“The new Xiaomi Play smartphone is expected to be a rebranded POCO F1 and have an affordable price tag”
Xiaomi has set December 24th as the launch date of its first smartphone in the new Play series. The company has announced the date following a leaked teaser of the Xiaomi Play smartphone series a few days ago. The Play smartphone will make its debut in China first, and is expected to be a gaming device. Notably, the OEM already has a gaming series under Black Shark branding, but its co-founder has claimed that the upcoming device will be different from the current Xiaomi’s smartphone lineup.
There’s little to no information available about the phone as of now. However, speculations are rife that it could be the China version of POCO F1 (review) smartphone that was launched in India in August. If that’s the case, then it’ll be driven by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC under the hood, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. A 4,000mAh battery is likely to fuel the device. Xiaomi is working on a smartphone with a 48-megapixel rear camera but that handset is said to be under Redmi series and not an all-new range.
We expect to know more details about the handset in the coming days. Meanwhile, there are reports that the Play smartphone could be an affordable offering from Xiaomi with a price tag of less than RMB 1,999 (~Rs 21,000).
In related news, Xiaomi has reportedly been working on its next-gen budget series the Redmi 7. The handsets were recently spotted on a certification site, which is like a penultimate step before any smartphone is launched.
