Xiaomi's Mi flagships have always offered great value for money, and that was the case last year with the Mi 6. The phone managed to undercut rivals by a few hundred dollars while still offering a similar user experience. Xiaomi isn't looking to change the formula this year, with the Mi 7 also expected to feature top-of-the-line hardware and a price tag under $500.

The Mi 7 will be powered by the Snapdragon 845

Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 845 platform back in December, touting significant improvements across the board. Qualcomm is heavily relying on AI for its Hexagon digital signal processor, and is claiming a 10-20% bump in performance from the Kryo 385 CPU and a 30% boost for the Adreno 630 GPU. Xiaomi has always been one of the first manufacturers to roll out phones featuring Qualcomm's latest hardware, and that tradition will continue this year. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun was on hand at Qualcomm's annual tech conference last month to announce that the Mi 7 will be the first phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 845. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines Cameras will be the differentiator

Xiaomi's focus in 2018 is going to be on the camera segment. The manufacturer prioritized battery life last year, leading to devices like the Redmi Note 4 and Mi A1, which could easily last two days on a full charge. We don't have any details on what Xiaomi has in store, but it should certainly be interesting. The company switched to a dual camera configuration with the Mi 6, and that's likely to remain unchanged this year. Whether we'll see a telephoto lens as the secondary shooter remains to be seen. It will have an 18:9 Samsung-made display