Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi is coming to South Africa during 22-28 November, and will launch two devices through distributor MIA Group.

Mobile In Africa (MIA) Group was established out of the Core Group, which is the official distributor for Apple products in South Africa.

While MIA Group president RJ van Spaandonk remains a director of Core Group, he has left his role as executive director of the Apple distributor to lead the new company.

The two companies will function separately, he said, sharing only back-office infrastructure such as warehousing.

MIA Group’s main carrier partner at launch will be MTN, as its most affordable device, the Redmi 2, is a dual-SIM LTE smartphone.

MTN and Vodacom have historically been averse to stocking dual-SIM devices, although MTN recently launched the dual-SIM variant of the Huawei Mate S on its network.

MIA Group will also distribute Xiaomi smartphones through retailers such as Makro, Game, and Dion Wired.

The Redmi 2 will have a recommended retail price of around R2,000, while the Mi 4 will sell for around R4,000.

Specifications of the two devices are summarised in the table below.

Specifications Redmi 2 Mi 4 Dimensions 134 x 67.2 x 9.4 mm 139.2 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm Weight 133g 149g Operating system Android 4.4 KitKat with MIUI Android 4.4 KitKat with MIUI Display 4.7″ 720p (720 x 1280) 5″ 1080p (1080 x 1920) Rear camera 8MP 13MP Front camera 2MP 8MP Storage, internal 8GB 16GB Storage, expandable microSD No RAM 1GB 3GB Processor 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC) Graphics Adreno 306 Adreno 330 Battery 2,200mAh (removable) 3,080mAh Cellular data LTE HSPA+ SIM type Dual-SIM Single-SIM RRP R1,999 R3,999

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