Xiaomi: Top contender to fill the flagship shaped hole in the market

It all started on May 15, 2019, when Huawei effectively received a death sentence at the hands of the then US President Donald Trump. 

Just as Huawei had made it to Forbes as one of the world's most valuable brands at $8.4 billion, it was added to the Entity List by Trump. Companies on the Entity List are banned from working with US technology companies, to make and sell products. 

For Huawei, this meant that they were no longer allowed to include Google service apps on their phones and they were also going to lose access to Qualcomm's smartphone processors. 

98% of the phones on the planet use either the Android or the iOS operating system and Qualcomm is the only widely acclaimed chip manufacturer with a credible track record. 

More importantly, Qualcomm chips are the only ones capable of consistently churning out flagship performance, so all the premium phone line-ups default to Qualcomm as their chip supplier. 

An untimely demise

The P30 series, Huawei's last flagship before it was added to the Entity List, performed really well globally, raking in a sale of about 20 million units. 

The Mate 30 which came out after the ban however, only managed to sell 12 million units, which is not a small figure by any means. But it dwarfs compared to iPhone sales in the same time, coming in at more than a hundred million units sold. 

While Huawei understandably did not release the figures of the Mate 30's sales outside of China, it can be reasonably assumed that the vast majority of the sales they made were in China, because the rest of the world is embedded deeply into the Google suite of apps. 

Huawei also turned into a key political element in the US-China trade war, which associated buying Huawei with patriotism in China and sticking it to the Americans. It is also why one of the best-selling iPhones ever, performed relatively worse than the Mate 30 in China. 

Given these developments, it seems the international smartphone market suddenly has a vacancy named 'Chinese premium flagship manufacturer', long occupied by Huawei. 

And the most likely competitor for that title has already made the first claim, but only, a claim. 

Mi Mi pick Mi!

brand that aims to replace Huawei, is one we are very familiar with. It is the got-to budget phone option for most people in this part of the world, which happens to be the exact challenge that Xiaomi faces. 

The brand that is primarily known for its inexpensive, good value for money smartphone offerings, now has to be recognised as the premium Chinese smartphone brand. 

Starting March 29, Xiaomi held a two day-long mega launch event where they announced an entire suite of products and even vague corporate terms for their new direction forward. 

As the event was held primarily in Chinese, it was difficult to get too deep into the details, but it is worthwhile to look at some of the offerings and their specs. 

The Mi 11 Ultra

Specifications:
1. Camera: 
Main camera: Triple 50 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/1.12", 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF
Selfie camera: Single    20 MP, f/2.2, 27mm (wide), 1/3.4", 0.8µm
2. Display: Size: 6.81 inches
3. Processor: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888
4. Dimensions and weight: 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4 mm and 234 g
5. Battery: Li-Po 5000 mAh

Any phone from any manufacturer that has ultra in its name, instantly communicates that the company has crammed every flagship feature into this phone including any new technology they could come up with. The Mi 11 Ultra is exactly that. 

It has an almost one inch (8.9 inch) primary image sensor. To put that into perspective, the Sony RX100 has a one-inch sensor, which is just a camera, which does not have a 6.81 inch, 120hz, AMOLED screen to power and it cannot make calls. 

That means it has the world's largest camera sensor in a smartphone, the world's widest field of view wide angle camera, and the world's farthest zoom capability in a smartphone (120x with digital zoom). 

It is priced at around €1200, meaning Xiaomi has very confidently broken that thousand dollar barrier.

The Mi 11i

Specifications:
1. Camera: Front Camera 20MP, Rear Camera 108MP + 8MP + 5MP 
2. Display: Size 6.67 inches
3. Processor: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888
4. Dimensions and weight: 163.7 x 76.4 x 7.8 mm and 196 g
5. Battery: Li-Po 4520 mAh

This phone is what is presumably going to be the best selling phone among the bunch released at the mega launch event. 

It has a 108 megapixel camera (which is starting to become normal now). It has a 'telemacro' camera that supposedly lets you take macro shots from farther away. 

Its microphone has 'audio zoom' that can prioritise sounds at a distance to go along with it. This phone comes in at around €700 which puts it into competition with the iPhones, OnePluses and S21s of the world. The only difference is that it is priced lower than them. 

The Mi Mix Fold

Specifications:
1. Camera: Triple: 108 MP, f/1.8, (wide), 1/1.52", 0.7µm, dual pixel PDAF 8 MP, 80mm (telephoto/macro), liquid lens, PDAF, 3x optical zoom 13 MP, f/2.4, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1.12µm
2. Display: Size: 8.01 inches
3. Processor: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888
4. Dimensions and weight: Unfolded: 173.3 x 133.4 x 7.6 mm, Folded: 173.3 x 69.8 x 17.2 mm, Weight    317 g (Glass), 332 g (Ceramic)
5. Battery: Li-Po 5020 mAh

This device is the only thing in the line-up that can beat out the Mi 11 Ultra in terms of over-the-top features. 

First of all, the device folds, while that does not sound very fresh anymore, most of us have not witnessed this marvel of engineering first hand. 

Beyond that, the Mi Mix fold has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. It has a 6.52 inch external display, which is unheard of with foldables and almost challenges the need for a folded display in the first place. 

For lack of a better (more extreme) term, the camera module is cutting-edge. 

It features a telephoto lens filled with liquid that can be stretched or contracted using an actuator to allow the camera to have a 3x optical zoom and 3cm macro capabilities in the same lens. 

It also has a dedicated Surge C1 chip for image processing. 

Gearing up, literally

Xiaomi has managed an incredible show of might with its mega launch event and it is not a surprise that it has happened soon after their rival Chinese manufacturer can be seen toppling in slow motion. 

Xiaomi even partnered with Harmon Kardon for the speakers in their latest line of phones. Partnerships like that is hardly Xiaomi's thing. 

Decisions like this along with the products announced make it more or less clear that Xiaomi is vying for the big leagues. 

It is making some big promises, but it all hinges on whether the products deliver on them. Because if they do, there is not much that can get in their way.