Xiaomi is the most successful tech company that you've never heard of before. The Chinese tech company has taken some of the best tech developers from Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and other companies and pushed them toward creating hardware and software that is reliable and market-changing. After years of creating popular streaming devices, smartphones and headphones, Xiaomi may have just released the iPhone 6 Plus' next rival.
Xiaomi announced two new phablets at Thursday's launch event in Beijing, C-NET reports. Xiaomi founder Lei Jun revealed the new Mi Note and Mi Note Pro. According to Jun, the Mi Note series is lighter and thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus and has a larger screen. As the presentation went on, Jun continuously made comparisons between the Mi Note and the iPhone 6 Plus. This move is unsurprising when you consider how the high demand of the market and higher cost of the product has encouraged many to start smuggling them into the country.
The Mi Note is an impressive device, sporting a 5.7-inch screen with a Snapdragon 801 2.5 GHz processor along with 3GB of RAM. The phone will come in either a 16GB or 64GB version. The Mi Note Pro has the same 2.7-inch screen, as well as a much stronger 64-bit 8-core Snapdragon 810 processor and a 4GB RAM. The Mi Note Pro only comes in a 64GB Memory version.
The Mi Note will start shipping in China on Jan. 27. The 16GB Mi Note will cost the equivalent of $370 while the 64GB will cost $450. The 64GB Mi Note Pro will cost the equivalent of $535, which TechCrunch notes is the most expensive phone that Xiaomi has ever created. No details were released about when the Xiaomi will release the Mi Note onto the international market.
The fact that Xiaomi is the biggest smartphone maker in China will likely make the Mi Note the must-have gadget on the Chinese market for a while. However, Apple's own Jony Ive has knocked the company for using copycat tactics to profit from Apple's original design, according to Vanity Fair.
