At the Xiaomi Annual Launch Event last week, the long-rumoured Mi 8 flagship was launched alongside seven other products. The Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer Edition being the highlight of the company's eighth-anniversary event in China, the consumer response on the first day of the sale isn't surprising but still an impressive feat.
Xiaomi Mi 8 went on sale in China on Tuesday and it witnessed an overwhelming demand. According to a Xiaomi official, it took one minute and 37 seconds for all the variants of Mi 8 to go out of stock, MyDrivers reported.
There's no word on how many units were sold during the flash sale, but those who weren't able to purchase the flagship smartphone on day one can try again. The next sale for the Mi 8 smartphone in China is set for June 12, 10 am local time. Given the demand, it is best to act swiftly while purchasing the smartphone next Tuesday.
Xiaomi Mi 8 joins the league of handsets like OnePlus 6, Honor 10 and others. The handset's price, paired with top-of-the-line features, makes it a compelling buy. There are three storage variants in the Mi 8, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB – priced at ¥2699 (Rs 28,447), ¥2999 (Rs 31,600) and ¥3299 (Rs 34,770), respectively.
With this attractive price point, the Mi 8 is bound to do well even in India. There's no exact release date for Mi 8 in India, but the company has confirmed that the handset will arrive seven markets, including Egypt, Spain, India, Italy, Russia, France and Vietnam, soon.
As expected, Xiaomi Mi 8 will be pitted against the likes of OnePlus 6, which is already breaking sales records in India. It is quite possible for Xiaomi, which has been tiptoeing with Samsung to gain dominance in the Indian smartphone market, to make a dent in the premium smartphone segment like the way it has in the budget category. Here's why.
Xiaomi Mi 8 comes with a 6.21-inch full-screen display with 2248x1080 pixel resolution and a notch at the top fused within a 7000 series aluminium frame and a 2.5D curved glass on top. The handset features a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner for security, and the notch area sports IR face unlock for accurate facial recognition that works even in the dark.
Xiaomi Mi 8 also sports premium camera, featuring two 12MP sensors at the back, one with f/1.8 aperture wide-angle and the other with f/2.4 aperture telephoto setup, OIS, and AI feature for portraits scene detection and video editing. On the front, there's a 20MP snapper with f/2.0 aperture, AI Portrait and AI Beauty modes.
Under the hood, Xiaomi Mi 8 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB RAM and MIUI 10. It is the cheapest phone with Snapdragon 845 chipset currently available in the market. Finally, the handset comes with dual-frequency GPS along with other standard connectivity options such as 4G VoLTE, NFC and more.
