On Tuesday, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled its newest smartphone: the Mi A1.
Billed as the company’s flagship dual-camera phone, the Mi A1 costs about $235 and is powered by Android One, a stock version of Google’s smartphone operating system built for lower-end phones. While the phone won’t be available in the US, it will be in more than 40 countries worldwide.
The design of Mi A1 may look a bit familiar – as if you took the iPhone 7 Plus, with its dual cameras, metal finishes, and hidden-antenna design but replaced the Apple logo on the back with a fingerprint sensor. Xiaomi even described the phone as “similar to iPhone 7 Plus.”
The similarities are even more obvious up close:
Xiaomi’s Mi A1 comes in three colors: black, gold, and rose gold. The iPhone 7 comes in these same colors plus two more: silver and jet black.
The Mi A1 has a 5.5-inch display — the same size as the iPhone 7 Plus’ — and an entirely metal body, also like the iPhone 7.
Also like the iPhone 7 Plus, the Mi A1 features a dual-lens camera system comprising a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens.
Much like other high-end smartphone cameras, the Mi A1 has a “DSLR effect,” meaning it can blur the background while keeping the subject in focus. Only the larger iPhone 7 Plus has this camera feature, which Apple calls Portrait Mode.
Here are some examples of portraits taken with the phone’s camera.
We're taking street photography to the next level with #MiA1! What do think of these shots taken with #FlagshipDualCamera? pic.twitter.com/ucEnYODYGa
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) September 5, 2017
The camera seems to perform well in low light, too.
Even under low light conditions, #MiAi's #FlagshipDualCamera performs really well too! pic.twitter.com/aPeJVCPV85
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) September 5, 2017
Xiaomi says the Mi A1 is fingerprint resistant and has "discreet separation lines" on its body.
The Mi A1 uses USB-C charging, but perhaps the phone's biggest difference with the iPhone 7 is the fact it has a headphone jack.
The A1 has a Snapdragon 625 processor and 64 GB of internal storage.
Xiaomi says the A1 has an "all-day battery," but doesn't say exactly how long the battery will last.
The phone runs Android One, a stock version of Android built for lower-end smartphones, and will get Android Oreo (the latest version of Android) by the end of the year.
Source: The Verge
Xiaomi's Mi A1 will cost about $234 USD but it won't be available in the US. Starting September 12, the same day Apple announces its new phones, the Mi A1 phone will be available in India and over 40 other markets worldwide.
Source: Xiaomi