Two mysterious Xiaomi phones pop up on TENAA

Is it just us, or has naming in the mobile realm really gone downhill lately? We are far from the idea that Xiaomi is the only OEM guilty on this account, but one look at the Redmi announcements over the past couple of years is surely enough to confuse even the most loyal of fans and experts out there. At least it is less of a mess over in the higher end Mi section, but we still find ourselves struggling to decipher exactly what we are looking at from time to time anyway.

That being said, while digging through TENAA's website, we stumbled upon not one, not two, well, technically two to be fair, unfamiliar devices. The three listings in question are linked as sources below, so you can check them out for yourself, but two of them do seem to be identical, so we are looking at two devices.

Xiaomi Redmi 4

OK, at least the counting part appears to be covered with a certain degree of confidence, so moving on. Starting with a device that is labeled "2016090". At first glance it appears to be the eagerly-anticipated Redmi 4 and it might very well be. However, referring back to a leak from yesterday of what was claimed to be the Redmi 4 as well, the backs don't exactly match up.

Nor do the specs for that matter. Yesterday's info hinted at a 1080p panel, while this new device appears to stick with 720p resolution. Other than that, both phones are reported as having a 5-inch LCD display, 4,000 mAh battery, undisclosed octa-core CPUs and furthermore, the rest of their design, including shape and button placement seems to match up.

Xiaomi Redmi 4

It is thus quite possible that one of said units is actually a higher-specked version of the Redmi 4. Something along the lines of a "Pro" or an "S" trim, which are already plentiful in the Redmi realm. Our guess is that the older of the two is also the better equipped, since it appears to have a dual-LED flash, as well as 3GB of RAM, while the other gets 2GB.

If we assume that this is the case and that the models will share a body, then TENAA's measurements of 141.3 x 69.6 x 8.9 mm, weight of 153 grams and color option including Gray, Silver and Gold might be worth noting as well.

Moving on to the other phone, we have an arguably even bigger mystery on our hands. There is not much to be said about the black front panel, but the lack of a Mi logo in the corner is typically indicative of a lower-end Redmi device. The back is what really puzzles us, as we haven't really seen such a design. The relatively small camera up in the corner is quite reminiscent of the Redmi 3 and all its siblings. However, the antenna band goes straight through it. As for the second antenna band on the bottom, it also has an odd positioning below the speaker grill, when it is typically the other way around.

Unknown Xiaomi device

Specs-wise, we are looking at another 5-inch smartphone with a 720p LCD panel. It measures 139.9 x 70.4 x 8.5 mm and weighs 140 grams. Underneath the hood is another non-disclosed chipset, this time quad-core, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable on-board storage.

Unknown Xiaomi device

If by any change you manage to spot something we missed that would help us identify these devices, be sure to let us know.

Source 1 (in Chinese) | Source 2 (in Chinese) | Source 3 (in Chinese)