In the past couple of days, we have seen some information about a new variant of the Redmi 3 budget smartphone that was announced in January this year. While at that time we had no clue about the name or even the features of the new handset, recent reports from China have thrown some light about the device’s specs.

First of all, according to the latest information, it is being said that the new Redmi 3 variant will be called as the Redmi 3S. This name is possible since the updated version of the Redmi 1 was called as the 1S. As for the specs, most of the hardware is expected to be the same as the Redmi 3, however, the new Redmi 3S will most likely bring a fingerprint sensor to the device.

As for the pricing, the Redmi 3S is rumored to retail at a price tag of 799 Yuan which comes to around $122. So, you will have to shell out around $15 more than the usual pricing for the addition of a fingerprint scanner. Finally, you can expect to meet the Redmi 3S on April 6 which will be the company’s sixth anniversary. Lot’s of new products are expected to be launched on that day and the Redmi 3S could be one of them.

Thanks to yesterday’s TENAA listing, we know that the Xiaomi Redmi 3S will look exactly the same as the previous version, featuring a 4000mAh battery inside its 8.5mm body. The phone will also continue with the all metal design as the Redmi 3.

As for the specs, if it’s the same as the Redmi 3, you can expect Snapdragon 616 on board with 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera with PDAF, 5MP front shooter, dual SIM dual standby and a 5-inch 720p display. A possible upgrade on the Redmi 3S could be the screen resolution (bump it up to 1080p), but we are not yet sure of that.

There’s also a rumor going around that Xiaomi will release the Redmi 3A, as an upgrade to the Redmi 2A budget device. Pricing is expected to be cheap, around 599 Yuan which is less than $100.

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Redmi 2A turned out to be one of the best selling smartphones from Xiaomi. We recently came to know that in the past few months, the company managed to ship over 10 million Redmi 2A units. Now, to celebrate the milestone, Xiaomi has cut down the price of the enhanced Redmi 2A version to just $78. That’s the same price as the regular version which usually retails for 499 Yuan ($78).

The biggest difference in the enhanced Redmi 2A version is the 2GB of RAM on board. Along with the increased RAM, the phone also upgrades the storage to 16GB. Lei Jun had earlier said that a smartphone needs at least 2GB RAM and 16GB storage for the best user experience, and this particular device will ensure that experience at just $78. In short, you get better RAM and storage for the same price as the regular version.

As for the other specs, the phone will feature a 4.7-inch 720p display with Leadcore LC1860 quad-core chip clocked at 1.5GHz, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front facing shooter and 2,200mAh battery. The phone also supports 4G LTE networks and comes with a dual SIM card slot.

The Enhanced Redmi 2A Edition with 2GB RAM will go on sale from November 11 in China.

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Recently, a user in China reported to the press that his Redmi 2A caught fire while he was talking on the phone. Mr. Tang has reported the matter to Xiaomi and the staff is currently investigating the incident.

Mr. Tang reportedly bought the phone less than a month ago. According to Chinese media, he was talking with his wife on call, and in about five minutes, the sound started cracking. Then the phone’s body became too hot and he started to smell something burning. Fortunately, he realized that something was wrong with his phone and immediately threw it on the bathroom floor.

As you can see in the pictures below, the fire burnt most of the plastic body and internals of the device. You can even see the black burnt mark on the bathroom floor. After about two hours since the incident happened, he reported the matter to the Xiaomi after sales outlet.

It is still not known whether the phone will replaced by the company. Mr. Tang said that the after sales unit has sent the phone to Beijing for further processing.

Of course, we don’t think from the pictures above that Mr. Tang’s phone’s in any condition of repair and if the cause of fire is indeed something internal, then it will be interesting to see how Xiaomi responds to the matter.

Although Mr. Tang was lucky to escape without any injuries, Xiaomi should seriously consider whether such an incident is possible in the future in the Redmi 2A models that are already available in the market.

While most would start blaming the cheap quality of materials used on the handset, we first have to see whether the exact cause of the fire was something internal or not. Also, this is not the first time we are hearing about smartphones catching fire (both Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5 have caught fires before). So, lets see how Xiaomi responds to the incident.

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According to latest reports, Xiaomi is currently developing its own, independent processor. The company has already experimented with a Chinese chip maker for its super cheap Redmi 2A smartphone and taking account of its success, it is said that this Chinese startup is all set to release its first processor by early 2016.

The Redmi 2A which was launched back in April came with Leadcore’s LC1860C quad-core chipset. The performance of the chip was similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410 but it costed the company way less. As a result, Xiaomi was able sell the device for only 499 Yuan! Naturally, this helped the company sell more than 5.1 million units of the device in the first three months alone.

It is said that Xiaomi wants to overcome the various drawbacks in its smartphones by launching its own chipset. The new Xiaomi processor will be used in low-end Redmi series phones. On the other hand, the high-end devices like the Xiaomi Mi 5 will continue to use Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets (Snapdragon 820?).

Xiaomi has also reportedly acquired the full range of ARM core licenses. Further, the company recently hired the former Qualcomm China President Wang Xiang, which should definitely help it achieve its goal.

Although the company is yet to announce anything officially, this could indeed turn out to be true. All major manufacturers are increasingly becoming independent when it comes to the use of processors. Samsung, Huawei, Apple are some of the company’s direct competitors who use their own chipsets inside their devices. Given that Xiaomi has a habit of making moves pretty quickly, this does seem possible.

Anyways, what do you think about such a move from Xiaomi? Is this best for the company to rely on its own processor for its low-end devices?

The post Xiaomi Made Processors Could Hit The Market By Next Year! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Xiaomi has released so many products in the past few months, that its quite hard to keep a track of all of them. Among the releases this year, the Xiaomi Redmi 2A was particularly special because it was the cheapest Redmi device in the market. In fact, it still is one of the cheapest smartphones with pretty good specs.

Naturally, given that the phone retailed for just 499 Yuan ($80), it was destined to sell like hotcakes. And today, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has just confirmed the numbers. He revealed a few minutes ago that Xiaomi has sold over 5.1 million units of the Redmi 2A in the first three month of launch. This is a significant achievement for a new product like the 2A which yet to reach a number of international markets. To give you a perspective, Meizu managed to sell only about 8.9 million devices in the entire first half of 2015. 

Another thing to note here is the presence of the local Leadcore L1860C quad-core chipset inside the Redmi 2A. Instead of the traditional Qualcomm or Mediatek chips, the company went with the Leadcore SoC to limit the cost and looks the strategy worked well.

Anyways, it will be interesting to see if the momentum continues in the coming months too.

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If you ever thought that 499 Yuan ($80) was the cheapest price at which a mainstream company could sell a phone, then you have been proved wrong. Coolpad has just announced a Dazen smartphone that’s better and even cheaper than Xiaomi’s budget Redmi 2A smartphone.

Coolpad is offering its new smartphone at an impressive price tag of 399 Yuan. This is 100 Yuan cheaper than the regular Redmi 2A version. Moreover, if you are interested in getting a 2GB RAM version, you just have to shell out 499 Yuan in total, which equals Redmi 2A’s retail price.

What’s more, you get better specs on the Dazen F1 Plus than Xiaomi’s offering. In fact, Coolpad has made a special infographic to explain that the F1 Plus is better than the Redmi 2A in a number of areas.

The Coolpad phone comes with a 64-bit  Snapdragon 410 chip as compared to the 32-bit Leadcore L1860C on  Redmi. Other improvements include a larger display (5-inch), a better front camera (5MP instead of 2MP), and a larger battery (2500mAh instead of just 2200mAh). Other features such as 4G LTE connectivity, 1GB RAM and 8GB of ROM remains the same as the Redmi model.

Overall, its looks like Coolpad has released a winner. Its better than the Redmi in many aspects, yet costs 100 Yuan less. What’s even better is that even the 2GB RAM version costs only 499 Yuan. So, customers will definitely be happy to get that option at such a cheap price tag.

S what do you think about the phone? Would you consider buying the Dazen F1 Plus or will you stick with the Redmi 2A model?

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Redmi 2A was showcased today in China with a price tag of just 599yuan / 96$. The price is very near to Redmi 1 which makes it a great buy. It has all the features of Redmi 2 but with better performance and built.

Specifically, Xiaomi Redmi 2A follows most design and configuration of Redmi 2, but the processor is changed from Snapdragon 410 to domestic LC1860, while the five-mode baseband is replaced to three-mode baseband.

LC1860 processor has a 4 + 1 core Cortex-A7 architecture, clocked at 1.5GHz, GPU for Mali-T628 MP2, theoretically CPU performance has decreased from Snapdragon 410, but GPU should have won.

When the Redmi 2A ws tested,It ran into 23351 points , and in our previous tests , Redmi 2 hardly crossed 20,000.

Redmi 2A is better than its sequel in every aspect except RAM management.

Of course, one can’t run a benchmark and determine the overall quality of a mobile phone, as Qualcomm’s platform stability, maturity and other aspects of the baseband should be better than the LC1860 platform.

Here are the pictures of the benchmark Results.

Do let us know what you think about it in the comment section below.

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