Weeks ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, Xiaomi is rumoured to be in the development of the Mi MIX 2S. The new Mi MIX model, which is likely to be an upgrade of the last year's Mi MIX 2, is already reported to be the offering that could debut from Xiaomi's side at the forthcoming MWC in Barcelona. However, a new report from China claims that the handset will also be the first model by the company to come with a Snapdragon 845 SoC. Xiaomi and Qualcomm announced their partnership on the Snapdragon 845 last month, and the first Xiaomi smartphone to feature the new processor was initially expected to be the Mi 7, the new flagship that is not likely to debut at MWC 2018.

As per the latest report by Chinese blog IT168, the upcoming Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S won't just be the company's first but also the world's first smartphone with a Snapdragon 845 SoC. The new model is also said to feature an upgraded camera over the one available on the Mi MIX 2, which was launched back in last September. Particularly, the Chinese source claims that Xiaomi will be using tge new Sony IMX363 camera sensor that will be equipped with a dual-pixel autofocus technology to deliver enhanced night image results.

Alongside the new camera setup, the Mi MIX 2S is rumoured to have a design similar to the iPhone X. This means we can expect a notch on the front, though the new model is likely to retain the original bezel-less design pattern that was highly praised on the Mi MIX in 2016. Also, the Snapdragon 845 is already claimed to have an on-device artificial intelligence (AI) functionality that could result in features such as facial recognition on the new Mi MIX model.

As far as the price of the Mi MIX 2S is concerned, some past reports suggested that the smartphone would go on sale in China at CNY 4,000 (approximately Rs. 40,200). It is speculated to hit stores in the country sometime in March - after an initial showcase at MWC 2018.

It would be interesting to see how Xiaomi would manage to get the title of launching the world's first Snapdragon 845 processor-backed smartphone as companies such as Samsung and Sony are in the list of few initial vendors to use the same SoC on their upcoming flagships. Moreover, the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+ are expected to come with the same top-end Snapdragon processor in the US market.