Xiaomi’s Mi 6 puts iPhone 7 camera tech into a $360 phone

Xiaomi’s Mi 6 puts iPhone 7 camera tech into a $360 phone — and there’s no headphone jack

Xiaomi unveiled its newest flagship smartphone — the Mi 6 — today at an event in Beijing, having skipped Mobile World Congress, the telecom industry’s largest annual event where it announced the Mi5 last year.

There’s plenty at stake with this new device, given that Xiaomi suffered a sales slump last year with CEO Lei Jun admitting that the company has entered a transitional period after growing too fast.

So, what about the Mi 6?

Well, the first thing to note is that there are plenty of similarities to the iPhone 7, but price isn’t one of them. The entry model — featuring 64 GB of storage — comes in at 2499 RMB, that’s around $360, with a 128 GB option (2899 RMB, $420) and ceramic edition (2999 RMB, $435) completing the range. All three are far cheaper than iPhone equivalents, but, interestingly for Xiaomi, the range is more expensive that the company’s usual flagship prices.

The most obvious iPhone comparison is that there is no headphone jack on the Mi 6, just as Apple elected with last year’s iPhone 7. Whether the Chinese company is following the trend, or doing what makes sense for itself in this instance, that is already ammo for Xiaomi skeptics.

But that’s not all. In a further parallel, the 5.5-inch Mi 6 includes a 12-megapixel dual rear camera — à la the iPhone 7+ — which mixes a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens. Like the iPhone, the Mi 6 includes a bokeh-style photography option, alongside 10x digital zoom, 2x lossless zoom, and optical image stabilization (OIS) technology. Also on board is an under-glass fingerprint sensor on the front. Xiaomi shipped a similar sensor in the Mi5s Plus last September and, if you believe leaks reported this week, Apple may have similar plans for its next iPhone.

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