Redmi 2 will be sold through Flipkart.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi today launched Redmi 2 along with the company’s first budget tablet, Mi Pad, in India.
Redmi 2 is priced Rs. 6,999 and like other Xiaomi devices, it will go on sale via Flipkart, the company’s official retail partner in India. Interested buyers have to participate in a flash sale for which registration has already begun. The first sale of Redmi 2 will commence on March 24 at 2PM and the registration window will be open till March 23rd midnight.
Xiaomi entered the Indian smartphone industry in the second half of 2014 by launching Mi2, a flagship device launched six months after it was first unveiling in China. This was followed by a series of launches that featured Redmi 1S, Redmi Note 3G/4G, Mi4.
Vice President of Xiaomi, Hugo Barra who was present at today’s launch event said, “We do not aim to sell cheap devices in India with great specification sheets. We try to deliver the best value to our fans.”
The new Redmi 2 is a 4.7-inch HD display 1280 x 720 pixel dual SIM smartphone and is powered by a 64 bit-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with Adreno 306 GPU coupled with 1 GB RAM.
Redmi 2 has an 8 GB internal storage capacity with an expandable slot that offer up to of 32 GB. The primary camera of the device hosts 8MP with LED-flash in addition to an upgraded 2 MP front camera.
Redmi 2 also support 4G LTE network with 4G stand-by on both the SIM cards. It also has connectivity features such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and microUSB port.
The new Redmi 2 is backed by 2,200 mAh battery compared to 2,000 mAh in Redmi 1S.
The smartphone runs on Android KitKat OS on top of MIUI v6. The device will be available in Pink, Yellow, Green, White and Black colors.
Coming to the Mi Pad, Xiaomi’s first tablet in India, is a 7.9-inch device powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC processor and Kepler GPU coupled with 2GB RAM. The device has 16GB/64GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB using MicroSD card. The primary camera of MiPad is equipped with an 8MP camera and the front with a 5MP fixed focus camera. . Mi Pad runs on Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS on top of MIUI and is backed by a 6,700 mAh battery. This WiFi-based tablet PC is priced at Rs 12,999.
Manu Jani, operations head of Xiaomi in India, confirmed that “around 30,000 to 40,000 units of the Redmi 2 smartphone will be available for the first flash sale on March 24 on Flipkart.”
In contrast to other Xiaomi devices, MiPad tablet will be available registration-free and without the much criticized flash sale model, starting from March 24, exclusively via Flipkart.