Vatsal Impex Pvt. Ltd, that claims to be the official distributor of Xiaomi smartphones in Nepal, has finally launched the Xiaomi Mi4 smartphone for Rs. 23,000. The current version of Mi4 has 16GB inbuilt storage and does not support microSD card for storage expansion. The phone is available for purchase from eCommerce website Kaymu.
The Xiaomi Mi4 is a 2 years old flagship, however, it still comes with superior hardware specs. The phone sports a 5-inch Full HD IPS display based on one glass solution (OGS) and is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. It is powered by a 2.5 GHz Quadcore Snapdragon 801 Chipset with Adreno 330 GPU and has 3GB of DDR3 RAM. The phone has a 13MP Sony IMX214 BSI back camera with LED flash, 6-element lens, f/1.8 aperture, and 4K video recording. The front houses an 8MP snapper with Sony Exmor R sensor, 5-element lens, and f/1.8 aperture. It runs Android 4.4 Kitkat with MIUI 6 software skin running on top.
Mi 4 boasts a non-removable 3,080mAh battery. In terms of connectivity, Xiaomi Mi4 supports single micro SIM with 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, WiFi Direct, and GPS. It has a stainless steel frame and comes with a white color variant only. It measures 8.9mm thick and weighs 149 grams.
Early Verdict:
Launching a 2-year-old smartphone doesn’t make any sense at all, especially when you are looking at a brand like Xiaomi that has recently launched smartphones like Redmi Note 3 and Mi5. No matter what way you look at it, it’s very least a misstep from Vatsal Implex.
Wait, there’s more! The Mi4 variant that’s being launched in Nepal has 16GB storage with no SD card, a feature that’s available even on sub-5K smartphones these days. Launching a 64GB version would have made a lot of sense.
The only thing the phone has going for it is the lack of competitive smartphone market in Nepal. With no Lenovo, Le Eco, and Huawei GR5 launching in Nepal for Rs.33,999, Xiaomi Mi4 might just make a better buy with other similarly priced smartphone in the market. Having said that, we hope to see Vatsal Impex launching the latest Xiaomi smartphones in the near future.
