An enhanced MI1S version of the original MI-ONE has been launched as well

Aug 16, 2012 23:01 GMT  ·  By

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has finally launched its MI2 super-phone, though the device is primarily targeted at the Chinese market.

The Xiaomi MI2 will be the first smartphone to make use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon APQ8064 S4 Pro chipset, which packs a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor.

Another strong point of the handset is the fact that Xiaomi MI2 will be shipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box.

There’s more to it as the Xiaomi decided to offer this super-phone for only 1,999 yuan (315 USD or 255 EUR) outright. This comes as a nice surprise, especially that Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has confirmed that the smartphone’s raw cost is 2,350 yuan (370 USD or EUR).

In addition, the MI2 smartphone will also be offered by major Chinese carriers, such as China Unicom and China Telecom. However, these operators will sell the handset at subsidized prices.

Aside from Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Xiaomi MI2 is said to come pre-loaded with a Siri-like voice assistant that has around 85% comprehension accuracy, the manufacturer claims.

Hardware-wise, the MI2 boasts a 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).

The phone’s 4.3-inch HD IPS capacitive touchscreen display is made by Sharp and supports 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and 16 million colors.

There’s also an impressive 8-megapixel rear photo snapper with a F2.0 aperture and a 27mm wide-angle lens. The main camera features autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording.

In the same piece of news, Xiaomi has also announced an enhanced version of the MI-ONE smartphone, which is called MI1S. The latter will be powered by a slightly better 1.7 GHz dual-core processor. The Xiaomi MI1S will be available for purchase for only 1,499 yuan (235 USD or 190 EUR) off contract.

Via