Xiaomi's Mi 9: Snapdragon 855, 48 MP camera, release date and much more, everything you need to know.

Snapdragon 855, 48 MP camera, release date and much more, everything you need to know.

Xiaomi, the Chinese brand best known for its massive catalog of enticingly priced smartphones and gadgets, is ready to announce its next Mi-series phone, the Mi 9. A picture of how it will look, and its specification, is slowly being built up, and it’s not speculation or rumor either.

CAMERA AND SPECIFICATION

Official details about the Xiaomi Mi 9 continue to be shared. Donovan Sung, Xiaomi’s global spokesperson, has tweeted that the phone will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, which confirms leaks up until this point. Qualcomm says its latest chip gives a 45-percent performance boost over the Snapdragon 845, plus it will drive many major new features for 2019, including 5G. Xiaomi is one of the first manufacturers to announce the inclusion of the new chip, along with OnePlus and Lenovo.

The Mi 9 has three vertically stacked camera lenses on the rear in the top left. Some camera samples sent out by Xiaomi co-founder Wang Chuan via the Weibo social network recently showed one of these lenses will be capable of taking 48-megapixel images, based on the attached watermark. This followed other more covert hints by the company about a future phone with a high 48-megapixel count at the end of 2018.

The 48-megapixel camera may also be another Sony IMX586 sensor, just like that fitted to the Honor View 20. The Mi 9 pictures show the phone without a rear fingerprint sensor, and seeing as the Mi 8 Pro had an in-display fingerprint sensor, we can expect another here. Other leaked specifications include mention of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, a 3,500mAh battery, Android 9 with Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 over the top, and a 6.4-inch OLED screen. These have not been confirmed by Xiaomi at this time.

DESIGN

Xiaomi’s CEO and co-founder Lei Jun used the Weibo social platform in China to share official renders of the phone, despite it not being official yet, and apart from showing us the final design, also reveals some information at the features we should expect too.

Lei Jun writes the Mi 9 will come in at least one stunning color, which has been engineered using a double-layer nano coating on the back of the phone, with nano-scale laser holography to give a metallic shine. The images accompanying the post show a blue model, which in the right light fades through lighter blues and into green. It looks great, and it’s no surprise, as a similar process was used by Honor to achieve the stunning reflective panel on the back of the Honor View 20.

ANNOUNCEMENT AND RELEASE DATE

When will the phone launch? There are two dates being promoted by Xiaomi. The first is February 20, which has been spotted on promotional posters for the phone in China, and also shared by Lei Jun. The other date is February 24, which comes from Xiaomi senior vice president Wang Xiang. He also shared the pictures of the Mi 9 but this time on Twitter, adding that we will find out more details on February 24, a date which corresponds with Mobile World Congress in Spain.

Xiaomi has spent the last year launching its smartphone hardware in Europe, including the U.K., so these two dates may correspond to a Chinese launch followed by an international launch. We’ll keep you informed about the Mi 9 right here.