Xiaomi Mi Max officially launched in India starting from Rs 14,999

Xiaomi has announced its new phablet, the Mi Max, in India at a special launch event in New Delhi. The smartphone will arrive in two models a Snapdragon 650 version priced at Rs 14,999 and a Snapdragon 652 version at Rs 19,999. The smartphones will be officially available on the Mi India store on 6 July via an open sale and on partner stores from the 13 July. The Mi Max made its first official appearance when it was launched in China back in May. It is the company’s largest smartphone till date and comes with a metal body with a thickness of just 7.5mm and weighs in at 203 grams. It features a massive 6.44-inch full HD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, making it almost as big as a 7-inch tablet. On the inside there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, powered by four Cortex A72 cores and two A53 cores along with 3GB of RAM. The internal storage is at 32GB which can be expanded further using a microSD card. The Snapdragon 652 variant packs in 4GB RAM and features 128GB of internal storage. In the camera department you get a 16MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture lens and a dual LED flash while on the front, a 5MP module has the responsibility of taking selfies. The rear camera can take 4K videos as well. Xiaomi has also crammed in a 4,850mAH battery which can last for almost two days straight. Other features include a fingerprint reader at the back, and connectivity features such as 4G LTE, dual-SIM compatibility, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio with recording, GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS and USB 2.0 with OTG support. The phablet will be available in Gold, Silver and Dark Grey colour options. Along with the Mi Max the company also announced MIUI 8, their latest UI layer based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The new update comes packed with a number of new features and an updated look. You get new tools for image editing as well as video editing along with a revamped Gallery app. A new calculator app that can convert live currencies, temperature and other metric conversions. An updated Notes app which can be secured by using your fingerprint. A Snap and Shop feature that lets you take a photo of a product and lets you shop for similar products online is also present. The OS can also solve maths problems that it sees through the camera and has many others including a text message filter feature and a wallpaper carousel. The new UI will be arriving on smartphones that are currently running on MIUI 7 on 11 July for the Public Beta and 16 August with the stable/final build.