Chinese up-and-comer Xiaomi introduced an impressive new budget smartphone today. The Redmi Pro boasts dual cameras, a brushed-aluminum body, and a 5.5" OLED display for RMB 1499 (or $225) and up.
The Redmi Pro comes in three basic configurations. The most expensive Pro, at RMB 1999 (or about $300) is powered by a Mediatek Helio X25 SoC comprising two Cortex-A72 cores and eight Cortex-A53s in a big.LITTLE arrangement. According to Mediatek, the big cores in this arrangement runs at up to 2.5GHz, while four of the A53s run at 2GHz and the remaining four run at 1.55GHz. Graphics power comes courtesy of an ARM Mali-T880 GPU. The SoC is backed with 4GB of RAM, and the device has 128GB of onboard storage.
The RMB 1699 ($255) Pro uses the same SoC, but it loses a gigabyte of RAM and drops to 64GB of storage. The base RMB 1499 ($225) model uses the older Helio X20 SoC, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.
The dual-camera arrangement on the Redmi Pro is a first for a device in this price range, as far as we know. Xiaomi uses a 13MP Sony main sensor for image capture and a 5MP Samsung unit for depth information. With those two inputs, the Redmi Pro can modify depth-of-field effects after the fact with a dedicated image signal processor.
Xiaomi curiously doesn't list the resolution of the Redmi Pro's display in its press materials, but Engadget confirms it's a 1920×1080 unit. The Pro is powered by a 4,050mAh battery, and it has a front fingerprint sensor for easy unlocking. Charging and connectivity are both handled by a USB Type-C port. The Redmi Pro will doubtless be available in China soon, but we wouldn't expect this phone to come to the USA.
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