Xiaomi unleashes the Mi-3, you pick Tegra 4 or Snapdragon 800

Xiaomi has revealed its MiPhone 3 (or just Mi-3) at a product event in Beijing today, just as previously expected.
As recent rumors suggested, the device is powered by either a Tegra 4 with four Cortex-A15 cores (for China Mobile) or a Snapdragon 800 with four Krait 400 cores at 2.2 GHz each (for China Unicom).
The Xiaomi Mi-3 will cost RMB1999 ($327) for the 16 gig model and RMB2499 ($408) for the 64 GB. The device will go on sale in China in October, after which it will start selling across Hong Kong and Taiwan. No word about the rest of the world, though.

The Xiaomi Mi-3
The device is very slender at 144mm×72mm×8.1mm and weighs only 145 g, has a 5" 1080p IPS dislay, Android 4.2.1 skinned with MIUI v5 and covers imaging needs with 13 MP and 2 MP cameras.
We've seen previously seen a pre-release Mi-3 with a Snapdragon 800 do really well on AnTuTu.
Here's the promo video of the Mi-3.

In case you have missed it, Xiaomi is the Chinese manufacturer that poached Google's VP for Android, Hugo Barra. He has already taken up his duties as a VP of Xiaomi Global this week and attended today's launch event. Here's a picture of him all happy in China.

Xiaomi Announces the MI3 - Tegra 4 and MSM8974AB inside
by Brian Klug on September 5, 2013 2:58 AM EST

Xiaomi has been making some interesting news lately, first with the abrupt transition of Hugo Barra from Google to Xiaomi, now with the announcement of their latest high end smartphone, the MI3, at their New Product Convention 2013 event. What was interesting about the MI2 announcement last year was that it was one of the first to include Qualcomm's quad core APQ8064 SoC inside, and Xiaomi has included Qualcomm SoCs since the MI1 (MSM8660). I still remember my first experiences with the Xiaomi MI1 and the value prospect that the device made me realize existed with the right set of conditions, and how impressed I was with that hardware. With the MI3 Xiaomi goes to variants based on both Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974AB) and NVIDIA's Tegra 4 platform.

The WCDMA (China Unicom) and CDMA2000 (China Telecom) variants of the MI3 come based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 MSM8974AB platform, while the TD-SCDMA (China Mobile) variant is based on NVIDIA's Tegra 4 platform.

Xiaomi makes the first (to my knowledge) public disclosure of MSM8974AB, which is analogous to the changes we saw between APQ8064 and APQ8064AB. From 8974 to 8974AB, Adreno 330 GPU clocks climb from 450 MHz to 550 MHz, LPDDR3 memory interface maximum data rates go from 800 MHz to 933 MHz, and the ISP clock domain (I think Xiaomi might mean the Hexagon DSP here) goes from 320 MHz to 465 MHz. 8974 comes in both a bin with the 4 Krait 400 CPUs clocked at 2.2 GHz (really 2.15 GHz) and 2.3 GHz (2.26 GHz) with slightly different pricing, while 8974AB comes with a Krait 400 clock available only at 2.3 GHz. Process is still TSMC 28nm HPM, but I suspect that the AB variant might have the high k dielectric and/or transistor mix tuned slightly differently based on a few rumblings I've heard recently.

It's safe to say that Tegra 4 hasn't been the overwhelming success that NVIDIA had hoped for, nor able to continue the momentum that Tegra 3 built, so winning a slot with Xiaomi MI3 is a relatively big deal, even if Xiaomi's slice of the Chinese market isn't very large yet. The TD-SCDMA variant includes Tegra 4's 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex A15 4+1 architecture with 72 core GeForce GPU built on TSMC 28nm HPL. We've written a lot about Tegra 4, and got a chance to look at performance in the NVIDIA Shield review and came away impressed with performance in that platform. Of course the real interesting question is how Tegra 4 will perform in platform with smaller TDP and available platform power. Xiaomi claims relatively similar performance between Tegra 4 and 8974AB variants in a few system benchmarks as well. If we get the chance the MI3 might make for an interesting vehicle to compare the two SoCs in almost the same platform.

I'm not sure whether the MI3 uses the discrete Icera i500 modem for TD-SCDMA. i500 is fully TD-SCDMA enabled, so there's no reason that NVIDIA couldn't have won the entire platform slot, but I haven't confirmed it yet. Update: We've confirmed that the MI3 isn't using the i500 modem.

Either way Xiaomi is an increasingly interesting player in the Chinese market and always seems to make SoC choices that interest us.

Xiaomi MiPhone 3 will come with either Tegra or Snapdragon processors
by Aloysius Low | 5 September 2013 3:37pm SGT
Xiaomi's latest Android handset, the Xiaomi MiPhone 3, will come in two flavors. Buyers can choose to either get the Nvidia Tegra 4 model, which sports a quad-core 1.8GHz Cortex A15 processor, or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz.

Most of the other specs are the same for both models, such as the amount of RAM (2GB), internal storage (16GB) as well as a large 3,050mAh battery. The Xiaomi MiPhone 3 will sport a 5-inch full-HD IPS display with a pixels-per-inch count of 441ppi.

Xiaomi is also boasting that the phone takes really good pictures with its 13-megapixel camera. The camera uses a Sony sensor and sports an F2.2 aperture, a wide angle of 28mm and a five element lens setup. It will also pack a dual-LED flash.

The Weibo account of the company posted a picture of image samples with very impressive looking shots that you can see below.

The Nvidia-based Xiaomi MiPhone 3 is set to launch with a price of 1,999 Chinese Yuan (US$326). The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 version is set to debut with China Unicom and China Telecom while the Nvidia Tegra 4 model will launch with China Mobile. It will go on sale starting September 9 in China.

Xiaomi unveils new Android-powered 5-inch MI3, 47-inch smart TV in China HD
By Richard Lawler posted Sep 5th, 2013 at 3:23 AM 66

We've had early previews thanks to leaks, but Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi -- more recently known as the new home of former Google exec Hugo Barra -- just took the wraps off of a new flagship Android phone and smart TV. The MI3 candy bar phone is available with either a 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor (on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network) or Snapdragon 800 CPU (the more powerful MSM8974AB variant; on China Unicom's WCDMA network and China Telecom's CDMA2000 network) that provide a 40 percent performance boost over the MI2S. It also sports a 5-inch 1080p IPS LCD built by Sharp or LG with "ultra sensitive touch" that works even when the user has wet hands or has gloves on.

Seeing how its local competitors are putting emphasis on the audio performance, Xiaomi pointed out that the MI3 features the Cirrus Logic CS42L73 DAC chip, which is apparently what the iPhone uses. Another surprise is that there's also Immersion haptic feedback, which adds some rumbling fun to games and certain UI elements. As for the cameras, the backside has a 13MP Sony IMX135 sensor with an F2.2 sapphire lens and dual LED, while the front side has a less exciting but adequate 2MP camera. Interestingly, MIUI's latest camera app will support RAW capture, as well as smart beautification by identifying the gender and age of the subjects in a shot.

Other bits of the phone include 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 16GB for storage (with a nice 120MB/s read speed), dual-band WiFi and NFC. Given the 8.1mm body thickness, the 3,050mAh battery is quite impressive (and the included charger provides fast charging with a 2A current), but only time will tell how well it lasts under those beastly processors. As for the price, the phone runs CN¥1,999 (US$330) for the 16GB version and CN¥2,499 ($410) for the 64GB, though only the China Mobile version (Tegra 4) has a mid-October date.
Following the announcement of the MI3, CEO Lei Jun also decided to keep the 32GB MI2S (with Snapdragon 600) at a reduced price of CN¥1,799 (US$290), which is quite a drop from the original CN¥2,299 (US$380).

Xiaomi unveils new Androidpowered 5inch MI3, 47inch smart TV in China

Moving on, we have the 47-inch 3D-capable Xiaomi TV which is assembled by Wistron (who apparently also makes TVs for Sony), and it'll come in six colors for the aluminium faceplate. The body boasts an 8.4mm bezel plus 2mm to 4.8cm thickness thanks to LG's IPS and Samsung's SVA panels. Like the Xiaomi Box, the TV also runs the company's MIUI flavor of Android, supported by a quad-core Snapdragon 600 with 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. It even claims an "easy to use" remote with 11 buttons and Bluetooth. Shockingly, the TV will cost just CN¥2,999 (US$490) when it arrives in mid-October.
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