The Xiaomi ‘Red Rice’ has been popping up online for months now, but it finally looks like the budget Android phone will be making an appearance.
Xiaomi customers in China have found evidence that their favourite phone brand will be launching the legendary ‘Red Rice’ via the labelling on certain accessories. Customers buying separate chargers for the Xiaomi M2a phones have found that the labels mention the ‘Red Rice’ phone (小米 = small red).
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Xiaomi have yet to confirm the new phone, however sources close to the Beijing based company claim the entry-level Xiaomi will cost just 799 Yuan ($130) and will come equipped with a 1.2Ghz dual-core Cortex A9 CPU, 4.7-inch display, 8 mega-pixel camera and MIUI V5. There are also rumours of a Mediatek powered model version too, but it is not clear which processor would be used.
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I’m actually hoping that they use the Leadercore processor. MediaTek’s MTK6577 is not really great anymore, and if Xiaomi can do they’re usual software upgrading magic, they could possibly have a winner.
I seriously doubt leadercore is better than mtk. MTK6577 is using 40 nm, same as leadercore, leadercore is stil unknown to the market, and from comments it is most likely a licenced SoC what they are using, with the disadvantage that phone would only work in china. Imo for low budget phone they should aim mtk.
They could also use mtk6583, dual core, 28 nm process, decent GPU and most likely budget SoC. However if they decide selling leadercore it would be 100% aimed to be marketed within china with no chance whatsoever to use it in other country, not even with 2g.
小米 is not “red rice”, it’s “millet” (xiaomi) as in the name of the company. 红米 is “red rice”.
Leadercore = highly integrated TD-SCDMA radio = aimed at China Mobile 3G customers = limited to no appeal outside China.
As the article says “(小米 = small red)”