Xiaomi brought an old phone to Barcelona but added 5G to it

Xiaomi used Mobile World Congress 2019 to launch a 5G version of its Mi Mix 3 smartphone. The product will be available in the markets by May 2019.

Under the banner of “We Make It Happen” and billed as its first Mobile World Congress product launch (despite that it took place one day before MWC started), Xiaomi introduced the Mi Mix 3 5G version. The original 4G version of the phablet / super-sized phone was launched in October 2018. The new 5G reincarnation is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 equipped with the new X50 5G modem.

“Xiaomi has spent tremendous efforts developing a 5G smartphone solution and Mi MIX 3 5G represents Xiaomi’s quest to create innovative products for everyone,” said Wang Xiang, Senior Vice President of Xiaomi. “We are also delighted and honoured to be working with our partners to make 5G a reality for even more users all over the world.”

By partners on this particular occasion he definitely included Qualcomm and Orange, both of which endorsed the product launched. Cristiano Amon, President of Qualcomm Incorporated, shared the stage at the event. “We are thrilled to continue our long-standing collaboration with Xiaomi to help bring deliver unprecedented 5G speeds and transformative user experiences to consumers through their latest flagship smartphone, Mi MIX 3 5G,” he said.

Then a live 5G video call on the Mi Mix 3 5G was made on stage with an off-site Orange Spain executive, using Orange network. This may look commonplace nowadays, but it made history for Xiaomi: it was Xiaomi’s first 5G video call outside of China, the company claimed. It did not let go the opportunity without a subtle poke on AT&T either. When pointing at the on-screen 5G symbol, the Xiaomi product development director stressed this is real 5G, “not fake 5G”.

With the exception of 5G, all the other features and specs of Mi Mix 3 5G are the same as its 4G predecessor. The 5G version will be available in May and is priced at 599€.

Also introduced at the event is Mi 9, its new flagship smartphone launched in China a few days ago. Xiaomi spent a fair amount of time promoting the triple-camera, especially the AI performance to support different picture taking scenarios. Also being highlighted was Mi 9’s full-curved back cover, which it claimed to be inspired by the works of Antoni Gaudí, much to the delight of the local audience.

The Mi 9 is priced at 449€ for the 64GB version, and 499€ for the 128GB version. It is open to pre-order from today in Spain, France, and Italy.

The new product launches are packaged as steps taken to carry out the company’s “dual-core strategy” of Smartphone+AIoT that Xiaomi’s founder launched recently. Xiaomi’s executive threw in quite a few impressive numbers as proofs. For example, the number of monthly active users of MIUI (Xiaomi’s skin on top of Android) has reached 224 million; more than 2,000 products have been brought to the market by over 200 companies in the Xiaomi ecosystem; there are 132 million activated Xiaomi consumer IoT products, which has made it the world’s largest consumer IoT company.

It is also collaborating with IKEA and Philips to popularise smart homes and smart lighting. To make the point, Xiaomi’s executive went into a demo home environment on stage, attempting to switch off the smart air purifier with Google Assistant voice command. He did not quite pull it off. The air purifier refused to switch off, twice. Then he gave up.