The Xiaomi blog: More Mi phones in India, Poco’s gonna walk alone

We might even see new categories under the Mi brand come to India. Did someone say Mi Laptop? Fingers crossed, though Xiaomi executives did not confirm any product as such. But they did admit in an interaction with the media that laptops were much requested from the Indian audience, and they would not want to ignore that anymore.

It also looks like more premium Mi TVs could make their appearance into the market. When is still unclear.

To know what’s Realme is up to, you can read our Realme blog here and know everything in and out about what the company is working on right now. 

So which is the first Mi phone coming to India? For now, we do know that there’s a Mi branded phone heading to India with the 108MP camera. The expectation is that this will be the Mi Note 10 or Mi Note 10 Pro. Though given it is the end of January already, we really wish Xiaomi would hurry up with the announcement.

The Mi 10 is also supposed to launch with the 108MP camera. Could Xiaomi throw a curveball and bring the newer phone to India instead? We’ll have to wait and see, though that will be a fairly expensive device given the new Snapdragon 865 chipset is 5G ready and will have a more premium cost. As for the Mi 10, it is launching on February 11, the same day as Samsung Galaxy S20.

Mi 10 5G looks set to pack beefy specifications

The Mi 10 leaks continue ahead of the launch with images of the retail box popping up on Weibo. It looks like the 5G version of the phone will have 12GB RAM and 65W fast charging as well. The 65W fast charging means the phone would be charged to 100 per cent in just 35 minutes. S20 will have to do better than that.

OnePlus also has big plans for 2020. Read our OnePlus blog here to know what the company is working on right now. 

We already know that Xiaomi plans to introduce this with the Snapdragon 865 chipset and this was confirmed at the Qualcomm Summit in December 2019. The phone is also expected to have a 108MP camera and the punch-hole display on the front.

Xiaomi and Poco are over

It looks like Xiaomi and Poco have officially broken up. Hold on, it is not the end of the Poco brand, rather the former sub-brand is now supposed to walk alone. ‘No help from Xiaomi, we won’t even know what products Xiaomi is working on,’ that’s what Poco India general manager C Manmohan has declared in interviews. They’ve also finally confirmed that the Poco X2 is launching on February 4.

This will be Poco’s second phone after a gap of nearly two years. The Poco F1 launched back in July 2018, when former Xiaomi product manager Jai Mani was handling the sub-brands product overline. But Mani quit the company in 2019, and there was radio silence regarding what would happen to Poco next.

Poco X2 India launch date confirmed for Feb 4

It seems in 2020, Poco is getting a new lease of life. There’s not much clarity, though regarding where this brand will be positioned. Will the Poco X2 be a premium device, but under Rs 30,000 like the original F1? Or will it offer better specifications and push the price mark? Will we see budget Poco phones? Who knows.

Still, it won’t be an easy market, given there are a lot more sub-brands and brands that want to play in the ‘mid-premium’ category, where Poco was originally positioned. Vivo’s iQOO is making an entry into India’s with two premium phones lined up, there’s Realme which will also launch a mid-range premium device in India, given it has been so aggressive. And let’s not forget the Redmi K series, which also played in the same price margin as Poco F1.

Will Poco’s loyal, very active on Twitter, fanbase be enough to make it survive in 2020? We will have to wait and watch.

Redmi 8A fans can rejoice

Who says buying a budget phone means you won’t get Android updates? There’s good news for Redmi 8A users, as the phone has been spotted on GeekBench running a version of Android 10. Hopefully, Xiaomi will make the new update official soon for users.