This morning (25.04.2018), at 8am Hungarian time, the Xiaomi Mi 6X launch started in Wuhan, China. Attendance was almost equal to the launch of the top Mi handset, as this phone was also promoted by Chinese celebrity Kris Wu.
The event Xiaomi CEO, Xiaomi's CEO, but the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 6X was handled by co-founder Lin Bin.
In the introduction, Lin Bin focused on the Mi 6X's looks, comparing it to the Chinese competition, as we've come to expect. Slimmer and shapelier than before, corners rounded to perfection, antennas in the best possible place, ultra-light fingerprint reader, full metal body.
They are just an ant's ankle thinner than their big rivals, but for them that's a big achievement.
True to the Mi series, it has a USB-C connector, which is not only for charging and data transfer, but also serves as the headphone jack, as there is no 3.5 jack on the phone. :(
The Mi 6X, as we wrote earlier, will be available in 5 colours. Stone black, powder cherry, glacier blue, golden sand, flame red.
The Xiaomi Mi 6X was designed with the camera in mind, with the rear pair being the Sony IMX376 20MP and the Sony IMX486 12MP cameos. The front, or fashionably selfie camera, is also the 20MP Sony IMX376 camera module, so wherever you take a photo, it's sure to be high quality.
All image sensors are assisted by artificial intelligence to create images. Currently, the best image processing in the world is provided by Xiaomi's new cameras, with the help of AI, of course, to better recognise edges, subject and background, not to mention the people in the picture. The AI can recognise what's in the picture and apply the best possible settings when the photo is taken, and post-processing is done in a snap. In addition to the 20MP camera at the back, an auxiliary camera is essential for perfect background blurring with a more special one. True, it's "only" 12MP, but with an aperture of f/1.75 and a sensor measuring 1.25 μm pixels, you'll get a really detailed image. The pixel sizes of the front and rear high-resolution sensors are slightly larger, at 2 μm, so you get more light per pixel and can get incredible illumination of your subject, even in low light.
Compared to rival devices, the Mi 6X beats them in image quality. But let's not fall on the other side of the horse, Xiaomi uses AI to achieve better quality compared to other manufacturers' simple cameras. This year, it's likely that all manufacturers will introduce the same technology, so the advantage will disappear, most devices will be able to take such images. Twice the price... :)
In addition to the quality of the image, as mentioned above, AI can recognise the image, its objects, time of day, season, lighting conditions, living things, people, plants, food and 206 other scenes.
Food recognition, which has been the subject of some controversy in recent days, is also one of the key features of artificial intelligence. Let's not overthink it, it doesn't recognise the composition of the food, it takes the composition of the food itself and its average nutritional value from a database. If you are not baking/cooking with average ingredients, then not for you, this feature is important, don't spring for it.
We give the phone five stars for face and people recognition, and again, compared to the competition, there's no doubt which phone would be the better choice.
One might legitimately ask, are these really made with those phones, or are they manipulated to show a better result with their own brand? Yes, they were indeed made with the marked handsets, and in such a bizarre way:
Three BT shutter buttons are tied together in an ugly big plastic housing so that all the pictures are taken at the same time. :)
There's been a lot of talk about photography, which is the Mi 6X's main selling point, but little has been said about the other components, which are nothing new, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, 4GB and 6GB RAM, 64GB and 128GB internal storage. No NFC and before anyone asks, no B20!
The battery capacity leaves something to be desired, the thin case is one of the drawbacks of the lack of certain hardware components (NFC, Jack, etc.) in addition to the thin battery, which results in low performance. The Xiaomi Mi 6X has a battery of only 3,010 mAh, but with QC 3.0 it can be charged lightning fast.
At the end of the presentation, as usual, come the shocking Xiaomi prices! Yes, shocking! In China...
- Xiaomi Mi 6X 4/64 - 1.599 Yuan ~ 64.970 Ft
- Xiaomi Mi 6X 6/64 - 1.799 Yuan ~ 73.100 Ft
- Xiaomi Mi 6X 6/128 - 1.999 Yuan ~ 81.230 Ft
The phone will be available in China in two days, starting from 10am on 27.04.2018. They're not playing around and that's why the pictures of the phone have been released, shipments are already in stores.
To be asked that much for a top mid-range phone with the best camera currently available is truly shocking. But why do almost all Xiaomi devices cost so much? That's what he said Xiaomi CEOwho took the floor after Bin Lin and spoke at length about the company's development, past, present and future. He explained what their secret is, what has brought Xiaomi from a small team of Android developers to the world's fourth largest manufacturer.
It's all about pricing. We already knew that Xiaomi doesn't work with a lot of profit, they followed the principle of "a lot of little goes a long way" and it worked for them.
"On April 23, 2018, Xiaomi's Board of Directors decided that Xiaomi's net profit should not exceed 5%. If it exceeds it, the excess will be returned to the user."
So they will continue to sell devices with the lowest possible margins, which in the future will determine even more its advantage in countries where customers are a bit more price sensitive and will prefer to choose the Xiaomi brand. Either they offer the same quality at a much lower price or, at the same price, a much better product than the competition. Not to mention the Xiaomi feeling that we often get when we look askance at fans of other manufacturers :) Right? Just that we don't understand what they like about a more expensive and inferior product :)
The presentation ended here, the leader said goodbye to the audience, see you next time at the Mi7 presentation! (Or the Mi A2, or the Redmi S2, or the ...)
