Xiaomi selling the Redmi 2A in China for $80

China-based manufacturer, Xiaomi, has began selling the Redmi 2A in China for the equivalent of $80. If you're wondering how the company managed to cut down the price of the aforementioned Redmi 2A to just $80, be calm. The lower than expected price is because of the kind of chip put inside. Instead of MediaTek or Qualcomm chips, Xiaomi opted for a Leadcore chip. Irrespective of the price, the Leadcore chip does feature a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU and the Mali-T628 GPU. Other specs of the Redmi 2A includes 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage, 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front camera, LTE support, and a 2200mAh battery. Xiaomi's MIUI 6 UX is running on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

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Xiaomi partners with Leadcore for its own custom-designed chipset

Nowadays, some smartphone manufactures like Samsung, Apple and Huawei are making use of their own custom-designed chipsets in their smartphones and according to reports coming out of China, Xiaomi is prepping to do the same. The Chinese manufacturers wants to make its smartphones standout by using its own custom-designed chipsets and cutting its dependencies on chipmakers like Qualcomm and MediaTek.

However, instead of building a design team from the ground up, Xiaomi teamed up with Leadcore to create its own chipset. Leadcore's president, Marshal Cheng, revealed in an interview that Xiaomi and Leadcore are actively working on three different levels, which are "Patent, Technology and Product". While he didn't give more technical details about Xiaomi's upcoming SoC, Cheng added that Xiaomi's decision to switch to its own custom-designed chipset solution was "inevitable".

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Xiaomi Mi 4i coming to Malaysia on May 21

If you live in Malaysia and searching for a budget friendly Android smartphone with decent specs, then you'll be happy to know that Xiaomi has just announced that the Mi 4i will be available in Malaysia staring from May 21, and will be priced below RM800 ( below $224). The price is considered decent because the Xiaomi Mi 4i is indeed equipped with decent specs.

Speaking of decent specs, the device features a 5-inch Full HD display, Octa-core Snapdragon 615 SoC, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, 13-megapixel rear camera, dual SIM with dual 4G LTE support and a large 3,120mAh battery. What's good about the device is that the battery will last all day no matter what you do with it. Xiaomi managed to fit a large battery into the device. What's bad about it is the lack of a microSD card slot, which according to the company wasn't added to improve user experience.

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