Xiaomi is expected to announce two new budget smartphones at an event in China tomorrow (August 25th).
The launch of the two devices, tipped to be the Redmi Note 4 and the Redmi 4, comes not long after Xiaomi started selling the Redmi Note 3 back in February. In Kenya, Xiaomi has only started selling the Redmi Note 2 officially through Telkom Kenya (formerly Orange Kenya) shops.
Rumoured specifications of the two devices are as follows:
| Redmi 4 | Redmi Note 4 | |
| Display | 5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) | 5.5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS |
| Processor | Snapdragon 625 clocked at 2GHz and backed by an Adreno 506 GPU | MediaTek Helio X20 with 700MHz Mali-T880 MP4 GPU /Snapdragon 652 SoC with Adreno 510 GPU |
| Memory | 2GB/ 3GB RAM; 16GB/ 32GB internal storage (expandable via microSD) | 3GB RAM; 32GB/64GB internal storage (expandable via microSD) |
| Camera | 13MP rear with LED flash; 5MP front | 13MP rear with PDAF and dual-tone LED flash; 5MP front |
| Operating System | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 8 | Android 6.0 Marshmallow with MIUI 8 |
| Battery | 4,000mAh | 4,100mAh |
| Network | 3G, 4G LTE | 3G, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11ac | Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11ac |
| Other | IR blaster, fingerprint scanner | Dual-SIM |
The new devices will arrive with the latest MIUI 8 which started rolling out yesterday.
In July, Xiaomi revealed that it had sold over 110 million Redmi smartphones. The unveiling of the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Note 4 is expected to shore up those numbers further in the wake of the company’s reported decline in China where it is facing intense competition from Huawei’s budget Honor sub-brand and rivals like Oppo and Vivo.
