Cheaper, plastic-clad Xiaomi Mi4i to be unveiled on April 23

On April 23 Xiaomi is holding an event in New Delhi during which it's going to unveil a "Global Mi Phone". This is according to the Chinese company itself, which has already started to tease its upcoming offering.

Some rumors have claimed we'd see the Redmi Note 2 getting official on this occasion, but another source now tells us it will be all about the Mi4i. This makes sense when you look back at those teasers we told you about earlier today, and see the prominent use of the lowercase "i" in them.

The Mi4i is supposedly going to be a cheaper version of the Mi4, Xiaomi's flagship from last year. To keep the price down, the Mi4i will reportedly have a plastic construction, unlike the original handset which opted for metal and glass.

Also, some specs will be downgraded as you may have imagined. The touchscreen should still be a 5-inch 1080p panel, but the chipset is expected to be Qualcomm's midrange Snapdragon 615 (with octa-core CPU) instead of the Snapdragon 801.

The Mi4i will have 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13 MP rear camera, and a 5 MP selfie shooter. Dual-SIM dual-standby support will be baked in, as will be many more LTE bands than what we saw in the original Mi4. This is going to make the Mi4i more interesting for more markets, naturally.

The price of this handset is said to be close to CNY 1,300, which right now is $209 or €195. On the other hand, another source says it may go down to as little as $161, though that's slightly less plausible given the specs. Whatever the case, we'll find out for sure this Thursday.

Source (in Chinese) | Via