Xiaomi has been pushing the envelope with its mid-range devices in the last few years with low price points and impressive hardware. The just-announced Redmi 3 takes things to a new level, though. For the equivalent of $106 (RMB 699), you get a phone with a brand new Snapdragon chip, a metal chassis, and a massive 4100 mAh battery. And when I say "you," I don't really mean you personally, most likely. This phone is launching in China only for the time being.

Here's the full spec sheet for your perusal.

  • 5-inch 720P HD display
  • Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16GB storage with microSD card slot (supports up to 128GB)
  • 4100mAh battery with 5V/2A fast charging
  • 139.3 x 69.6 x 8.5mm; 144g
  • 13-megapixel, F/2.0 rear camera with PDAF for fast 0.1s autofocus - 5-megapixel F/2.2 front camera
  • Dual SIM (second slot doubles as microSD card slot)

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 should give a much needed performance boost compared to the anemic 615 that has been used in so many other budget devices. That's paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with a microSD card slot. However, the card slot is in the second SIM slot, so you can only use one if you don't need a second SIM. It will run MIUI 7, but the underlying version of Android isn't clear—probably some version of Lollipop. The Chinese variant won't have any Google services, of course.

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Xiaomi has been revealing some details on the MIUI forums over the last few days, but now all the specs and the price are official. Mi.com doesn't have a landing page yet, but give it a little while. The Redmi 3 is launching on January 12th in China on Mi.com and Tmall. I imagine it will come to other regions where Xiaomi sells phones eventually, so probably not the US.

PRESS RELEASE

Source: MIUI, Mi.com