Xiaomi unveils Mi Note & Mi Note Pro smartphones

After weeks of rumours and speculation, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday unveiled the new Mi Note smartphone at the press event in Beijing. The company is touting the new Mi Note as its next flagship model, despite the fact that its existing flagship Mi 4 was introduced less than six months ago.

Sporting a 6.95mm-thick metal chassis, the Mi Note features a 5.7-inch full HD display and comes with 2.5D curved glass on the front and 3D curved glass on the back of the phone. The phone also packs a 3000 mAh battery, 13MP rear camera with optical image stablisation & two-tone LED flash as well as a 4MP front shooter.

The Mi Note also includes dual-SIM support, 3GB of RAM and Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor.

Mi Note Pro

Xiaomi is also releasing a Mi Note Pro smartphone, which will target Apple iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 4. It will have the same design and most of the specifications as Mi Note, but will pack 2560x1440p QHD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.Pricing & Availability:

According to Xiaomi, Mi Note will retail at 2299 yuan ($371) for the 16GB version and 2799 yuan ($451) for the 64GB version. On the other hand, Mi Note Pro will retail at 3,299 yuan ($532).

Mi Note goes on sale next week in the Chinese market, while Mi Note Pro will be available beginning the end of March 2015. There is no word on the global roll-out of the new phones, but we expect them to reach markets like Hong Kong and Taiwan over the next few months, followed by countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

Xiaomi care plan

In addition to the new Mi Note smartphones, Xiaomi also unveiled the Xiaomi Care plan for Mi Note owners for 199 yuan ($32). This service plan will cover the water damage as well as breakage of front/ back glass.