Amidst much of ‘fan’-fare, Xiaomi launched their latest Smartphone-for-the-masses, the Mi 4i at its first ever global event in New Delhi emphasizing on the company’s India focus. Essentially a lighter version of the Mi4 but the Mi 4i packs enough punch to safely predict it will be another blockbuster. When Hugo announced the price of Rs 12,999 there were enough appreciations and gasp from the fans, a clear indication the device will resonate with the buyers across India. Though, it has to be stressed Hugo Barro is moulding into a Steve Jobs to sell a product successfully and amplify even the smallest of the details to sound it all good. The Mi 4i has a unibody, polycarbonate shell and comes in black, white, orange, light blue and pink. If you are planning to pick the cool looking colors, you will be disappointed to know only white will hit the Indian market initially and black would follow suit in few weeks and the colors might have to wait for a while for now. The device is sleek and light weighing 130 grams and slim at 7.8mm. The back of the handset gets a soft-touch matte finish with anti-grease coating. On the specs sheets, the Mi 4i features a 5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) IPS OGS display with a density of 441ppi. A full HD is a big deal at this price point that puts it at a good distance from the rest of the competition. Hugo also went in deep about the ‘Sunlight display’ that they have introduced in the display technology, which basically includes dynamic tone mapping that balances the screen legibility according to the lighting conditions. Powering the Mi 4i is a second-generation 1.7GHz Snapdragon 615 octa-core (1.1GHz quad-core + 1.7GHz quad-core) 64-bit processor paired with 2GB of RAM, and 16GB internal memory. The camera set up includes a 13-megapixel rear camera with CMOS sensor, f/2.0 aperture, and dual-tone flash. On the front, there is a 5-megapixel selfie camera, with f/1.8 aperture and 80 degrees wide angle lens. A 3,120mAh batter is another brownie point for the Smartphone and it comes with quick charge support, which can charge the battery up to 40 percent in an hour and a full charge in three hours. The Mi 4i is a dual-SIM Smartphone with both the SIMs supporting LTE and other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS. The Mi 4i is the first Xiaomi smartphone to run on Android Lollipop-based MIUI 6.What is interesting and appreciable is the company is adding few India-specific features begining with Visual IVR. This feature simplifies the process and cuts time when you are calling IVR numbers by visually picking the menus easily. Xiaomi’s ROM now supports six Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Registration for the first flash sale begins tonight at 8:00PM. Xiaomi is making their Indian website (Mi.com/in) an e-commerce platform for their products and the Mi 4i can also be bought from Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and the Mobile Stores from April 30 onwards.]]>
