Last week, we confirmed the budget 4G-LTE smartphone Lenovo A6000 getting released in India on 16 January to take on the popular brands Xiaomi and Micromax. Now, a report has surfaced online suggesting Xiaomi is already working on a much cheaper 4G phone.
Technology media house, Gizmo China, while sifting through the Chinese government-owned telecommunication certification site, TENAA, has spotted an un-named Xiaomi device.
In the archive, the images of the device look strikingly identical to the recently-unveiled Redmi 2 and even some of the key specifications are similar, but one anomaly is that it comes packed with Leadcore SoC (System on Chip) LC1860C made by a local Chinese supply chain, reports GSMArena.
Redmi 2 ships with Snapdragon 410 series CPU and costs ¥699 (around $113/€94/₹7,120); whereas the former is said to cost much cheaper, close to ¥400 ($64/€54/₹4,016). So we believe this unnamed Xiaomi device to be a new budget series phone, not a variant of Redmi 2.
Leadcore powered Xiaomi smartphone is said to sport a 4.7-inch display and feature an Android 4.4.4 KitKat with MIUI, a dual-core Mali-T628 graphics engine and a 8.0 megapixel camera (with full video recording).
One of most important facts fetched out from TENNA site is that the above mentioned device supports both TD-LTE and FDD-LTE connectivity, hinting that this Xiaomi device may make a debut in western markets as well. The company has been outspoken about its plan of foraying in to Brazil, the home country of Xiaomi global operation head Hugo Barra, in the later part of 2015.
Sans Brazil, it's not certain whether the Chinese company has any immediate plans of entering any other western markets, but if the budget Xiaomi device does make its debut it will certainly hit Indian stores to take on local player Micromax (YU Yureka) and its Chinese compatriot Lenovo, which is set to release the under ₹10,000 priced 4G-LTE phone A6000 on 16 January in the sub-continent.
[Read more: CES 2015: Budget 4G-LTE Smartphone Lenovo A6000 to Take on Xiaomi, Micromax in India]
As of now, Xiaomi is yet to respond to the rumours doing their rounds on the Internet.
