Reporting from Delhi, India: At a global launch event in Delhi, India, Xiaomi announced the launch of the new Mi A1. The new smartphone is a product of partnership between Xiaomi and Google, through the Android One initiative. The Mi A1 is also Xiaomi’s first device under this program.
The Xiaomo Mi A1 runs on stock Android and though the Android One program was kicked off a long time ago, the program has finally come to fruition with the launch of a mid-range device that offers features by the boatload. The Mi A1 is essentially the rebranded Mi 5X smartphone which was launched by the company in July for the Chinese market.
However, there is one difference – while the Mi 5X was powered by Android 7.1.2 with MIUI 9 OS on top of it, the Xiaomi Mi A1 ships with stock Android 7.1.2 Nougat, without any customized UI on top of it. The company also announced that the Mi A1 will be one of the first devices to get the Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of this year.
The Xiaomi Mi A1 is made entirely out of metal and comes with a set of capacitive buttons below the display. These buttons include overview (multitasking), home and back. The smartphone also features a dual camera system at the back – both are 12-megapixel shooters.
While one of the cameras is an RGB one with a wide-angle lens, the other is a telephoto shooter. On the front, you will also find a 5-megapixel camera for all your selfie needs. Under the hood, the Mi A1 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor, comes with 4GB of RAM and offers 64GB of built-in storage. This can be further expanded by using a micro SD card.
The phone is powered by a 3080mAh battery. You also get a fingerprint scanner at the back of the device, just below the dual camera setup. On the front the Mi A1 sports a 5.5-inch full HD (1920-by-1080) display.
You also get an IR blaster, which is included at the very top of this phone. Colour options include Black, Gold and Rose Gold. The Xiaomi Mi A1 measures 155.4-by-75.8-bhy-7.3mm and weighs 165-gms.
Xiaomi announced that the Mi A1 will be available in India starting September 12, 2017 at a price of Rs. 14,999 (AED 900 approx.). The phone will also be launched in 40 other markets around the world, including UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and so on. No dates or local pricing has been mentioned at this point.