Chinese tech maker Xiaomi has a new batch of goodies headed to market soon. The official reveal has just been confirmed for this week, on 26 October. Since the event is being held in China, we’ll probably see some of the details late on 25 October.
On the menu is the company’s 14 series smartphones. If the naming pattern sticks around, we’re likely to see a Xiaomi 14, a 14 Lite, a 14 Pro, and perhaps even a 14 Ultra. That’s not counting any 14T editions that happen to turn up somewhere along the line. Oh, and there’s some new software in the offing.
Almost 14 already
Can’t wait for the #Xiaomi14 flagship series launch event. Coming in just 3 more days!
Stay tuned for flagship phones x HyperOS! pic.twitter.com/CBoYrHKn0C
— Alvin @Xiaomi (@atytse) October 23, 2023
The event was announced by the company on Chinese social network Weibo and on Elon Musk’s X. Besides the teaser image (in our header and in the tweet above) only one aspect of the phone was revealed. Leica camera technology will be included once again. Beyond that, what you see is what is (officially) known.
But there is some speculation floating around. It’s almost a given that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset will drive the new 14 series phones. Some details, apparently of the Xiaomi 14 Pro, surfaced recently suggesting that the IP68 rating will stick around. The 1in Sony IMX989 sensor from the 13 Pro is also apparently due for a second round but Leica is supplying better lenses this time.
Xiaomi’s MIUI goes bye-bye
On the chopping block for this release is MIUI, the company’s familiar Android skin. In its place is something called HyperOS, a space-age (judging by the choice in promo images) operating system that will differ from the outgoing software package in… ways.
Images of the new skin have turned up online and they don’t look massively different from MIUI. The differences are supposed to be mostly under the hood, combining Xiaomi’s internal Vela software with Android. Vela is an Internet of Things software package, suggesting that these phones are designed to be part of a larger ecosystem. What this actually means for the phone isn’t known but it might not matter to us right away. HyperOS hasn’t been confirmed for an international launch yet. Who knows, that might have changed by later this week. Stay tuned.
