Xiaomi had teased its first-ever UK smartphone launch recently, and now the company has effectively arrived in the UK with a number of product announcements. Truth be said, all of these products were already announced in other regions, but they were not available in the UK until now, at least not officially. This represents the very next step of European expansion for Xiaomi, and the company’s expansion in general. The company’s devices are now available via the mi.com/uk website, and there are quite a few gadgets that you can choose from. The company has brought the following devices to the UK: Pocophone F1, Mi 8, Mi 8 Lite, Mi 8 Pro, Mi A2, Mi A2 Lite, Redmi Note 6 Pro, Redmi 6A, Redmi 6, Redmi Note 5, Redmi S2, Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro 2, Mi Sports Bluetooth Earphones, Mi Headphones Comfort, Xiaomi Mi Band 3, 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2S, 5000mAh Mi Power Bank 2, 10000mAh Mi Power bank Pro, and the Mi Motion-Activated Night Light.
As you can see, quite a few Xiaomi-branded products are now available in the UK, though not all we’ve expected to become available, like the Mi MIX 3, for example. The company’s all-new Mi AirDots earphones are not available either, earphones that have managed to attract quite a bit of attention in Asia, as they’re extremely affordable, and these are fully wireless earphones. Having said that, the company is now offering a ton of products on the site, and the first flash sale will start today at noon (local time). Xiaomi’s products are available via the company’s official website, but also via Amazon, Carphone Warehouse, Three, and a number of other sources, you can find a full list here. It’s also worth noting that the company will be opening the very first retail store in the UK, and it will be opened in Westfield White City, in London, on November 18.
The device that led the company’s launch is the Mi 8 Pro, one of Xiaomi’s flagships. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro was originally announced back in September, and the company talked quite a bit about this phone in the UK, as that was the device that more or less confirmed that the company’s phones are officially coming to the UK. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro sports an in-display fingerprint scanner, while it also comes with thin bezels, and a see-through back. The phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core SoC, while it includes 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in the UK. The device features a 6.21-inch fullHD+ Super AMOLED display with HDR10 support, ships with Android 8.1 Oreo (Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 skin is included on top of it), while it sports a 3,000mAh battery on the inside. Two 12-megapixel cameras can be found on the back of this phone, while a single 20-megapixel camera is included on its front side. This handset is only 7.6mm thick, while it weighs 177 grams. The Mi 8 Pro is made out of metal, and in addition to having thin bezels, it also has a display notch up top. This phone is basically a rebranded variant of the Mi 8 Explorer Edition which was introduced back when the Mi 8 originally launched, back in May.
Needless to say, the company’s products in the UK are competitively-priced, the Pocophone F1 starts at £329, the Mi 8 from £459, and the Mi 8 Lite from £249. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro can be yours for £499, while the company’s latest Android One handset, the Mi A2, starts at £259 in the country. The Redmi Note 6 starts at £219, while you can buy the Redmi 6 for only £149. The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is priced at £26.99, while the 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2S costs £17.99. These are only some of the price tags that we’ve highlighted, for a full list of Xiaomi’s devices and their price tags, feel free to visit mi.com/uk.
Background: Xiaomi has been expanding its presence in Europe for quite some time now. The company has been opening its official Mi Store retail stores in France, Italy, and several other European cities, while the time has come for the same to happen in the UK as well. The company will continue, without a doubt, to expand its presence in Europe, as it is preparing to embark on a journey to the US. The company had announced an event for December 8 in the US, and has invited its fans to apply in order to participate. It is still unknown whether this will be your regular even with product announcements, or is it just a show-and-tell kind of event, but the company will hopefully announce its very first smartphones for the US market. Xiaomi is not officially selling its handsets in the States, and even though consumers can import them, almost all of those devices are not compatible with 4G LTE bands in the USA, which complicates things, of course.
The company has already sold over 100 million devices in 2018, which happened a while ago, so it remains to be seen what number will Xiaomi end the year with. European sales have definitely helped the company achieve such a feat sooner than expected, and the company is also leaving a huge mark in India. Xiaomi is India’s number one smartphone manufacturer, and its budget devices are selling like crazy over there. During the recent annual sale, the company managed to sell 2 million smartphones in less than 2.5 days. The Redmi 5A along sold in over 10 million copies in India, in only nine months, which is revealing how popular the company is over there.
Impact: It remains to be seen how well will the company’s devices sell in the UK, but they’re very competitively priced, as its flagship offerings are much more affordable than offerings from Samsung, Apple, Huawei, and other companies which are currently active in the UK. Xiaomi is expected to start offering more products in the UK in the coming months, including the Mi MIX 3, the company’s flagship which will soon be ready for its international journey. Coming to the US seems like the next logical step for Xiaomi, but the company is being extra careful, as it’s trying to learn from LeEco’s and Huawei’s missteps / examples.