Reportedly, Xiaomi is working on the successor to its popular budget line-up – the Redmi 8 series, and it might be unveiled in the first quarter of 2020. The next generation of the Redmi series, dubbed Redmi 9, is being rumored to run on a yet-to-be-introduced MediaTek Helio G70 chip. 91Mobiles also notes a few other key features, in addition to the SoC details. The publication reports that the Redmi 9 series will make an appearance in China first, followed by a launch in Indian markets.
Redmi 9
From the looks of it, Xiaomi intends to carry over the design language from Redmi 9’s predecessor. That means you get the same notched design, alongside its twin-camera setup and the rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader. It may come as a surprise to enthusiasts who believe that 2020 will sound the death knell for the ‘notch’. But love-it-or-hate-it, it seems that the notch is here to stay.
The design aside, 91Mobile reveals that the Redmi 9 will feature a bigger 6.6-inch HD+ display and of course, a more powerful Helio G70 chipset. Other iterative upgrades include a 4 GB RAM (as opposed to the 3 GB of memory on the standard Redmi 8), paired with the same 64 GB of onboard storage. We expect it to be powered by an Android-10-based MIUI 11.
Redmi 8
In related news, released back in October this year, the Redmi 8 is getting a price slash. The 4 GB + 64 GB variant, that was initially retailing for 24,000 PKR, will now be available for 22,000 PKR, which makes for a 2,000 PKR discount.
The vanilla variant of Redmi 8 runs on a modest Snapdragon 439 chipset, that draws power from a 5,000 mAh cell. You also get support for 18W fast charging – not something typical of entry-level devices, we might add. The twin-camera system features a 12-megapixel primary shooter and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.
The hardware is supported by an Android-P-based MIUI 9. The build is splash-resistant, and you can pick from Onyx Black, Ruby Red, and Sapphire Blue options.
