Xiaomi is about to make a big leap in its efforts to expand its brand abroad with the launch of its own store in London and a deal with mobile operator Three UK. The deal to launch Xiaomi products in the UK will see Xiaomi products be offered on contract through a carrier as well…
Xiaomi is about to make a big leap in its efforts to expand its brand abroad with the launch of its own store in London and a deal with mobile operator Three UK. The deal to launch Xiaomi products in the UK will see Xiaomi products be offered on contract through a carrier as well as offered SIM-free, which also could mean the Mi 8 Pro is gearing up to launch alongside the deal.
Mobile operator Three has confirmed that Xiaomi devices will be sold online and in its 327 high-street stores from Friday 9 November.
“The partnership with Xiaomi is an exciting one for us,” said Shadi Halliwell, chief marketing officer at Three UK. “It has a broad portfolio of connected devices and we are looking forward to unveiling our future plans together.”
Xiaomi is a huge name in China and India where it offers multiple devices across a whole range of product categories. The company is looking to expand its brand overseas into the UK with a launch event on Thursday 8th November. Xiaomi will be announcing it is bringing its products to the UK and you’ll be able to buy Xiaomi devices in-store or online via UK mobile operator Three UK as of the 9th November. Following the launch of the sale of its devices, Xiaomi will then mark the launch with the grand opening of its first UK store in White City, London, on the 10th of November.
Previously anyone wanting to use a Xiaomi product in the UK would need to import the device from China and incur significant import tariffs for the privilege. Even if you were able to successfully import the device, there was no guarantee it would work and any kind of warranty is useless. With the devices now launching natively in the UK, it enables consumers to explore the excellent affordable devices offered by Xiaomi and also potentially disrupt the market which has seen the average price of smartphones rise over the years.
Three has not confirmed which devices will launch in the UK but we expect the likes of the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite to make an appearance, as well as the flagship Mi 8 Pro .
The Mi 8 Pro features a 6.21-inch Super AMOLED screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 with 1080 x 2248 resolution and 83.8% screen-to-body ratio and 402 pixels-per-inch. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 845 Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) CPU with Adreno 630 GPU and comes with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage running Android Oreo 8.1. You’ll also get a dual 12-megapixel f/1.8 lens paired with a 12-megapixel f/2.4 lens with optical zoom on the rear of the device with a 20-megapixel f/2.0 front-facing camera.
The standout feature is arguably the fingerprint sensor that is embedded under the display. The Mi 8 Pro has a 3000mAh that should see an acceptable amount of screen on time considering the large screen size. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, and hotspot with USB Type-C connectivity.
