Xiaomi Mi 10i launch: Here’s what to expect

Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi is greeting the new year with a brand new flagship phone that

“specially made” for India—the Mi 10i.

The ‘i’ is for India

The Xiaomi Mi 10i is customized by Mi’s India product team and equipped with a variety of

customizations for users in India, according to Xiaomi Global VP and Managing Director of the

Indian Division Manu Kumar Jain. It will make its debut in India on January 5.

Mi 10i is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor and a 108-megapixel

primary camera sensor—as seen in the numerous teasers that have come out recently.

The Xiaomi Mi 10i is reportedly a rebadged version of the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G, which was

launched in China in November 2020. According to reports, the Mi 10i has a 6.67-inch IPS

LCD FHD display with 120Hz refresh rate support, a punch hole display, a round shaped

camera module on the back, a front-facing camera of 16 megapixels, and a side-facing

fingerprint sensor. It will reportedly get a 5G connectivity.

Mi 10i will likely be available in blue, black, and Pacific sunrise colors, and a Times Now

report suggests the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 10i will be priced around Rs. 25,000. Amazon India

already has a dedicated microsite of the phone, but it will also be available for purchase on

Mi.com and Mi stores soon after its launch.

Xiaomi slides to Top 3 in Q3

Xiaomi, which reported an 18.9 percent jump in net profit in the third quarter of 2020, is now

the third biggest seller of handsets, according to a Canalys report.

The Chinese company’s smartphone revenue grew 47.5 percent to 47.6 billion yuan in the

same period, while overall quarterly revenue rose to 72.1 billion yuan from 53.7 billion yuan

in the previous quarter. Its quarterly shipments also rose by 45.3 percent to 46.6 million

units compared to the same period in 2019.

Samsung is still the top biggest seller of handsets with 80.2 million units (up 2 percent).

Huawei, which has been battling the U.S. sanctions that have disrupted its supply chain, is

in second place with a 23 percent decrease to 51.7 million units.

In India, smartphone use has increased in 2020 amid the ongoing lockdown brought about

by the COVID-19 pandemic. As they hunker down waiting for the vaccine to be approved

and inoculated, people are turning to their smartphones and mobile devices to check on

their family, work, learn a new skill, and also socialize and play games—be it casual

entertainment games or online casinos on sites like 10Cric.

Robin Hallengren, head of SEO at ENV Media, says, “In Q2, we had 17% of users visiting

7Jackpots from a Xiaomi device. In Q3, that number increased to 21%.”

Xiaomi President Xiang Wang said the company is moving forward with its own strategy,

although it is also “paying attention to what is happening into the market. In the company’s

earnings call, Wang reportedly said, “In Q3 we reached a record high (in revenue), but we

only have a market share of 13.5%, so the room for growth is huge.”