Xiaomi announces Redmi Pro, enters laptop segment with Mi Notebook Air

Xiaomi has unveiled Redmi Pro, a smartphone with many firsts that redefines the Redmi product line. At the same time, it also announced that it is entering the laptop market with Mi Notebook Air, the company is set to launch both these products soon in the Chinese market.

Xiaomi has sold 110 million Redmi phones across the world in three years, equivalent to 1.2 units sold every second. Redmi Pro, priced from RMB 1499, is Xiaomi's first smartphone featuring dual rear cameras and an OLED display.

Equipped with a flagship-grade Helio X25 processor and a beautiful brushed metal body, Redmi Pro introduces a new higher-end category to the Redmi series that is already widely recognised for its high-quality, reliable phones.

Mi Notebook Air comes in two sizes — 13.3 inches and 12.5 inches — priced at RMB 4999 and RMB 3499 respectively.

Redmi Pro: First dual-camera, OLED Xiaomi phone

Redmi Pro is the first smartphone from Xiaomi to come with dual rear cameras. The main camera uses a 13-megapixel Sony IMX258 sensor, and is supported by a secondary rear camera with a 5-megapixel Samsung sensor.

The dual cameras on Redmi Pro shoot simultaneously and apply hardware-level depth of field processing to create a dynamic and beautiful blurred background, or bokeh, effect commonly found in photos taken on a DSLR.

The two cameras on Redmi Pro work together in real time to calculate the distance of objects in the scene, giving users the ability to select the focus point in photos after a shot is taken, unlike traditional dual-camera systems that typically do so via
software.

The 5.5-inch full-HD OLED display has a contrast ratio of 60,000:1, and can display 100% of the NTSC colour gamut, resulting in extremely vibrant colours that give users a great viewing and gaming experience.

In addition, Redmi Pro is equipped with the high-performance MediaTek Helio X25 processor (the base model comes with Helio X20). With 10 CPU cores that are divided into three clusters, Helio X25 is more efficient at allocating processing power and optimising battery performance.

The Mali-T880 GPU found in the Helio X25 processor offers improved graphics performance that is 180% more powerful than the previous generation, with a corresponding 40% drop in power consumption.

Redmi Pro will be available in China on Mi.com and at Mi Home stores starting 6 August. The 3GB RAM+32GB ROM version will sell for RMB 1499, 3GB RAM+64GB ROM for RMB 1699 and 4GB RAM+128GB ROM for RMB 1999.

Mi Notebook Air

Xiaomi made its first foray into the laptop market today with Mi Notebook Air, which breathes new life into an industry that has traditionally seen users having to choose between performance and design.

High-performance notebooks are typically very bulky while thinner, lightweight notebooks are usually not as powerful. Mi Notebook Air has not compromised on either performance or design — it is a high-performance lightweight notebook perfect for all study, work and entertainment needs. The team behind Mi Notebook Air has on average over 10 years of industry experience.

Mi Notebook Air is manufactured by Inventec and Wistron.
The 13.3-inch Mi Notebook Air comes with a NVIDIA GeForce 940MX dedicated graphics card that delivers a smooth gaming experience with stunning visuals.

Coupled with a 256GB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), Mi Notebook Air offers an incredibly fast user experience even while performing demanding tasks. On top of that, Mi Notebook Air has one free SSD slot that gives users an option to expand its storage.

Mi Notebook Air also comes with Mi Cloud Sync, a feature that allows MIUI users to access their contacts, text messages, photos and notes stored in Mi Cloud directly on Mi Notebook Air.

Mi Notebook Air will be available on Mi.com and Mi Home stores in China starting 2 August.