Xiaomi is currently expanding its footprint across the globe. Following its entry into India, the next port of call is Indonesia. The smartphone giant has established an assembly factory on the island of Batam. The factory currently has a capacity to assemble more than 100,000 phones per month.
You might think that since the phones are assembled in Indonesia, they should be priced less or equal to that of China. Sadly, that is not the case. The Redmi 4A is the device currently assembled by the factory. It is priced at 1.49 million Indonesian Rupiah which is roughly ¥770 (~$113). The Redmi 4A sells for ¥599 (~$87) on Xiaomi’s official website, though you will find it selling for a slightly higher-price on third-party sites.
The decision to assemble devices in Indonesia comes as part of a new condition put in place by the government. The requirement is that 4G LTE smartphones sold in the country by foreign manufacturers must be made up of 30% local content. It is said that assembly, packaging, design, software, and R&D investment counts as part of the percentage. Xiaomi’s decision was to assemble its phones while Apple made a $44 million investment in R&D.
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The Redmi 4A has a 5-inch 720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM and a Snapdragon 425 SoC. There is a 13MP sensor at the back and a 5MP shooter up front. Xiaomi ships the phone with a 3120mAh battery and MIUI 8 based on Android Marshmallow. The device has dual SIM slots (nano + micro) with SIM 2 doubling as a microSD card slot. The Redmi 4A will be sold by Erafone, Xiaomi’s retail partner in the country.
