UPDATE: Redmi Note 3 goes on sale in Malaysia on 6 April from RM749.
At 12 noon on 29th March, Xiaomi is set to officially launch their highly anticipated smartphone — the Redmi Note 3. However, thanks to a reliable source, Zinggadget got hold of the official price for the new handset, and perhaps to nobody’s surprise, the device is priced below RM1,000.
The media were given a briefing last Thursday (24th March) regarding the device, as well as given some time with the smartphone, but the details for the pricing as well as which variant of the smartphone Xiaomi were bringing into Malaysia were not revealed. Instead, we were told to hang on to our hats and wait for the official launch to find out.
But, in what looks like a dinner of some sort for the potential resellers of the Redmi Note 3, a slide containing the price and a fact sheet for the Malaysian Redmi Note 3 model were leaked. Based on the images posted by Zinggadget, Xiaomi is bringing in the version with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable (up to 32GB via microSD) storage. What’s more, the device looks to be priced at RM849, placing it right in the crosshairs of the honor 5X.
Other specifications include a 5.5-inch full-HD IPS display on the front, with a Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor running on the inside. For optics, the smartphone gets 16-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera with PDAF plus a 5MP front-facing snapper for selfies. Encasing the respectable internals is a full-metal unibody — the first for a Xiaomi device. It’s also sporting Xiaomi’s first ever rear-mounted fingerprint sensor placed right below the camera, as well as a large 4,050 mAh battery.
It will come running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box and yes, this time there might actually be a retail box. In case you didn’t pick up on it earlier, the images look to have come from a retailer’s dinner hosted by Xiaomi which means that they might actually be using physical retail stores to sell their smartphone too — not just online. Besides that, if you look at the bottom right of the spec-sheet image, you’ll see Thorus Technology listed as an authorised reseller.
This is pretty rare for the Chinese company but we believe it could be because the Online market has reached its peak and Xiaomi has hit their saturation point for online sales. Even in China, Xiaomi is working with big retail brands to sell their devices on the shelf so it might not be surprising if they decided to do so here as well.
What do you guys think of this move by Xiaomi? Would you pick up the Redmi Note 3 from a physical store or stick to the online store? And of course, what do you think about the RM849 asking price for the handset?
Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks @KevinNgTK for the tip!
