Xiaomi had launched the Xiaomi Mi Max and introduced the MIUI 8 in China earlier this year and the company is now ready to unveil them to India and the rest of the world at an event in New Delhi today.
We covered the China launch story on the Xiaomi Mi Max and MIUI 8 in May. Let’s explore a little more about what this actually means to the Xiaomi community and the smartphone ecosystem built around it.
The event in New Delhi kick starts at 11:30 am today and follows closely on the heels of the introduction of the Mi Community in India last week. This is clearly a well thought out move from Xiaomi to allow its users to engage with each other and share feedback, participate in contests, and attend Xiaomi events. Xiaomi has always had a community driven approach in China and it is good to see them bring the same approach to India and other parts of the world.
The beta version Mi Community website went live on June 14 where Xiaomi chose 500 users to test the Mi Community. Xiaomi had released the MIUI 8 China ROM in May and went on to release the Developer ROM earlier this month. The MIUI 8 Developer ROM will support the complete Redmi and Mi Note series along with supporting Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 4c, Mi 4s, and of course the Mi Max. Interestingly, as of now there are no reports on whether it will support the company’s current flagship – Xiaomi Mi 5. But we are hopeful that will happen pretty soon.
The MIUI 8 will include a dual account system wherein users will be able to use two entirely separate accounts with completely independent apps on the same device. Which means you can have different passwords and fingerprint access to the same device while using an entirely different set of apps. This also means that I can now share my flatmate’s Mi 4 without pushing his buttons.
The MIUI 8 will also have features such as long screenshots and better scanning capabilities. If that doesn’t sound exciting to you, picture this – thanks to the MIUI 8 you will be able to scan algebraic equations to obtain their solutions. Sounds exciting now, doesn’t it?
Being a user interface MIUI 8 is very high on the quality of the interface itself. Xiaomi has reportedly partnered with over 50 media companies to bring 12 categories of high quality Wallpaper Carousel. I am glad that finally a smartphone company is placing so much emphasis on high quality wallpapers for its user interface. It almost sounds like a cliche to say that one expects great wallpapers on smartphones but the fact remains that most user interfaces are simply personalized experiences expecting users to find their own quality wallpapers.
Moving on to the Xiaomi Mi Max. You can find the specifications on the Xiaomi Mi Max product page on iSpyPrice and a brief walk-through on the product itself in the post linked earlier in this piece.
The Mi Max will sport Xiaomi’s largest screen yet. The company had resisted launching a Phablet in the market before the Mi Max but it does appear that they are now willing to explore an entirely different device segment. Interestingly, the price of the Mi Max will not vary greatly from some other Xiaomi devices so the company clearly isn’t worried about the Mi Max cannibalizing on the Mi ecosytem.
We will have to wait and see whether the Xiaomi Mi Max turns out to be a success in terms of sales and adding to the company’s bottom line but what is certain is that Xiaomi is focused on building a diverse portfolio of products within its smartphone lineup, which augurs well for the company and for consumers in the long run.