Xiaomi Mi 4i to get a Snapdragon 808 refresh?


It’s a known fact that the Snapdragon 615 powered Xiaomi Mi 4i isn’t the fastest (or coolest) phone to have released this year. Xiaomi seem to release that, and are reportedly planning a switch to another SoC for the phone.

What we’ve known as the Xiaomi Libra might soon be sold under the Mi 4i brand. If you aren’t aware, a Snapdragon 808 powered phone was spotted at a benchmarks database recently. Besides the hexa-core CPU, codename Libra also features 2GB of RAM.

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That only points to one thing, and that is the fact that the device will be a mid-ranger… and Xiaomi aren’t known to kill their own products with new launches sooner than buyers would expect, so its highly likely that the Snapdragon 808 powered Libra will be the new face of the Xiaomi Mi 4i.

Besides the processor, the Xiaomi Mi 4i is known to be a top device with a better than average build and a display worth dying for. A cooler, better performing SoC is the only thing that could make the Mi 4i even worthier.

Please note nothing’s official as of yet. We do believe this will be the new Mi 4i though, but stay tuned for more official news nonetheless.

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59 Comments

  1. balcobomber25
    July 14, 2015

    Unless it is the successor to the Mi4i, and they will launch a Mi5 with SD 820 and Mi5i with SD 808 together. This is around the time we should be hearing rumors of the Mi5.

    • jolu
      July 14, 2015

      Yea, i think focusing in Mi5 and perhaps even a Mi5i is a better choice then trying to clear the Mi4i of its name ‘fail’. I have tried the Mi4i. It runs okay, not even as bad as some say.

      • balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015

        Yea I tried it last month in Malaysia and it ran no hotter than my Mi4 which I had side by side with it. Except when I tried to play Asphalt 8 on it then it really heated up.

    • MaxPower
      July 14, 2015

      better wait for the real deal rather than settle with a refreshed SD810

  2. Atomicrus
    July 14, 2015

    Xiaomi couldn’t beat the heat? If It is so, most of the 615 SoC owners could be pissed off.
    Still waiting for my Mi4i to be shipped to me. But almost don’t want it anymore, unfortunately bought it for my wife, but reading so much articles of firmware and SoC problems i come to a mind of mi4i is a fail model. Trust no more to Xiaomi.

    • balcobomber25
      July 14, 2015

      Its actually not as bad as it is made out to be. If you dont play a lot of intensive games it produces no more heat than any other phone running MIUI (which itself runs hot to begin with).

    • Airyl
      July 14, 2015

      I don’t really think it’s that bad of a problem. Unless you’re a gamer (in which case you shouldn’t even be looking at a Snapdragon 615) then the device should be just fine.

    • MaxPower
      July 14, 2015

      Qualcomm screwed up, i don’t think Xiaomi has many responsibilities.

      As a business Xiaomi is actually losing money and market share due to Qualcomm’s
      horrendous year.

      they are trying to see if it can be fixed software-side but the problem seems to be in the hardware.

      Other companies are still dealing with the first version of SD615 which is even worse than the one used by Xiaomi.

      • Muhammad Yasir
        July 14, 2015

        maybe now is the time to go back to MTK ?

        • MaxPower
          July 14, 2015

          that would be great

        • balcobomber25
          July 14, 2015

          I would actually rather see them go to Samsung. The Exnyos line is incredible.

          • MaxPower
            July 14, 2015

            hehe, i thought you hate your wife’s phone. let me guess… you hated the price!

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              No Samsung makes amazing phones and I dont mind paying for the quality. What I despise is Touchwhiz. I think it is the worst UI in the world. I can’t even describe my hatred for it lol.

          • Muhammad Yasir
            July 15, 2015

            is it cheaper than MTK chips ?
            tell me more about which company would be cheaper in bulk ….

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Without knowing cost per unit prices which can vary from company to company if I had to guess I would say:

              Leadcore (Xiaomi)
              Mediatek
              Samsung
              Kirin (Huawei)
              Qualcomm

              But again this is just a guess.

            • Muhammad Yasir
              July 15, 2015

              ofcourse MTK is the obvious winner … but i guess samsung has a fair chance too…

              look at that Qualcomm stove at teh bottom tho :p

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Qualcomm is known for giving different prices to different companies. So for a company like Xiaomi who buys millions of chips from them it might actually be cheaper than to use MTK.

            • Muhammad Yasir
              July 15, 2015

              hmm …
              but in that case , MTK should be even cheaper (the cheapest ever??) for companies that buy from them (iocean, siswoo, blackview,meizu , elephone , umi and names that could go on and on ) ?

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Again we would need the actual per cost units to really know. And it varies between chips. For istance there probably isn’t a huge difference in price between the SD410 and MTK6753, both budget SoC’s.

        • Paap Mrittu
          July 14, 2015

          As Meizu has invested on Mediatek, there is a strong possibility that Xiaomi has to find another source for soc other than Mideatek.

      • balcobomber25
        July 14, 2015

        Well Xioami could have used MTK or Samsung SoC’s so they aren’t entirely balmeless here.

        • MaxPower
          July 14, 2015

          i didn’t say they have no responsibility :-p look, I’ve been cautious here.

          anyway, we don’t know the whole story and we can only assume what’s going on.

          who knows, maybe there are deals between manufacturers and suppliers that might prevent Xiaomi to go for Samsung for example? (just assuming here)

          MTK…i don’t know what happened back in time, but since you have bought Leadcore it might not be a viable option anymore (sigh)

          again, i don’t know the deal.
          Let’s say that they might have had options and they chose to go for SD, so yes, they had responsibilities on it, but still the bigger blame goes on Qualcomm IMO

          • balcobomber25
            July 14, 2015

            I am more than willing to bet there are deals between suppliers. And with all the negative press Qualcomm has to be paying a pretty penny to get these companies to stick with them.

            But my loyalty to Xiaomi ended the day I won a Meizu lol!

            • MaxPower
              July 14, 2015

              you don’t want to lose Qualcomm only for a bad year don’t you? 🙂

              i don’t remember where, but i read that,according to Hugo Barra, Xiaomi is the 3rd biggest Qualcomm’s customer.

              I’m assuming that this might mean something when you do a balance.

              Its pretty realistic assuming than Xiaomi will pay the SD820 less than what XiaoloJiao would pay (with all due respect for XiaoloJiao).

              when you have a special deal and buy millions of units the price has to be different.

              with this scenario i understand why they didn’t try a different road.
              They tried with a 2nd version of SD615, they released the source hoping some developer would find a fix.

              I’m trying to open different scenarios before saying that they suck, they have been affected economically as well.

            • balcobomber25
              July 14, 2015

              In all honest I could never abandon Xiaomi, I am just sick of their games (only releasing white phones at first, limited stock etc). But their products are top notch and their support is unheard of not just for China but all smartphones. I am waiting on a new Mi Pad, I need a new tablet (still use original Nexus 7!).

              As for Qualcomm, I caved in and bought a Windows Phone, a Blu Win HD LTE with a SD 410. Surprisingly it runs incredibly smooth and fast with WP8.1. Gonna be my new work phone. I think Qualcomms just wasnt prepared for 64 bit but the SD 820 will establish them once again as the kings. MTK is gaining serious ground though.

              I believe Xiaomi is one of their biggest customers. Think about it, they are one of the top 5 manufacturers in the world. The other ones are Apple, Samsung and Huawei all which make their own chips.

            • MaxPower
              July 14, 2015

              couldn’t agree more.
              the competition is there, they provide good quality phones with a good price as well.
              Mediatek is growing like crazy.
              today i would totally go for the Meizu MX5.

              i know they are attent to details to make money but they might lose a customer like me simply for not providing a black phone. silly isn’t it?

            • balcobomber25
              July 14, 2015

              Personally I am sick of black and white phones. One of the reasons I love the MX5 is because it offers Grey. But my favorite is the Moto X which gives you a choice of 25+ colors.

            • MaxPower
              July 14, 2015

              i don’t mind the grey version,i simply can’t stand the white

            • MaxPower
              July 14, 2015

              i think they are the 3rd counting samsung and apple as first and second.

              i hope I’m not saying a BS here, im at the park with my son and i can’t check it, so please someone correct me if I’m saying something stupid.

              i heard that the first customer is supposed to be Apple because Qualcomm provides them the chip for radio connectivity (gsm or lte modem).

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Yea Qualcomm offers many different products to these companies, modems is what they were originally known for. I was just talking about SoC sales but yea they also supply sound chips, charging ports, Bluetooth, even displays and software (through subsidiaries of theirs).

              As for the top 3 it fluctuates so much from quarter to quarter between Samsung and Apple vying for 1-2 and Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei vying for 3-4-5.

    • King
      July 14, 2015

      My friends have it. They use it mainly for taking pictures. They love it. The storage could have been bigger though they say.

    • Muhammad Yasir
      July 14, 2015

      ” unfortunately bought it for my wife ”
      May she have mercy on you 😀

  3. Guaire
    July 14, 2015

    That’s coming from a Chinese analyst. He suggested Xiaomi going to release Mi4i in China with the SD808 some time ago. Later it passed through TENAA with the SD615.

    Mi4i has a good base. Swap the SD615 with the SD808 and add 1GB RAM more and set the price to 240$. They can’t keep up with the demand.

    But it would cannibalize Mi4’s sales.

    • balcobomber25
      July 14, 2015

      They cant keep up with the demand now for the Mi4i. Even with the lower specs.

      • Guaire
        July 14, 2015

        I don’t think so. Open sales implies they can’t sell out it via flash sales.

        • balcobomber25
          July 14, 2015

          This is Xiaomis model, it has been for years now. They start with flash sales for the first few months when prices of components are high and then when the prices come down they have open sales. It’s how they make money, it’s similar to OPO’s invite system just with less restrictions.

          • Guaire
            July 14, 2015

            Open sales indicates now their supply is more than enough to meet the demand with a margin. If they couldn’t keep up with the demand, it would sell out regardless of what they call it.

            • balcobomber25
              July 14, 2015

              And it will sell out, watch how fast this “open sale” lasts. It will be sold out in a matter of days if not minutes, just like every flash sale has been sold in seconds.

            • Guaire
              July 14, 2015

              Definition comes from speed of the sales. They can say it’s on open sale, but if its sold out in minutes or hours it will end up as a flash sale.

              They can say it’s going to be a flash sale, but if it take days it couldn’t be defined as a flash sale.

              Right now it’s still available.

            • balcobomber25
              July 14, 2015

              Now your just arguing for the sake of arguing, shocking coming from you. A Flash sale is a limited timed sale usually available on only one site (flipkart usually) where they have limited stock available. An open sale means you can buy it from a number of resellers and there is significant stock. It doesn’t matter how fast it sells out. When One Plus started their non invite sales (same as an open sale) it sold out in a matter of days and is still hard to get. That is not a flash sale it is a very good open sale.

            • Guaire
              July 14, 2015

              Flash sales are limited, but with quantity not with time. I didn’t made up that explanation.

              https://www.techinasia.com/lei-jun-explains-xiaomis-sellingthroughscarcity-sales-tactic/

            • balcobomber25
              July 14, 2015

              According to the Cambridge Business Dictionary here is the definition of flash sale:

              a very short period of time when a store sellsproducts at much lower prices than usual:A reduction in consumer spending has caused some stores to holdoccasional flash sales, lasting just one day.

              According to Wikipedia it redirects to this:

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal_of_the_day

              Flipkarts flash sales are intended to last anywhere from a few hours to 24 hours. But most run out of stock in under a minute.

            • Guaire
              July 14, 2015

              So that’s what I’m saying or trying to say it.

              Xiaomi doesn’t limited its sales with a period of time. They prepare a batch in limited quantity and when demand is overwhelming it sell out in seconds or minutes, worst case in hours. If that’s the case regardless of their intention it can be considered as a flash sale.

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              A flash sale is an actual sale. You don’t seem to understand that. It’s something they announce before the sale starts. “Xiaomi will hold a flash sale on X date, with X amount of units. The sale will start at 2pm and end at 4pm or until all units are gone”.

            • Guaire
              July 15, 2015

              “Are you excited? We sure are! 40,000 sets of Mi 4i will be available at
              2PM today. Inform all your friends & don’t forget to get your Mi 4i
              later!!”

              This coming from Mi India Facebook page. There is no mention of any time limit. Guess what, it sold out in 15 seconds.

              BTW Mi4i is still available, more than after 24 hours from beginning of the open sales.

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Again arguing just to argue. It is still available which means one of two things, it isn’t selling or they have a ton of stock because prices for components came down. Without sales figures we have no clue which is correct.

            • Guaire
              July 15, 2015

              Again that was my point from the beginning. Either way they are keeping up with the demand right now.

            • balcobomber25
              July 15, 2015

              Your point from the beginning was flash sales have a specific definition, which given we both provided multiple different ones its clear there is no specific definition. Your other point was the Mi4i hasnt been selling well, which without actual sales numbers is more of your usual Xiaomi trolling.

            • Guaire
              July 15, 2015

              Nope. I have expressed my opinion about that if they are going to release a Mi4i variant with the SD808, they can’t keep up with the demand in that case it will come up 3GB RAM and $240 price tag. After your first comment I said that “Open sales implies they can’t sell out it via flash sales.”

              This means either way they are keeping up with the demand, not necessarily it sales going bad.

  4. Muhammad Yasir
    July 14, 2015

    ” Xiaomi aren’t known to kill their own products with new launches sooner than buyers would expect ”

    AHAHHA ! classic shot at Elephone 😀 !

    • Sergiu
      July 15, 2015

      Hello,
      Does anyone of you know how I can find a blue Gionee elife E7?

      • Muhammad Yasir
        July 15, 2015

        search reseller sites ?

      • Rob
        July 15, 2015

        There are 3 sellers on Aliexpress that have the blue version in stock. I searched the web to death looking when I ordered one and everywhere else is out of stock.

  5. Ruby
    July 14, 2015

    Seems right in line for Xiaomi. Just look at how many iterations there were of the RedMi Note (so far):
    1. Xiaomi Redmi Note 1GB RAM 1.4GHz (MTK MT6592M)
    2. Xiaomi Redmi Note 2GB RAM 1.7GHz (MTK MT6592)
    3. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G 2GB RAM 1.6GHz (Qualcomm MSM8928)
    4. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G 1GB RAM 1.6GHz (Qualcomm MSM8928)

  6. Bogdan Botezatu
    July 14, 2015

    Could this be a MI 4i Note…?

  7. Sergiu
    July 15, 2015

    Hi guys,

    Does anyone of you know a store where I can find Gionee Elife E7 in blue version?
    Soon it’s my wife’s bithday and she likes it very much.

  8. Steven Fox
    July 15, 2015

    That would be an awesome move, however it will certainly be priced at least 50$ higher, I would go for the S805 if it`s cheaper.
    If the pricing remains the same or slightly above this will most definitely be my next phone 🙂

  9. thoroc
    July 18, 2015

    Xiaomi phone spec’s are really underwhelming, and have been for the last couple of years. Only the Note Pro seems to be near what a flagship should be. I guess I am going to have make do with my 2S a little while longer.

  10. Rehan
    August 28, 2015

    I have mi 4i..everything is good but..i troubled with hang problem..i had purchase just 20 days back.. Beginning performance was good but now it’s hanging when i open Facebook & the try to open message box even the messenger is not open through Facebook …please suggest me what i do..?