On Monday, Xiaomi posted an online teaser on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, which was interpreted by sections of the tech media as a hint that the company will launch its seventh generation Android skin, dubbed MIUI 7, on Tuesday. The image posted on the company’s Weibo account was a screenshot, seemingly from the company’s current flagship phablet, the Mi Note, which showed a calendar with August 4 highlighted. The time 10:00 AM was mentioned along with the number 7. As for the screenshot itself, the only thing that looked to be different from earlier versions of MIUI 7 beta is the battery icon, which went from being oval to being rectangular in shape. However, as things turned out, Tuesday saw Xiaomi sending out invitations for the MIUI 7 launch event which is actually scheduled for August 13th at the National Convention Center in Beijing.
With the company’s next generation flagship devices like the Mi 5 and the Mi 5 Plus believed to be in the pipelines, MIUI 7 will likely be pre-installed on those upcoming smartphones. The devices however may take longer to be released than earlier expected, as the Snapdragon 820 chipset from Qualcomm, rumored to be powering the aforesaid smartphones, is not likely to ship till December this year, according to Mr. Pan Jiutang, an analyst based out of China. If that indeed turns out to be the case, the next generation flagship devices from Xiaomi might take till March of next year to see a commercial launch, in which case, the company would have gone for as long as 19 months between the launch of two generations of its flagship phones. That is an eternity in an era when the shelf life of smartphones are on a downward spiral and some OEMs are even looking to launch two flagships a year in a staggered manner.
Coming to the rumored next generation Xiaomi flagships, the Mi 5 Plus is said to be one of the very first devices to be launched with Qualcomm’s much-anticipated Snapdragon 820 SoC. The smartphone, set to be the most powerful device in the company’s lineup till date, will feature a fully metallic build according to rumors. The smartphone will reportedly come with a 5.7-inch QHD screen, 4 GB of RAM and a 23-megapixel primary camera with OIS. A smaller, comparatively less powerful smartphone is also said to be in the works from Xiaomi, to replace the Mi 4. This particular model is set to be named the Mi 5 and will reportedly feature a 5.2-inch display panel. The device will allegedly be powered by either the Snapdragon 820 or the Snapdragon 810 chipset (depending on who you believe), and come with 3 GB of RAM and a 16-megapixel primary camera. Both models are said to come with support for the Quick Charge feature.