Exposed: Entry-level $130 Xiaomi "Red Rice"

Hands on photos plus leaked specifications, reveal Xiaomi could be launching an all new entry-level phone with an estimated price of just 799 Yuan ($130).

Rumours of the Xiaomi "Red Rice" started a few months ago but died down after the launch of the Xiaomi M2s and M2a (which many believed the "Red Rice" to be). Today, new details of the phone have emerged along with more spy photos and specifications.

From the rear of the phone it is easy to see why many people thought the Red Rice was the M2a, as both feature the new square-shaped camera, which is thought to be the same 8 mega-pixel sensor used in current Xiaomi phones.

However, the front of the mysterious Xiaomi Red Rice confirms that this is a different phone all together.

According to sources who have had some hands on time with the Xiaomi Red Rice, this low-cost phone has the largest display of any Xiaomi to date measuring in at 4.7-inch with a resolution of 1280 x 720. That's the same resolution as the Xiaomi M2s and M2a but on a larger panel. In comparison the M2s has a 4.3-inch display and the M2a a 4.5-inch.

Looking back at past rumours, one report suggested that the Red Rice would be use the 1.2Ghz quad-core Mediatek MT6589 SoC, but that has now changed and a dual-core Leadercore LC1810 processor running at 1.2Ghz is in place.

The LC1810 is a Cortex A9 based chip with dual standby support for TD-SCDMA and GSM bands, and 1080P HD video coding and decoding.

There is also 1GB RAM, 8GB ROM (no word on a SD card slot) 2000mAh battery, 2 mega-pixel front camera and MIUI V5 will come installed as standard.

As for a launch date, we guess that Xiaomi will save the launch of the Red Rice until around October which is when we also expect to see the Xiaomi Mi3 launch!

[ Source ]