At the beginning of this year, Xiaomi spun-off their successful Redmi series of smartphones into a separate brand. Later, within a few days, the newly formed brand announced their first device – Redmi Note 7. This particular device is still in the news because of the features it offers for $150. Moving forward, the Redmi brand is readying to enter the flagship territory with a Snapdragon 855 powered smartphone.
This information regarding the Snapdragon 855 powered Redmi smartphone comes from the brand’s general manager Lu Weibing himself. According to his Weibo post, the Redmi team had a meeting at their parent company Xiaomi’s R&D institute. Where they discussed the future of the brand which also involves the upcoming Redmi Note 7 Pro launch and a Snapdragon 855 powered smartphone. He also thanks everyone for their valuable suggestions which they will work hard to accomplish.
No other information about the Snapdragon 855 powered Redmi smartphone was shared by the general manager. Xiaomi spun-off Redmi to concentrate on budget devices and now out of the blue, the newly formed brand says that they are working on a flagship smartphone. It is confusing to understand Xiaomi’s strategy unless you look at Huawei and Honor. Xiaomi is literally copying China’s largest smartphone maker to increase their sales figure.
It becomes more perplexed when you take Poco brand (no China availability) into account which was specifically formed for the flagship devices at a cheaper price. It is not known whether this Redmi flagship will make its way to other markets other than China. If it does, then it will surely confuse customers especially those who have knowledge about smartphones.
As Poco already exists in India, Redmi might not bring their flagship but the budget smartphones will continue to flourish starting with Redmi Note 7 sometime later this month.