Xiaomi has long been able, somehow, to create excellent smartphones at a fraction of the price of their better-known counterparts. But they might have overreached a tad with their newest announcement, the Xiaomi Mi Max. Or perhaps not.

The concern isn’t a reflection of the handset that the Chinese company has revealed, though. Rather it’s the choice of screen size. The Mi Max justifies the name by featuring a gigantic 6.44-inch HD display. Even for a phablet, this could be overkill but we’re not going to judge until we’ve actually used it.

The smartphone is rocking a roster of parts that might make you sit up and take notice, though it’s the price that you’re going to react to most. The Mi Max has a Snapdragon 650, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage at the outset, plus space for more with a microSD slot. A 16MP/5MP camera setup will be available, as well as a huge 4,850mAh battery, packed into a metal body. For a screen that size, the humongous battery makes good sense.

The Xiaomi Mi Max will retail for RMB1,499, or around R3,500 in local currency. There are other editions coming too. One version ups the default storage to 128GB and the RAM to 4GB, knocking the price up to around R4,650 in the process. There’s also a Mi Max with a Snapdragon 652 (R4,000) which upgrades the storage to 64GB.

Also coming soon is Xiaomi’s new MIUI 8 interface, which will be entering testing in June this year. Changes are coming throughout but it still won’t satisfy stock Android fans. Fair enough, Xiaomi’s skinned version isn’t for everyone.

The Xiaomi Mi Max will be launching in China on 17 May, with no plans announced for places like South Africa just yet. We do hope we get to see it here, though. That much screen size at Xiaomi’s usual low prices is something we’d like to experience in person.

Source: Ars Technica