A few years back, Google has partnered with the Indian smartphone manufacturers to launch affordable Android One smartphones. Later, Google also launched the Android One smartphones in selected European and Asian markets. With the Android One program, the company initiated to provide the affordable smartphones in the emerging markets. In its first year, Google provided hardware reference design to the Android One manufacturers and it looks after the software part by providing latest Android updates at least for the first two years.
In the previous month, Xiaomi had launched the Xiaomi Mi 5X smartphone. Currently, it is only available in China. However, the rumor mill has been speculating that it would be becoming to other markets. The Xiaomi Mi 5X has been allegedly spotted at POSTEL, an agency for Indonesia that certifies telecom products. It has been found that this Xiaomi phone is not running on MIUI skin.
This would be the first time Xiaomi plans to release a smartphone without MIUI, the company’s own UI that’s built on Android. While Xiaomi has traditionally been known for its strength in the budget segment, its collaboration with Google to bring an Android One smartphone could help the brand to propel deeper into the Indian smartphone market. Xiaomi continues to be a popular phone vendor in India. It’s Redmi Note 4 proved to be a major success – after all, the company sold over 5 million units of the phone in India since the last six months.
For Google also, the relationship with Xiaomi will only benefit the search giant. When you look at Android One, the response from consumers and vendors haven’t been hugely welcoming. Google has a fair idea, and because of this, the search engine giant would like to have a strong hardware partner on board. The presence of Xiaomi can create the right hype and excitement in the Android One program.
Xiaomi is already teasing the launch a new dual-camera smartphone in India.
Xiaomi Mi 5X specifications
- 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass LTPS display, 450nit brightness, 1000:1 contrast ratio
- 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm processor with 650MHz Adreno 506 GPU
- 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (eMMC 5.0), expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
- MIUI 8 based on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat), upgradable to MIUI 9
- Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano/microSD)
- 12MP rear camera with wide-angle lens, 1.25μm pixel size, f/2.2 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, secondary 12MP camera with telephoto lens, 1.0 μm pixel size, f/2.6 aperture, PDAF
- 5MP front-facing camera
- Fingerprint sensor, Infrared sensor
- Dimensions: 155.4×75.8×7.3mm; Weight: 165g
- 3.5mm audio jack, dedicated amplifier
- 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
- 3080mAh (typical) / 3000mAh (minimum) battery
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