[Update 2: Redmi K20 to launch on May 28th] Xiaomi’s Redmi flagship smartphone will have a pop-up selfie camera

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Update 1 (5/14/19 @ 11:00 AM IST): Redmi’s official Weibo account confirmed that the smartphone will be called K20.

Update 2 (5/20/19 @ 11:45 AM IST): Redmi’s official Weibo account has confirmed Redmi K20 will be launching in May 28.

Xiaomi’s Redmi is traditionally associated with smartphones aimed at the entry-level and budget segments. Redmi’s enormous success, individual identity, and higher popularity than the Mi brand prompted Xiaomi to spin it off as a separate brand. In spite of Redmi’s initial plans to focus on budget smartphones, we have been hearing speculations about at the inception of a flagship series under the Redmi brand. These flagships are expected to powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, feature pop-up selfie cameras, and likely to arrive in India.

We recently gained some cues about Xiaomi’s plans to launch these two flagships with mechanical pop-up selfie cameras. The two alleged devices code-named “davinci” and “raphael” have been swanked multiple times on the Chinese micro-blogging website Weibo but we have refrained from trusting these leaks due to scarce reliability. But now, Redmi itself has shared a glimpse of its upcoming flagship series that will feature a pop-up camera, although without sharing any other information about these smartphone(s).

In the video clip shared on Weibo, the Redmi branding and some of its latest smartphones including the likes of the Redmi Note 7 and the Redmi 7 series are shown in juxtaposition with snippets from the latest Marvels’ movie – Avengers: Endgame. The video ends with an outline of the company’s next flagship with a pop-up camera. Additionally, there is a clear emphasis on speed and performance, and Redmi is not flinching from actually using the word “flagship.” However, that’s all we know about the upcoming Redmi device in terms of the specifications.

In terms of pricing, we can expect this smartphone to be projected as an affordable flagship priced below tradition Xiaomi flagships like the Mi 9. While it is too tempting to believe that the POCO F2 could borrow some of the features from the teased Redmi device, we cannot say so with confidence. One thing to note is that the pop-up camera should be placed a little towards the left side of the upper edge and not along the center, as shown in the series of unverified leaks in the past.

Meanwhile, brands like Realme and OnePlus are also believed to be working on their own versions of pop-up selfie cameras for their upcoming smartphones and it will be exciting to see which company manages to make the best out of this form factor, which was somewhat limited to brands like Vivo until last year.

Update: Redmi names the flagship K20

Taking to Weibo, Redmi’s official handle confirmed that its flagship will be called Redmi K20. The company’s CEO Lu Weibing said that ‘K’ in the performance-oriented flagship’s name stands for Killer. According to Google Translate, he hailed the smartphone as a flagship killer – a title previously accorded to OnePlus smartphones.

Source 1: Weibo Source 2: Weibo

Update 2: Redmi K20 will launch on May 28

The announcement about the K20’s launch comes from Redmi’s official handle. Based on a poster shared, the “flagship killer” will be launched in China on May 28th at 2 PM. The company also confirmed in earlier posts that the smartphone will be powered by Snapdragon 855 mobile platform and feature a Sony IMX586 48MP sensor.

Besides in China, the flagship was also teased by the team in India as a response to the surprising OnePlus 7 pricing, suggesting that it could be launched in the country. While there are speculations that the K20 might launch as a POCO F2, we don’t have any information that might confirm it yet.