The Xiaomi Mi 6X has just been unwrapped at a launch in Wuhan, China. And boy, does it look good. The successor to the Mi 5X is looking sleek and sexy in metal, and packs some commendable hardware.
If you can recall, the Mi 5X of last year became the base for the Mi A1, Xiaomi’s first ever Android One device. And the fantastic device that was. When it debuted, it became the most powerful Android One device at the time.
For Xiaomi, it was a little bit of a leap of faith. MIUI, being the core of the Mi experience, was ditched in favour of pure stock Android. I’m sure you’ve heard the cries of blasphemy, and I think I heard, “Are you nuts?” somewhere along the line.
To be fair, it was never going to be a mass market device. It did give consumers choice. And lo and behold, it became a cult hit of sorts, at least for Android fans.
Adding to the appeal is the attractive price tag. Debuting at just over a MYR1,000, the Mi A1 was one of those no-brainer purchases. It also quickly became one of my favourite devices of 2017.
Now let’s fast forward to the Mi 6X. Bound for the China market, the new premium mid-range device sports a 5.99-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display (1080×2160) with an 18:9 screen aspect ratio.
It’s housed in a familiar all-metal unibody, now sleeker and comes in five different colours: Red, Blue, Rose Gold, Gold and Black.
Underneath the slim exterior is the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 which comes with eight Kyro 260 cores. This is mated to an Adreno 512 GPU, with 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage.
Battery-wise, it’s a tad smaller than the original Mi 5X, rated at 3,010mAh. Judging from the Mi 5X/Mi A1 though, expect a full day’s worth of juice without problems. It charges up via USB Type-C, and supports 5V/2A Quick Charge 3.0 Fast Charge.
On the back is a dual-camera setup, arranged in an iPhone X-inspired vertical array also found on the new Redmi Note 5.
Speaking of which, the Mi 6X boasts a 12MP + 20MP camera system with a f/1.75 aperture lens. It uses a Sony IMX468 sensor with 1.25 micron pixels for the main camera unit, and a Sony IMX376 sensor for the secondary.
As you’d expect, the camera comes with “AI” features, mostly in scene recognition. It can recognise 25 different labels and up to 206 different scenes so you will always have an optimised settings for a particular scene.
Xiaomi didn’t hold back on the selfie camera either, plonking in a 20MP whopper with large 2 micron pixels, enhanced by AI Beautify 4.0. It comes with face recognition, front auto HDR and 4500K soft light.
Pricing and availability
The Mi 6X is available in China and is offered in three variants:
- Mi 6X – 4GB RAM + 64GB storage – CNY1,599 (MYR990)
- Mi 6X – 6GB RAM + 64GB storage – CNY1,799 (MYR1,114)
- Mi 6X – 6GB RAM + 128GB storage – CNY1,999 (MYR1,238)
Now, the question is, will we be seeing a stock Android Mi A1 2 / Mi A2 soon for the global market?
Let’s hope so.
Source: Mi.com
