Mi 8 to launch in more markets starting next month, Xiaomi official confirms

Xiaomi had unveiled its new flagship smartphones—Mi 8 and Mi 8 SE—last month. The devices went on sale in China on June 5. The Mi 8 was also introduced in France and Russia. Now, a new comment by a Xiaomi executive hints towards the Mi 8 reaching more international markets starting next month.

Xiao Zhiyuan, Xiaomi’s Product Marketing Director for Mobile Phones, has confirmed that the Mi 8 will soon enter the international market as early as next month. This indirectly points towards a possible launch of the smartphone in India, since India is the biggest market for Xiaomi after China. Xiao did not reveal anything about international launch plans for the Mi 8 SE, though, but it might launch in India alongside the Mi 8 next month.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Series: 1 Million Units Sold In China
Xiaomi also revealed that it has sold almost 1 million units of the Mi 8 series which includes: the Mi 8, Mi 8 Explorer Edition, and the Mi 8 SE. It took just 18 days for Xiaomi to hit this massive sales figure for the Mi 8 series, as the phones first went on sale in China starting June 5.

If we look at the popularity of the Mi 8 compared to that of the OnePlus 6, the former appears to be more popular since it took OnePlus 6 22 days to hit the target of 1 million units shipment, that too, globally. The Mi 8 series was released only in China by then.

Xiaomi Mi 8: Specifications
The Xiaomi Mi 8 sports a 6.21-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution (1080×2248 pixels), 402ppi pixel density, and 83.8% screen-to-body ratio. The screen is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The phone also offers an Apple iPhone X-style screen notch, complete with 3D facial recognition technology. Powering the Mi 8 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with Kryo 385 octa-core CPU and Adreno 630 GPU. The phone comes packed with 6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB/256GB storage.

There’s also a variant of the phone called Mi 8 Explorer Edition which has 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The Mi 8 runs Android 8.1 Oreo-based MIUI 10 software. It features a dual-12MP camera setup with Dual-Pixel PDAF, OIS, and LED flash. It can capture images with background blur effect, and record 4K videos at 60fps as well as 720p slow-motion videos. There’s a 20MP selfie camera at the front with Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting Effects. and packs a 3400mAh battery that has fast charging support.

Xiaomi Mi 8 SE: Specifications
The Xiaomi Mi 8 SE is a trimmed down variant of the Mi 8, and comes with a 5.88-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor, 4GB/6GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot. It has a dual-SIM card slot and features 4G LTE.

It runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box with MIUI 9.5 software. It hosts a dual 12MP+5MP dual rear-facing camera setup with 4K video recording. At the front, the smartphone is equipped with a 20MP selfie shooter with Full HD video recording. The phone is powered by a 3120mAh battery that offers fast charging support. Other connectivity features include GPS, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0, IR emitter, and a USB 2.0 Type-C port.