’s possible that the new phone will enjoy both TD-LTE and FDD-LTE connectivity, although the current report doesn’t say anything about this aspect. Hopefully, Xiaomi hasn’t decided to take LTE out of the equation.

Nevertheless, we’ll see what the case is in a few days.