Xiaomi has Launched the notched Mi 8 along with the Glass-backed Explorer Edition and the Affordable Mi 8 SE
Xiaomi has announced the much talked-of Mi 8 at its 2018 Annual Product Launch event. Predictably, the new flagship features the famous iPhone X-like notched design. The phone has a giant 6.21-inch OLED screen by Samsung, aluminum frame, and a glass back.
Under the hood, fulfilling the users’ expectations, Xiaomi embedded a famous Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset with Andreno 630 GPU, 6 GB RAM. In terms of storage, the phone has three different versions available — with 64, 128, and 256 GB. According to Xiaomi, the Mi 8 is the first phone ever equipped with dual-frequency GPS, which presumably should result in a more precise positioning.
The premium Mi 8 Explorer Edition model has some more sophisticated style features. As alleged earlier, it has an in-display fingerprint sensor responsive to the pressure level, 3D face recognition technology, Animoji, and a spectacular transparent black panel.
The basic version of the Mi 8 is called Mi 8 SE. It costs cheaper and works slower, housing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor (a brand-new mid-ranged chipset, by the way). The OLED screen of Mi 8 SE is just 5.88-inch large. Notably, the new 710 chipset from Qualcomm is advertised to consume 30 percent less energy in comparison with the 660 model, while performing 20 percent better. That makes the new Mi 8 SE an unrivaled offering in the medium budget category, squeezing other 2018 novelty phones, such as the Oppo R15 Pro and Vivo X 21 with the previous generation processor installed.
The price for the Mi 8 is set to 2.699 yuan (approx. US$421) in China, with the Explorer Edition’s available from 3.699 yuan (US$577), and the SE priced at 1.799 yuan (US$281) — more than affordable price level and, perhaps more importantly, quality–price–ratio.
The availability date in China is set on June 5th for the Mi 8, June 8th for the SE, and a later, yet unconfirmed date, for the Explorer Edition.