A new Mi Note 3 will be announced on Monday. We outline what to expect, including the UK price, specs and launch date, as well as how you can follow the Mi Note 3 launch live.
In November 2016 the Mi Note 2’s launch announcement was entirely overshadowed by the revolutionary Mi Mix – something we could see once again this Monday as Xiaomi prepares to unveil updates to both handsets in the same launch event. On 11 September it will announce both the Mi Mix 2 and Mi Note 3.
That’s a shame, because the Mi Note line is worthy of consumer attention. Better value than UK flagships, but with a gorgeous design and the same powerful performance and features, the Mi Note sits at the top of Xiaomi’s line-up for a reason.
Though the Mi Note 3 will be announced on Monday 11 September, it is unlikely to ship until later in the month.
This announcement comes earlier than we had expected, given that the Mi Note 2 was announced in November 2016.
We know that Xiaomi is holding a special event on Monday 11 September at 2pm UTC+08, which is 7am in the UK.
The event is scheduled to go on for three hours, and we don’t expect there to be a live stream.
You’ll instead be able to follow live updates from the product launch on Facebook and Twitter. But we’ve always found the MIUI Forums a much better source of information.
We will also be updating this page with full details of the new phone on Monday morning.
The Mi Note 3 will not be officially available in the UK, though you will be able to import it from GearBest which is already listing its product page for the upcoming phone.
When going down this route you will need to accept that your consumer rights are different in China to they are in the UK, and that you will be liable to pay import duty which is calculated at 20 percent of the value on the shipping paperwork plus an admin fee of around £11.
At launch the Mi Note 2 cost CNY 2,799 (around £330) in its entry-level form. But prices are always higher from Chinese importers, though typically still cheaper than UK flagships.
GearBest is currently listing a price of £623.62 on its product page, though we are almost certain this will come down in price when the phone actually becomes available.
Very little is known about the specification of the upcoming Mi Note 3, and that’s not surprising when all eyes are on the Mi Mix 2. However, Xiaomi phone updates are often incremental.
For example, this year’s Mi 6 (of which the Mi Note 3 will likely be a larger version) had very few design tweaks over the Mi 5. There’s a new dual-camera (one with a wide-angle f/1.8 lens and the other a f/2.6 telephoto lens) , a splashproof body and a move from the standard 3.5mm headphone jack to USB-C audio – all changes we expect to also see in the new Mi Note 3.
The dual-camera is clearly visible in this teaser posted on Weibo, which reveals the Mi Note 3 in black and blue colour options (GearBest is currently listing gold, black and silver options only) :
Core hardware will likely be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with Adreno 540 and 6GB of RAM, and we’d anticipate 64- and 128GB storage options. The Mi Note 3 will likely also feature a 5.7in full-HD display, 4,000mAh battery and run MIUI 9.0.
In common with all Xiaomi phones, unless a Global version is announced the Mi Note 3 will not support the 800MHz LTE frequency (Band 20) , which in the UK is the only LTE band used by O2, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile. Users on networks that support 2100MHz or 2600MHz LTE (Bands 3 and 7) will still be able to receive LTE connectivity.
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