After a number of leaks and rumors, Xiaomi has finally announced the Xiaomi Mi Play in China. And as we suspected, the SoC is indeed being sourced from Mediatek rather than Qualcomm with the Mi Play.
Early rumors and leaks suggested that the Xiaomi Mi Play would be the Poco F1 of China given that Huawei had announced their Honor Play for the mid-range market as well. Turns out, the Xiaomi Mi Play is rather a lower-end device from Xiaomi. However, on paper, it doesn’t seem to be all that bad.
Specifications & Features
On the inside, the Xiaomi Mi Play features a Mediatek P35 SoC, 4GB RAM and 64GB of eMMC internal storage. Furthermore, the device sports a 5.84-inch FHD+ display featuring a Gorilla Glass 5 protection and an Infinity-U notch (just like the one found on the Essential Phone), a 12MP + 2MP rear dual-shooter couple, a 3000mAh battery, and an attractive body to top off the deal.
It has been a while since we since we last heard of MediaTek in Xiaomi phone. Given how much Qualcomm has gained over MediaTek over the past few years we’re in no way shape or form able to speculate how the device would compete with a similarly-priced Qualcomm-powered device.
Following Xiaomi’s new aesthetic design, the Xiaomi Mi Play comes in a number of shimmering colors. This far, Xiaomi has showcased the Mi Play in four different colors. The three colors shown off so far are in black, a rose-gold gradient, and a blue-purple gradient.
Pricing & Availability
Pricing for the device doesn’t make us all that confident. The device starts at RMB 1099 (US $159) in Mainland China. However, something tells us that the device may never make it to international markets outside of China given how Xiaomi has been shifting their focus based on regional market interests.