Submitted by “After selling 7.19 million phones in China last year, Xiaomi is now one step closer to world domination with a new device that’ll take it to new territories: the Xiaomi Phone 2S (or MI-2S).” MIUI v5 also looks pretty great. When I find some time, I’ll install it on my SII and see what’s what.
Its average hardware and a custom android for an ok price. It doesn’t seem that noteworthy, except for the sales numbers.
Everything else being equal, I’m not sure why anyone would get it. So everything must not be equal, like I think. Its $320 unlocked which is a nice price. While still limited in quantity and distribution, the Nexus 4 starts at $299.
Screen size is one.
Most Sub 4.7″ Android phones are 2nd or 3rd tier devices. The Xiomi treats smaller phone lovers like first class citizens.
Not so small as an iPhone, but still not demi-phablet size.
Like most things, its probably a combination of factors. Thom doesn’t understand Samsung over HTC for similar reasons. I guess this is my instance of that.
Interface looks interesting, except for the awful launcher/app drawer that looks like a bad iOS rip.
unfortunately, nexus 4 never arrive in China and major countries. So, Chinese must rely on what’s best there. Either meizu, xiaomi, or lenovo. Or HTC, Samsung, and the rest. (First 3 more popular there).
Edit:
First 3 IMHO, no surveys conducted.
Edited 2013-04-12 15:50 UTC
So… The Chinese government censors the Internet in China and, if I remember correctly, all personal computers and laptops come with government monitoring related software at purchase.
Do phones that are made for the Chinese population come installed with something similar?
hah! you answered your own question!
No that’s not really true. There was a plan to do it, but the software sucked so they stopped that plan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dam_Youth_Escort
So its not that they don’t want to monitor each pc, but the software isn’t there yet or maybe they just do it at the network level.
Video presentation of MIUI (short ad, then 2’32”):
– http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTM5OTI2MzQw.html