Xiaomi ‘Compact Powerhouse’ smartphone launch in India on March 14, Redmi 5 likely

Xiaomi has teased the launch of its next smartphone with the tagline – ‘Compact Powerhouse’ – in India. The Chinese company posted a video teaser on Twitter showing off a new smartphone along with March 14 as its launch date. It is likely that the Xiaomi Redmi 5 will be launched in India, going by the teasers and the video clip that Xiaomi has been sharing on social media. Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director, Xiaomi India, sounded off the same information on his Twitter account. Amazon has also listed the smartphone on its e-commerce website as an ‘exclusive’, which means the smartphone will be available exclusively via Amazon India.

Earlier this week, a speculation emerged after a teaser was spotted at the end of the live-streamed video of Mi TV 4A launch on Wednesday. The Chinese company on Wednesday launched its Mi TV 4A LED television series in India. There were two models launched by the company – Mi TV 4A 32-inch model priced at Rs 13,999 and 43-inch model costing Rs 22,999 in India. As we said, Xiaomi unveiled the two new LED TV models via a short online live-streaming event. However, it was a short glimpse of what the company planned to bring to the Indian market next that caught the eye of many.

Towards the end of the video, a new smartphone was teased in the video that is likely to launch on Wednesday, March 14. The side profile shot of the smartphone in the video hints at the launch of Xiaomi Redmi 5. The smartphone can be seen featuring a camera bump on the rear, indicating the resemblance with the one seen on the Xiaomi Redmi 5.

The Xiaomi Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus were launched in China initially. The Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus was, however, launched in India last month, rebranded as Redmi Note 5. In addition, the Xiaomi Redmi 5A is also available in the Indian market. So, it makes sense for Xiaomi to complete its budget smartphone lineup succeeding the Redmi 4 lineup in India. The Xiaomi Redmi 5 is going to bear a price tag lower than the Redmi Note 5 that is priced at Rs 9999 for the base variant. However, it is likely to be priced higher than the Redmi 4A and somewhere near the price point of Redmi 4 as a complete substitute.

For the specifications, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 comes with a 5.7-inch HD+ display and supports dual SIM cards. It runs on Android 7.0 Nougat-based MIUI 9 and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor paired with three RAM and storage configurations – 2GB, 3GB, and 4GB of RAM and 16GB, 32GB of onboard storage. The smartphone comes with microSD card support for storage expansion. It houses a 12-megapixel rear camera accompanied by an LED flash while there is a 5-megapixel front camera on the smartphone. The handset is backed by a 3300mAh battery under the hood.