Xiaomi launches their massive 6.44″ Mi Max phablet. Prices start from under RM1,000

Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has released their first ever phablet smartphone — a 6.44-inch behemoth that dwarfs pretty much every other smartphone they have right now. Dubbed simply as the Mi Max, this handset is here to take your MIUI experience to the next level.

Alongside the launch of the company’s new Android skin MIUI 8, the Mi Max is by far the largest smartphone Xiaomi has ever made.

On the front, it packs a massive 6.44-inch full-HD 1080p display. Despite the large display, this smartphone still manages to maintain a thin edge of just 7.55mm. Xiaomi places a lot of emphasis on the fact that you can fit this device in your pocket despite the massive display. So, they’ve made a lot of effort in reducing its footprint and weight, even incorporating a 2.5D curved glass panel to improve grip in hand.

Inside, the device is powered by either a Snapdragon 650 hexa-core or 652 octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. On board storage is also expandable via a MicroSD card.

For optics, the Mi Max gets a 16-megapixel PDAF rear camera and a 5MP front snapper for selfies. Keeping the lights on is a massive 4,850 mAh battery. This smartphone also has support two SIM cards (network speeds up to 4G+/LTE-A) or one SIM and a microSD card via a hybrid SIM slot.

Additionally, the all-metal Mi Max will come with an IR blaster and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor much like the Redmi Note 3.

The smartphone comes in three colours –gold, silver and grey — and will come in three variants:

RMB1,499 — Snapdragon 650 processor + 3GB RAM + 32GB storage (around RM931)
RMB1,699 — Snapdragon 652 processor + 3GB RAM + 64GB storage (around RM1,055)
RMB1,999 — Snapdragon 652 processor + 4GB RAM + 128GB storage (around RM1,242)