Xiaomi has officially unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Mi 6. The successor to the popular Mi 5 which was announced over a year ago is naturally one of the most powerful around, powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

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The Mi 6 builds on the company’s work with the Mi 5 and Mi Note 2. It has a similar design language as the Mi 5, but with something Xiaomi calls “four-sided curved glass”, which has a greater curve especially in the corners. The Mi 6 also adds a new dual-camera setup at the back of the device.

Inside, the Xiaomi Mi 6 is powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor paired with 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM; for that reason Xiaomi is christening the Mi 6 as a “performance beast”.

On top of that, the Mi 6 is splash resistant, with rubber rings protecting the SIM card slot. It isn’t, however, water resistant; Xiaomi has not yet revealed the IP rating of the Mi 6. Interestingly, Xiaomi has omitted the 3.5mm audio jack on the Mi 6. The company claims that this is a design decision – the Mi 6 is designed to be symmetrical, and the curved top and bottom was another factor behind the removal.

The Mi 6 packs a rather modest 3,350mAh battery, and has Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 support. Despite the small battery size, Xiaomi claims that the optimisations on MIUI allow for all-day battery life.

As for the camera, the Mi 6 packs a new dual-camera setup, featuring two 12MP sensors with two different focal lengths. Essentially, it is the same setup as the one on the iPhone 7 Plus, with 2x optical zoom as well as Portrait mode.

The 4-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) makes a return on the Mi 6 as well, increasing the dual camera capability in low light and for capturing fast moving subjects.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 will be available in 3 colours (white, blue, and black), and will come in two configurations: 6GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. The smaller storage option will be priced at 2499 Yuan (approximately RM1,600), while the 128GB variant will cost 2899 Yuan (roughly RM1,860).

There is also a Mi 6 Ceramic Edition, which has a body made from ceramic instead of glass. The camera rings are also made from 18K gold. This special edition has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, and will cost 2999 Yuan (roughly RM1,920).

The Xiaomi Mi 6 will be available in China from 28 April 2017. International availability, as always, is currently up in the air – though there is a strong chance this will be made available outside of China.

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