Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is picking up a steam of success: after having sold more than 7 million phones in China last year, they have refreshed their flagship smartphone Xiaomi Mi2 by adding that inevitable S mark at the end of the name. Aside from Xiaomi Mi2S (Xiaomi Phone 2S), they also launched a budget variant of the phone, Xiaomi Phone 2A. The company actually notes that their Xiaomi Mi2S is faster than the Galaxy SIV in synthetic benchmarks.
Flagship Xiaomi Mi2S is not unlike its predecessor Xiaomi Mi2 when it comes to looks ? but what ticks inside is now upgraded from the S4 Pro to the new and mighty Snapdragon 600 with a quad-core 1.7GHz Krait 300 processor. Aside from that, the 4.3-inch device has a 720p IPS display, 2GB of RAM, removable 2,000mAh battery, 13MP camera with f2.2 lens (only on the 32GB model, the 16GB model has the old 8MP f2.0 imager) on the back and 2MP front-facer. 16GB version of the unit should already be available for purchase in China for only ¥1,999 (around $320), and 32GB version should cost around ¥2,299 (around $370).
On the AnTuTu benchmark they ran, device managed to score around 500 points more than the Samsung?s Galaxy SIV (25,913 vs 25446, though the Galaxy SIV runs on the same chip with slightly higher 1.9GHz clock speed). In the Quadrant performance test, Mi2S (12868) managed to outperform both Galaxy SIV (8127) and the HTC One (12230). Xiaomi flagship managed to push Galaxy SIV in Vellamo test as well which is neat, but summed up it really doesn?t mean much in the end aside from the bragging rights ? not to mention that the data comes from Xiaomi?s own tests, not our own. If nothing else, these synthetic benchmarks show that the company did spend some effort in optimizations.
Budget Xiaomi Mi2A is carrying the Qualcomm?s MSM8260A clocked at 1.7GHz with the Adreno 320 graphics. 4.5-inch 720p IPS screen is actually larger than the one found on the flagship. Unit is paired with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage space and the same 2000mAh battery found on the more powerful unit. Unsubsidized price for this smartphone is only around $240.
Both Xiaomi smartphones are running very popular fork of Android – MIUI v5 by default. Android custom ROM is available for many Android devices as well, offering a completely different interface from the stock Android ? as well as some additional functionality. If the success continues, there is no doubt that the company will try to penetrate the international market at some point as well.
