Does 5th September sounds familiar? Yes, Xiaomi is launching its first dual camera smartphone in India. However, it looks like the company is all set to debut in the international market with the same smartphone.
Xiaomi Mi A1 or Xiaomi Mi 5X (whatever), will be the first budget smartphone to feature dual camera setup with X2 optical zoom (implied in the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Mi 6 and Galaxy Note 8). According to the speculations, the device will be the first smartphone to run on the stock Android operating system as well.
As markets like US and UK doesn’t go well with the third party skins, stock Android OS with better hardware at an affordable price tag is what everyone else craves for. The device will be priced under $300 price tag (INR 14,000) with the following specifications.
The device will sports all metal unibody design with flushed antenna bands. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz, paired with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB onboard storage with a dedicated SD card slot (in fact, for the first time Xiaomi Mi branded smartphone offering SD card slot). The device will offer dual SIM card slot (Hybrid) with 4G LTE and VoLte capability.
On to the camera, the device will be equipped with dual 12 MP sensors (RGB + RGB) with OmniVision sensor. However, like Mi 6 the device will not offer OIS. The cameras can create real-time bokeh effect as well as X2 zoom using a telephoto lens. The front facing camera is expected to be a 5 MP fixed focus shooter with 1080p video recording capability.
The device does offer 3.5 mm headphone jack, ~3000 mAh battery, USB type C for charging and faster data transfer. In fact, the device is touted to offer an Infrared sensor with universal remote support. Xiaomi ‘s upcoming model will be a true mid-ranger which should offer tough competition to the already existing dual camera smartphones in the country (Lenovo K8 Note, Honor 6X, CoolPad Cool 6 Play and Moto G5S Plus). What do you think about this device? Let us know in the comments below.