Flea market Xiaomi makes mad dash for growth

China's answer to the Grace Brothers department store*, Xiaomi, remains dependent on internet services for most of its profit, and smartphones for most of its revenue – and that's giving some analysts pause for thought. Xiaomi famously vowed to keep margins down to 5 per cent on its hardware, which puts more pressure on its …

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Xiaomi The Money!

So you you hate the company and will avoid its many excellent and great value products, simply because an intoductory marketing gimmick that was too good to be true turned out to be too good to be true?

I've swapped the entire household fleet to various Xiaomi models, and recommend them to most people. Perhaps you'd prefer to look at an iPhone XS as Apple don't do frivolous marketing giveaways?

[airbrush]

Re: Xiaomi The Money!

It was allocated by lottery apparently so only the lucky few got the phone.

[alexmcm]

Yeah but...

they do make some brilliant stuff. I have their Amazfit Bip watch and the battery life on that thing is incredible. It only drops about 2% battery charge a day. I have gone over a month without charging it, love it. And from what I've read of the Mi8 and Poco they get great reviews as well.

While you are probably right, and the company are going to burn brightly and then burn out, it is interesting to watch, and hopefully they inspire other companies to get a grip on things like battery life for smartwatches. It is such a relief to go from a Gear Fit 2 (which needed charging every day) to a Amazfit, which needs charging every five or six weeks.

[Ozumo]

Re: Yeah but...

LARGER screens? "It's a pocket model. You have to wear the special trousers, though."

[Phil Kingston]

Re: Yeah but...

I'm a satisfied Amazfit Pace user. And have long admired their mobile phone offerings even if never actually purchased one.

Good luck to them I say.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your chart of phone models seems to be missing the Redmi Note series, which has always been their biggest seller; in the budget end of the market.

Xiaomi Fanboi on his 4th Note series phone, starting with the original "Red Rice".

[Glen 1]

Literally typing this on my just arrived A2 lite.

It's replacing a nexus 6p with the much maligned "software update buggers battery" fault followed by battery replacement eventually causing a unrecoverable bootloop.

First impressions: slightly smaller, but better to hold. shame about the notch. Feels nippier.

Cost me £121 compared to the nexus 6p's £350 when new. I don't see anything in the mid to high end market that's worth paying several hundred pounds more for.

NFC? Can count on one hand the number of times I used it on the 6P. It's got a finger print sensor and an SD card slot. IP68? Nice to have but not worth the cost.